ChampCar Sebring "Race Under The Stars" 6-26

 

Open Throttle Race 2

ChampCar “Race Under The Stars”

Sebring International Raceway

June 26-28

Friday-practice

We arrived in Sebring around 2:30, plenty of time to check into the hotel, since we didn't need to be to the track until 3:30. We pulled up to the Open Throttle paddock area and found one of my co-drivers, Wyatt Wood already waiting. After a quick greeting with him,we walked over to meet the crew. Since this was Wyatt’s first time racing with OTR, I made sure to introduce him to the team owner, Mike Gorman, and the rest of the crew.  After introductions, it was time to get fitted in our car for the weekend, a 1999 Porsche Boxster named “Redbox”.  My first impression was that the interior was a little cramped, but it should work.  The two most important things in a racecar, for me, are how easy it is to reach the gear shift, and how far I have to stretch my legs to use the pedals. The shifter in this car was set up great, easy to reach and shifted quite smoothly. I also thought the pedals were in a good position for easy use…. That would turn out to NOT be the case once I was on track.  While I was busy getting acquainted with the car, Melanie realized that a fairly famous person was one of the drivers of our sister car, “Bruno.” I would be sharing a paddock area and pit stall with one Mr. Ross Bentley for the weekend….. This guy LITERALLY wrote the book on modern racing techniques, and I would be driving for the same team as him….. WOW! After freaking out for a few seconds, I composed myself, and we headed to the practice day drivers' meeting.  Afterwards, it was time to get suited up and hit the track for our 6–10 pm practice session. Since I was the only experienced member of our team there for practice, we decided it would be best if I went out first.  My first several laps were pretty uneventful, other than coming to the realization that the pedal spacing and orientation to the seat made it very difficult for me to heel-toe downshift efficiently. Other than that, the car was pretty fun to drive, and I got comfortable quickly.  After about 8 laps, a black flag came out, so I took that opportunity to return to the paddock so Wyatt could get some laps before it got dark.  I did another 8-10 lap session later on after it got dark, and still struggled with the downshifts, but improved somewhat.  Wyatt then drove the car until practice ended a little after 10. Then we went into town to get supper and dessert at Culver’s…. Unfortunately, their ice cream machine was “down”, so no frozen custard for us.  We retired to the hotel, and relaxed for a bit before going to bed and resting up for the race.

Our team shirts for the race

 Saturday/Sunday-The race

Since this race was going to be 12 hours long, from 6pm Saturday to 6am Sunday, our goal was to sleep in Saturday morning…. Which we accomplished, not waking up until after 10.  We decided that breakfast would most likely be the only good meal I would get for the next 24 hours. So we went to The Sebring Diner to load up on protein and carbs.  I had 2 scrambled eggs with cheese, a grilled pork chop, grits, a fruit cup, and a large chocolate milk. Much more than I normally eat for breakfast, but I wanted to make sure I was filled up.  After that, we returned to the hotel, and relaxed as much as possible; I may have even taken a short nap, lol.  We went over to the track around 3, and I started experimenting with ways to cope with the strange pedal placement in this particular car. The only plan I came up with was to be very conscious of where I was positioning my right foot, so I could work both pedals at the same time.  After that, I needed to get my helmet checked in, as well as check myself in with registration. While waiting in line, the third member of our team, Abby Lockwood, arrived.  Once we returned to the paddock area, the last member of our team, John Allen, finally made it.  I was quite obviously going to be the slowest driver in the car. If I could stay within a second and a half or so of the others, I felt that would be good enough.  During the drivers' meeting we decided that I would get to start the car, with Wyatt second, John 3rd, and Abby getting the fourth stint.  I was pretty excited to be taking the green flag, and also a little nervous as well. With close to 80 cars on the grid, the first few laps were bound to be busy!  Finally, it was time to climb in the car and get strapped in, everything was going to plan. I was belted in, the window net was up, the Chillout driver cooling system was working very well, and the comms seemed to be coming in clear.  Then, about 2 minutes before rolling off grid to start the pace laps, everything stopped.  At first I thought the car had died, but no, it was still running.  I tried cycling the master electrical cutoff, still nothing.  I finally got some of the crew's attention by waving my left hand out the window and revving the engine.  They immediately jumped into action, checking what connections they could see, as well as any fuses. Everything in the cockpit seemed fine.  They opened the hood, and at first didn’t see anything, then found the source of the problem. But at that point, we didn’t have time to fix it.  I was sent out for my first stint with no rearview camera, no driver cooling system, and most importantly, no way to communicate with the crew. This meant I would have no advance warning for when the green flag was about to drop. I would have to be on my toes!  

The two Open Throttle Porsche Boxsters. I drove the GREEN one!

I knew the green would be flying before I got to turn 17, since we were starting around the 60th position. (ChampCar uses a random draw to determine starting order, bad luck for us this time.) As we neared the new pedestrian bridge, I readied myself to take off at the first sign from another car that it was now green. All at once, a couple cars from behind me took off, so I went too.  To say there was a lot of traffic was an understatement.  There were cars EVERYWHERE!  It was easily one of the most hectic laps I’ve ever driven in the ten years I’ve been racing, but I kept cool and had no issues…. Until getting to the back straight again.  I got a good run on the car in front of me, who was driving mid track for some reason. Even with the good run I had out of the corner, the car I was driving didn’t have a whole lot of horsepower, so it was past half way down the straight before I caught them.  Right as I got to their bumper, in the outside lane, a Corvette ran us both down in the inside lane. The driver I was passing must not have seen the vette coming, because suddenly, they started veering to the left.  At this point, there was no backing out for me, and I was NOT going to put my left side tires off the track into the soft sand while going over 100mph. So I held my line. Just as I thought I was cleanly through…. “Tink”, we hit.  Luckily it was a very light bump. The only damage being a couple scuffs to the body, and my passenger mirror was now bent back and pointing into the cabin…. With the glass dangling from the adjuster cable, and tapping against the inside of the door. It was rather annoying.  I passed several more cars in my class, while running “ok” laps, then after lap 8, I noticed a green pit sign in the fence trackside as I went by start finish.  My brain immediately surmised that it was possibly intended for me. Since I had no communication with the team, and OTR is known for their green cars, I made sure to locate the sign as soon as I exited turn 17 on the next lap.  I stared it down as I accelerated down the straight, and once the crew saw it was me, they started waving the sign.  “Yep, that’s for me! Guess they want me to come in.” Is what I thought as I waved in recognition that I got the message.  I brought the car down pit lane the next time around, and pulled into the pits to see what they wanted.  Turns out, the electrical problem that killed the comms also cut power to the car’s transponder. This is crucial to determining what your actual position is in the race. So they NEEDED to get the problem figured out, so we would be scored during the rest of the 12 hours.  While I was driving, I wasn’t really aware of how hot it was in the car. But while sitting there in the car with no air movement, I started to bake.  At first, I was able to block it out. But the hotter I got, the more claustrophobic I became, to the point where I HAD to get out of the car.  I hate that it happened, but it did. Luckily, our next driver, Wyatt was standing right there already suited up. By the time the electrical problem was fixed, he was strapped in and ready to go.  

With three other drivers to go before my next stint, I now had A TON of spare time on my hands. I spent the first couple of hours relaxing and staying cool in the suite overlooking our pits that we had access to, thanks to our sister car being sponsored and driven by BF Goodrich employees.  Let me tell you, it was very nice to be able to sit in a comfortable chair, away from the noise, and in some amazing air conditioning.  I was able to relax for a couple of hours before returning to the pits.  As the night wore on, we kept picking up positions. The officials had credited us for the laps I drove in the first stint that went unscored. So we were only 2 laps down when Wyatt got into the car. By the time our 4th driver, Abby, got in the car, John Allen and Wyatt had us up to 5th in class, and things were looking good. With her taking the wheel, I knew I would be up again somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours. So it was time to get back in a good headspace while making sure my body was properly fueled.  

Our car under the pedestrian bridge with a

beautiful sunset in the back ground.

I think Wyatt was still in the car here,

but it could have been John.

Right before 1am, Zach Barfield gave me the 15 minute warning to start getting ready. I ended up starting my stint around 1:10, and right from the start, it was frustrating.  The normal headlights on that car are not very bright, so the team had affixed an LED lightbar to the center of the hood, to help with our vision on this dark track. The light bar decided to not work when I got in. I tried cycling the master, the ignition, the normal lights, and the switch for the light bar. Nothing would make it turn on. “Oh well, I’ve driven here in the dark twice before. It should be ok.” Was my thought as I headed back on track.  Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate. As I discovered, while heading into a big braking zone with a tight corner at the end, the windshield had become covered by “something” . I don’t know what, exactly. It could have been fuel from an overflow that was pushed onto the windshield as we drove, or fluid leaking from a car that we were following at some point, it really doesn’t matter. All that matters was that I couldn’t see anything at certain points of the track. I did my best, and slowed my pace for the corners where vision was the worst, and did ok. Unbeknownst to me, I was doing better than ok. During my 1hr and 20 minute stint, I got us up to second in class, and third overall. Unfortunately, all I had to go on in the car was the laptimer, and it wasn’t being very kind.  During my first stint, which officially had no lap times, I had managed a 1:50 lap. The fastest I had run in that car all weekend. I also had a couple of 1:51 laps, so my goal for that second stint was to get under one minute fifty seconds for a fast lap.  The lowest time I saw was a 1:52, I couldn’t push it anymore with the vision problems I was having in a couple of the turns.  To make matters worse, two laps before pitting, I caught a car on the back straight that was in the process of blowing its engine.  Of course, being extremely dark, I had no way of knowing this until I got close to him going into turn 17. Suddenly, my already hard to see through windshield was coated with engine oil coming from this car’s exhaust. Not only that, but as I was following in their tracks, my tires were also coated, causing a loss of grip.  NOT a good mix. I was able to get around the car on the front straight, but found it nearly impossible to see through the window for turn 1. I nearly ran off the track at exit.  I had the same problem in a couple of other turns, along with completely blowing turn 15. I felt lucky it was dark so no officials saw my massive track limits violation!  Then I got back to turn 17, and absolutely could not see where I needed to be, resulting in driving through the oil from the previous lap. I came extremely close to hitting the outside wall about halfway through the turn.  Once I got myself all straightened out, I radioed to the pits that they needed to get my relief driver ready,asap. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep from wrecking the car.  They replied that John was ready to go, and to pit next time by. I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved in a racecar as I was when I heard those words!  As I made my way to pit road, I radioed in to make sure the crew cleaned the windshield, since it was already nearly impossible to see through, and would only get worse.  I was extremely angry and disappointed with myself for how I drove that stint. I felt it was completely below the level I’m capable of.  After seeing me pouting, Zach came over and explained to me that I had, in fact, done exactly what we needed in that stint. And had gotten us up to second place in class, as well.  He’s extremely good at managing people’s emotions, and said the exact right things in the exact right way. So I calmed down almost immediately after talking to him.  

Since I was most likely done driving, I went into full on relax mode, changing into a t-shirt and sneakers, and snacking on all sorts of things I shouldn’t. But hey, it was 3am and I was at a race track!  While observing the lap times John Allen was putting down during his stint, it became quite obvious that he IS NOT HUMAN!  First he ran a 2:37.66 about 8 laps into his stint, then about ten laps after that, he had a string of 5 laps under 2:39, with an even faster 2:37.60. Then around 10 laps before the end of his stint, he did a 2:36.9, and a couple laps after that another 2:37.  To put that into perspective, the great Ross Bentley was consistently in the high 38’s and 39’s, until running a “hero” lap two laps from the end of 37.0.  John’s fast laps helped us solidify our 2nd-in-class and 3rd-overall positions by a good margin before Wyatt got in the car for the final two hours. Right before John came down pit road, I told Wyatt, “Just keep it on the track, and have FUN!”. And he did… for a while.  On his third lap, Wyatt got us into 1st in class and 2nd overall. With 1 hour and 45 minutes to go, and both the second and third place cars still needed to pit!  To say things looked bright was a severe understatement!  Then we had a full course yellow for two laps. Exactly what the other two cars needed, and what we didn’t want. They still had a ways to go to actually catch and then get past us on the track with only 90 minutes left, so we were still pretty confident.  Then 3 laps after going back green, the scoring showed a lap of 3:03. Which was concerning given that most of Wyatt’s laps were in the mid 45’s, but maybe he had hit some bad traffic. It’s pretty common after a caution for cars to get bunched up…  Then the next lap was even slower.  He radioed in that the car was losing power at high RPMs, almost like it was running out of fuel, but it couldn’t be.  The team got busy researching what the possible causes were, and Wyatt continued to bleed time. He went over the 4 minute mark on the ensuing lap. Finally, team owner Mike Gorman came up with the most likely cause and a possible fix, so they brought the car in. It would mean losing a spot or two on track, but if we kept the car out any longer, there was a good chance it wouldn’t make the end of the race.  After a very well executed emergency stop to disconnect a sensor, Wyatt went back on track in 3rd place in class, and 5th overall.  Not all was lost, the top 5 in our class were all on the same lap, and with an hour to go, a lot could still happen.  Unfortunately, not much good luck remained for us in that final hour. We dropped to 4th in class and 6th overall a couple of laps after our repair. The car didn’t seem to have the pace it did before, and we couldn’t keep up with the cars in front of us.  Then even more bad luck. The car started handling in a strange manner, so they brought it in again to inspect the rear axle. While doing that, it was discovered that the left rear tire was completely off the rim!  The team quickly grabbed one of our rain tires and got the car back out again, but the damage was done. We came in 4th in class, and when the scoring caught up after the stop, we were down to 7th.  With only 30 minutes remaining, there was no longer any hope for a podium finish. The best we could do at that point was 5th in class, and that would take someone having an unplanned stop to get there.

 I decided to get a jump on packing all my gear up, and made a couple of trips to the paddock area to get it all stowed in our rental car. Upon returning to the pit area, I ran into Zach partway back.  He needed me to get suited up as quick as possible, because Wyatt needed a relief driver. This can happen in endurance racing. Which is why the next driver up usually gets ready to go when the driver in front of them is in the car. I figured with only a half hour left in the race, it was safe to pack up. I quickly retrieved everything from the car, even putting some of my gear on as I hurried back to the pits. As soon as I got there, Zach called Wyatt in, and it was go time once more. This time I knew there were 5 laps left at most, so I decided to go out there and drive angry and have fun. Turns out, there were EXACTLY 5 laps left for me to run. The first three were among my five fastest laps of the weekend, including the two fastest!  Before leaving the track to take a nap at the hotel, I chatted briefly with Mr.Bentley and hung out with the crew for a bit.  It’s going to be a long wait for my next Open Throttle race, on New Year’s Eve, at COTA.  Maybe I can talk the CFO into letting me have a bonus race before then…  Probably not, lol.

Me climbing into the car for the final 5 laps

Next up for Fast Farmer Autosport, we are back racing Thunder Grinch with NASA Great Lakes. We will make a return trip to Gingerman Raceway, July 31 - August 2.  Let’s see how much I learned in June! 

NASA GL June Gingerman

 

Beach Party On The Shores Of Lake Michigan

Fast Farmer Autosport Race #3
NASA Great Lakes
Gingerman Raceway
6/19-21

FRIDAY

The morning sun broke over Gingerman Raceway Friday morning revealing a near perfect day weather wise, a huge improvement over my first two NASA events of the year.  I didn’t have much time to sit and enjoy it, however, since our practice group was on track first.  My plan for the day was to just try and learn how to drive the car on this particular track, and slowly gain speed.  I took it pretty easy the first session, slowly building confidence, and getting my head into the right frame of mind. The car performed flawlessly, and I felt ready to start pushing a little bit in session 2.  The second session went just as well as the first, with the car still running great, and I was feeling more comfortable, so was able to pick up a few seconds, including setting a new personal best lap time for that track.  With a short turnaround between session 2 and 3, I decided to sit it out and take the opportunity for a bite to eat to refuel myself, and to rest a little.  Our third practice session was combined with the other race group, which includes the CMC class that I used to race in. With the added traffic, I was unable to go any faster, but my lap times were more consistent overall, which is something I’m always looking for.  A cool thing that happened during that session is that I caught up to my old car towards the end of the session. I decided having the two cars cross start-finish nose to tail would be a cool pic, so I started following him around the track instead of passing. Unfortunately, as we exited turn 3, Ron got a little anxious, and tried to carry too much speed, causing him to lose control and spin off track. The loss of my photo opp was the only blemish to the session, and the practice day ended on a very upbeat note, leaving me feeling confident about the rest of the weekend.  

Thunder Grinch waits to take the track Thursday evening

Saturday

 We were once again greeted with an absolutely gorgeous morning when I stepped out of the trailer on Saturday, a trend that held for the entire weekend, right up until we were ready to leave on Sunday afternoon.  My warmup session was the first on track activity of the day, and I was scrubbing in a new set of front tires, so I took it pretty easy. After the tires started coming in during the third lap, I picked up the pace a bit, but I used the session mainly to get my head back in the right space, and gently warm up the fluids and brakes on the car. Even with a slow pace, my best lap time was good enough to start the qualifying session in P 14, so I didn’t have too much traffic to worry about for that session.  Before quali, I took the new tires off and stuck my next best tires on for the rest of the weekend.  I like to scrub in tires, then let them sit until the next event before using them, so they will probably go back on the car for our next race at the end of July.  I went out and ran some quick laps in qualifying, three of them were better than the new PB I set on Friday, and the best of those was over a second quicker.  However, everyone else stepped up their game also, and I wound up starting the race in P10 of 12.  Our race started a little after 2pm, and since we were race one of the weekend, the National anthem was played before the start. It’s kind of cool sitting there on grid listening to that and then getting the command to start engines, but at the same time, the sun absolutely bakes you in an open cockpit car like the Thunder Roadster.  Luckily, my lovely wife volunteered to be my umbrella girl, and I was able to stay comfortable in its shade until the song was over.  I got a pretty good start in the race and was right in the thick of the action through the first three corners, unfortunately, going into turn 5, the car just wouldn’t slow down, and I nailed another GTR right in the rear bumper with a decent amount of force. Luckily, he’s an extremely talented driver, and the bump really didn’t upset his car much, and from my point of view, if I hadn’t hit him, I would have ended up way off track in the grass, so win-win, lol.  The rest of the race was fairly clean as far as I was concerned, without gaining or losing any positions on track, and no further instances of contact. However, there were a couple more times where I went into that same turn, and the car just didn’t want to slow down. I was starting to think maybe the throttle cable was hanging up partially, but everything looked fine during my post race inspection.  Unfortunately, the race ended under full course caution the final two laps, which is never fun, BUT, due to some errors by other drivers, I finished in P7, and would start from there in Sunday morning’s race.  The relief and joy I felt after the race was pretty huge, with how much torture I’ve experienced over the past two race weekends, it was amazing to finish a full length race with zero issues.  There was one side effect, however…. I was exhausted and sore!  It had been so long since I completed a full length race in one of these cars (Champs last September), that I had forgotten just how physically demanding it was to race one.  After supper, I swapped tires from one side of the car to the other, mainly just so I could inspect the brakes and suspension between races. To my eye everything looked like it should, and I put the tires back on, then covered the car to get ready for a pair of races on Sunday.

Thunder Grinch entering turn 2 during Saturday's race.  

Great shot by my Father in law, Paul Kapp!

Sunday

Our race Sunday morning was scheduled for 9:30, but first we had a 15 minute warmup session, to get the cars and drivers' brains ready to go.  During that session, I was having all sorts of handling issues, which I decided must just be caused by a cold track and cold tires.  The car was doing all sorts of things that made it nearly impossible to drive, some times when I went to the brakes, the rear would snap around and I’d have to fight to keep from spinning, other times, it felt like the car was hardly slowing down, and it would push almost off the track, then on corner exit, every once in a while it would get extremely loose, forcing me to back off the throttle.  I should have known there was something “off” with the car, but in the moment, I felt it must be the fresh track and cold tire combo.  After warmup, we had our daily driver’s meeting, then we had to hustle to get cars on grid I was starting 7th based on lap times from Saturday’s race, so I was right in the thick of our 14 car Thunder Roadster field. Which is honestly where I like to be on a race start, the adrenaline really gets going when your in the middle of a maelstrom like what our cars produce when they’re packed close together like that, so I was really looking forward to it.  Unfortunately, it all went wrong in the first corner. I got a great start, would have even had the chance at gaining a position or two at most tracks, but not Gingerman, since it’s fairly narrow and turn 1 is fairly close to the starter station.  Going into the brake zone, I had to back out and get in line, but the car just wouldn’t slow down! I slammed into the left rear corner of the car in front of me with the right front of my car, an area of unprotected fiberglass and a plastic aero-catch body latch. The hit caused him to pinball into the car he was next to at the exact wrong point in the corner, which in turn sent him into the left rear wheel of the car he was partially alongside, then the tire to tire contact caused him to bounce back into the car I originally hit, sending him off track. Watching that all take place and knowing I was the cause was one of the worst feelings I’ve had in a racecar, but at the speed in which things happen in a GTR, you can’t dwell on that, you need to focus forward, so I put my head down and got back after it.  The loss in momentum I suffered from the bump caused me to lose a spot going between T2 and T3, then going into T5, the car didn’t want to slow down again, and it almost pushed off the track. This allowed another car to get alongside going into the long right handed sweeping turn 7.  Normally the car runs great through there, but this time, I really had to back out to keep from pushing wide at first, then towards the end of the turn, it kept trying to spin, very strange behavior, but I was way off the normal line, due to the passing car.  He got by going into T8&9, where again I had issues, this time on the exit of 9, the car got extremely loose, it usually does there, but this was extreme. Going into the next turn, the car didn’t want to slow and I almost went off track, again. I still was thinking it was all the driver’s fault at this point, considering it was the opening lap, so the tires weren’t quite up to temp yet, but by the time I got back around to turn 10 the next lap, I decided there was something amiss with the car, and I needed to get it off track.  After letting the car and myself cool down for about 30 minutes, I began the task of diagnosing what was going on. Thinking maybe there was a steering or suspension issue, I first looked under the hood, but couldn’t see anything out of place there, next I removed both front tires, so I could check where the steering and suspension components attach at the wheels, and look at the brakes, all still seemed on the up and up.  This was frustrating, because I was sure something had worked itself loose, and would be very easy to find. Ok, so, nothing wrong with the steering or front brakes/suspension, let’s move to the rear. But first, I decided to flip my tires back to the sides they were on Saturday, thinking maybe it was a tire balancing issue.  I pulled both rear wheels off the car and at first didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, all the suspension parts looked ok and were tight, nothing seemed amiss with the rear axle, the frustration grew….  I decided to try turning the rear wheels, maybe there was a problem with the axle or differential, they wouldn’t turn by hand using the lug bolts, odd considering usually that’s not at all difficult. I thought maybe I had left the car in gear, so checked, nope, it was in neutral.  So I tired again, only this time I grabbed the driveshaft and rotated it.  Everything turned just as it should, so I went back to trying to turn the wheel…. Nothing, could barely get it to rotate more than an inch or two. I found my problem, the brakes were clamped down tight on the rotors.  The calipers were so tightly clamped, that I couldn’t push them back with a pair of Vise Grips, usually the go to for pushing caliper pistons back into their holes, they simply wouldn’t budge.  Since the calipers wouldn’t release, I had to pry each brake pad out. I discovered one of the pads on the right rear had all the material worn off, and even some of the metal backing plate was wore down, that caliper had been froze up for a while!  Moving over to the left side, I had the same problem, I couldn’t push the pistons back into the caliper to release the brake pads, so again, had to pry them out. This time, one of them looked like it had barely any wear to it at all, while the other showed normal wear, the exact opposite of the right side. This would help explain why sometimes the car would slow down, I was only getting half the braking force from the left side, and with one pad completely gone on the right, it was also greatly reduced.  I had a couple of the other drivers look at it, and the consensus was I needed to either rebuild the calipers (not enough time with the next race happening in a couple of hours), or swap them out for new ones.  With a new pair of calipers supplied by our travelling parts counter, I set to work getting them affixed to the car. With an hour to go before our final race, everything was reattached, the brakes were bled, and wheels torqued, Grinch was ready to go once again.  Normally, we do a full field inverted start for the final race on Sunday, which would have put me on the front row, instead, this time they only inverted the top 7 positions.  I found this rather annoying, as I would have much preferred being at the front of the field going into the first turn with untested brakes, than at the very back, so  I took it pretty easy into turn 1, and got to the brakes much earlier than usual, just in case I couldn’t slow down sufficiently.  I need not worry. The brakes performed flawless in that final race, maybe even better than they had since I started driving the car.  With my cautious approach to the first few turns of the race, there really was no opportunity to gain positions, but, I was able to hang onto the car in front of me for a few laps, until the fastest car on the track passed me, and separated me from the herd.  I spent the rest of the race just DRIVING the car, and having a blast doing so. It almost felt like I was the only car on track for a good deal of the race, and I took the opportunity to try different techniques and lines, it really helped me get a much better feel for how a GTR handles.  I was able to bring the car home in P7, once again, for a pair of seventh place finishes on the weekend.  This will really help boost my confidence in the car, as the last few weekends have made me doubt how much I can really push it without fear of something breaking.  

Checkered flag on the weekend!

UP NEXT

Next on the docket for Fast Farmer Autosport is another trip to Sebring, Florida, to once again drive one of Open Throttle Racing’s green machines.  This time, I will get my first experience behind the wheel of a Porsche, driving a 1999 Boxster in a 12 hour, overnight race the weekend of June 26-28.  I will also be looking to become a repeat winner, as the car I drove last year won our class in this same event!  

In winner's circle at Sebring, June 2025. 

 I was part of a 4 driver team that won our class in the ChampCar 14 hour endurance race.....

 Let's do it AGAIN!!!

NASA GL Mid Ohio April: The One I'd Like to Forget

You might be asking yourself, where did the recap for April go? There were some great highlights, but mostly this one is “The Race Weekend I’d Like to Forget.” I’m turning the blog over to my wife for this recap. ~ Nick

NASA Great Lakes “Spring Break at China Beach”
Fast Farmer Autosport Race 1
Mid Ohio Sportscar Course
April 17-19 2026

Friday

Friday was the first test of the Frankenstein engine Nick put together over the winter. To recap, Nick blew an engine in June 2025, replaced it, and then during the NASA Championships in September had a spectacularly strange engine failure caused by hitting a curb wrong. It actually warped the engine block which was … unusual. In an attempt to avoid buying yet another engine, he took good parts from his blown engine, good parts from his warped engine, and some parts from an engine from his friend Mike… and pieced them all together. He didn’t quite get it all working before our last NASA event in 2025, so Friday was the first real test of trying it at an event. Unfortunately… during the second practice session, there was a catastrophic failure and the piston and the rod both exited the engine. (Yes, we knew this was a possibility. It’s still disappointing 🙁 )

There's not supposed to be a hole there 😦

Fortunately for Nick’s race weekend, one of his Thunder Roadster buddies came prepared just in case someone might need an engine. He spent Friday afternoon disconnecting most of the parts of his busted engine and then after our group dinner the work got started!






From Nick: I've been extremely lucky to be a part of two race groups that will literally jump on a severely busted racecar and have it back up and running by the end of the day!

Some amazing folks working!

Plus someone "supervising" !

There are some really amazing mechanics in this group and so many people contributed in various ways - with engine expertise, lending tools, cleaning oil off the car, etc. Some “interesting” predicaments were encountered during the engine swap so I’m extremely grateful for the entire group for sticking with it and getting it done! What took this group about 4 hours would have taken much, much longer at home.

Although we might have more tools at home, including an engine hoist, some things are just better at the track!

No engine hoist at the track for an emergency engine swap?

A car ramp, two ratchet straps, and some strong men will do the trick!  

The engine swap began a little after 7pm and around 10:30pm we had a working, running Grinch!

Saturday

WE HAVE AN ENGINE! It works! It’s an amazing feeling. Even though it’s cold and wet, we are racing!


An interesting decision for Race 1, the series leader decided to have the group do a “reverse grid”. Usually for the first race, our race group is put in order by qualifying lap, with the fastest car being in first place and the slowest in last place for the class. For Race 1, it’s raining, Nick’s engine is new, and he’s starting ON THE POLE. This is pretty nerve-wracking for me. However, I got this amazing video of the start from Jillian Ervin!

Mid Ohio April Race 1 Start

Photo Credit: Jillian Ervin

This was definitely the highlight of the weekend! Unfortunately, several laps later Nick had some trouble keeping it on the track and he landed in China Beach. The gravel in that area makes it nearly impossible to get out, especially for the TR cars, so he was just stuck there.

"Spring Break at CHINA BEACH" isn't all that fun

Photo Credit: Jillian Ervin

And then even MORE unfortunately, on the next lap his competitor Alex made a nearly identical move, went into China Beach in the same place and rear-ended Nick.

Photo Credit: Jillian Ervin

From Nick: I was doing so well in this race!! Then I went farming in China Beach. Wasn't great, and then I had a friend join me 🙁🙁🙁🙁

Thankfully, no injuries, I was just a little sore for a few days, but my bumper did not fare as well. The other driver did all he could to avoid me, it was just sooooo wet.

Sunday

Nick’s thoughts Sunday morning: Blown engine in Friday practice, rear ended while stuck in China Beach during race 1 yesterday....... What "fun" calamity will befall me in race 2 this morning?

He went out in Race 2 Sunday morning, which was delayed due to an incident in a prior run group, but came in early. He felt really slow, so he ran a few laps and then came in before the checkered flag. He didn’t go out in the final race. [SPOILER ALERT: After he did his post-event check on the car, he discovered that his left rear brake caliper was frozen. That DEFINITELY would have caused him to be slow because the car was always breaking itself! Plus the pad was worn down to the metal, so it was good instinct to bring it in!]

Nick’s thoughts on the drive home:

Home from a forgettable weekend at Mid Ohio, watching the replay of the IMSA Grand Prix of Long Beach to decompress before going to sleep. The chorus of a Cody Johnson song, "The Fall", keeps playing in my head, I believe it's the perfect theme song for this past weekend.......

The ride was worth the fall
The fall was worth the smiles
The smiles were worth the tears
Tears were worth the miles
Miles were worth the pain
Pain was worth it all
It's all worth this life
Life is worth the ride
The ride is worth the fall

NASA GL May Mid Ohio

 

NASA Great Lakes “Race to Remember”

Fast Farmer Autosport Race 2

NASA GL Race to Remember

Mid Ohio Sportscar Course

May 22-24 2026

Thursday

Load-in for this event was pretty un-eventful, nothing really of note once we actually made it to the track.  The drive there, on the other hand…. YIKES!  Once we got into Ohio on US 30, we were faced with a steady 25mph crosswind. Our 27 foot enclosed trailer acted like a giant sail, causing the truck to be tossed all over the road. About the fastest speed I could manage and still stay in my lane was 63mph, and even that was sketchy at times.  I think the trip ended up taking 30-45 minutes longer than normal, and I was exhausted from having to put real work in driving.  But, we made it with no calamities, and once we had a good supper, and I had base camp all set up, I slept soundly.

Friday

Practice day for most NASA weekends, and I usually try to get at least 3 sessions on track, mainly to get myself fully prepped mentally.  This time, however, I decided to sit out Friday.  After how my NASA season opener went a month before, I just wanted a “clean” weekend where I could put the car in the trailer Sunday afternoon in better condition than when it rolled off the trailer Thursday evening.  I also still had some minor repair work that needed done to the car to make it track worthy, so sitting out let me tackle that at my leisure.  The biggest repair that needed done was welding a new brace to the rear bumper that had been damaged beyond repair in April. Derek Moorehead was kind enough to lend his fabricating and welding expertise to the project, and had everything back in order in less than 30 minutes. Friday evening, as a show of gratitude, my wife and I treated the entire Thunder Roadster group to a pizza party in one of the empty garages, since it was raining steadily.  This was a “thank you” for all the help they gave me at the April event to get my blown engine swapped out with a good one in 4 hours' time Friday evening, so I could race on Saturday.  Everyone enjoyed the warm food and being able to hang out in a dry, somewhat warm area together.

                                                  A rainy Friday afternoon at Mid Ohio

Saturday

While no longer raining hard, Saturday morning saw a steady drizzle combined with a very soggy track making the first several sessions dicey. We all affixed our rain tires before going out for the warmup session, and I was looking forward to getting some good track time to help move past April mentally. Unfortunately, after the first lap, I realized I had a problem. Every corner I went through, left, right, slow, fast, it didn't matter, I experienced a severe vibration from the right front. I tried fighting through it, hoping maybe it was just a stone stuck in the tire tread, or maybe excess rubber build up in the wheel and would clear itself up with time. Unfortunately, it just got worse, so I had to pull off and return to the paddock area.  I didn’t feel like getting soaked trying to figure out the problem, so waited around a half hour until the rain stopped to investigate the car.  My thought while on track was maybe I had forgot to torque down the lug nuts on that wheel, but they all seemed to be tight. I grabbed the tire and gave it a good shake, and that’s when I realized it had to be something with the suspension. The whole wheel would wobble side to side and top to bottom without much force, at this point I began to suspect a wheel bearing going bad.  After jacking up the front of the car, I was able to rule out my hypothesis of a bearing going bad, but that left me with no clues as to what was going on, so I grabbed a couple of the other guys to get different view points and more eyes on the issue.  We went through possible causes and eliminated them one after another, until someone noticed that the jam nut on the upper control arm was loose.  After repositioning the ball joint, and tightening the jam nut, the wheel no longer wobbled, problem solved!  Unfortunately, by the time I got everything buttoned back up, there were only 5 minutes left until we hit the track for our qualifying session, and since I still needed to put all my race gear on, I would miss out.  Luckily, there were a couple of others that also didn’t go out for quali, and with my warmup time, I was able to start ahead of them in the race.  By start time for our race Saturday afternoon, we had a mostly dry track, but very iffy weather in the forecast during the race. Everyone else decided to run their dry tires, but I stayed with the rains. I made that decision knowing it was a huge gamble, and if the track continued to dry, I wouldn’t have near the pace as everyone else, but there was a near 50% chance of rain about 10 minutes after the race would start, since I was starting near the back of a 17 car field, I decided it was worth the risk to potentially have a BIG advantage on everyone else, IF that rain shower ended up hitting the track.  For the first couple of laps, I was able to hold my own, and actually had a little bit of an advantage in one section of track that was still fairly damp. Unfortunately, during lap 3, we were put under a full course caution that lasted multiple laps.  By the time we went back to green, the sun had come out and even the wet sections of track were rapidly drying. By the last 2 laps of the race, my tires had given up, and I had to limp to the finish.  BUT, I FINISHED!  That was the first race I had finished in the Thunder Roadster, without mechanical issues, since August of the previous season.  I also wasn’t last, due to 3 cars retiring early due to mechanical failures, and a couple more being disqualified for passing under yellow.  After relishing a good result in the race, I got the car prepped for Sunday morning’s race, including putting my DRY tires on!  For our evening’s entertainment, the majority of the group supervised some repair work being done on one of the cars. It was a good time, lol.  After the sun went down, it got a bit chilly, so several of us took shelter between a couple of trailers, and rigged up a tv to watch the afternoon’s F1 sprint race and qualifying. After that, we retired to our trailer so I could rest up for the two Sunday races.

Checkers for Saturday afternoon's race!!!!

Sunday

When I exited the trailer Sunday morning, I was greeted with an absolutely beautiful morning. Our 10:30 race was going to be fun!  We ran a “reverse” grid for the morning race, which means the faster cars from the last race start at the rear of the field, which put me in P3.  I fell back to mid pack by the second lap, but seemed to be settling in at that spot, until once again, out of class cars caused a full course caution. Unfortunately, this time we would not get the green flag to resume the race, and after 5 laps at parade speed, the checkered flag flew, ending the race.  To say I was bummed is a severe understatement, I really wanted a full race to get more seat time in the car. But, on the bright side, it was another clean finish to a race, making me 2 for 2 so far on the weekend.  That left one final race for the weekend scheduled for 2:30 in the afternoon, giving me plenty of time to get most of our things packed up. Around 1:30, I started getting myself ready to race again, but the weather had started to turn for the worse once more. After some back and forth with myself, I decided to go ahead and load up my wet tires, leaving  only the dry’s that were already on the car as my tire option. If it rained before our race, I simply wouldn’t go out, and get my clean weekend I so desperately needed.  By the time I had suited up, a light mist had started falling, but it was so light that had it stopped, there would have been no impact to grip levels of the track, so I went to my grid spot and waited to go on track.  Unfortunately, while sitting on grid, that light mist changed at first to a heavy sprinkle, then finally a steady drizzle as we were being released onto track.  About halfway around the pace lap, I encountered a couple of places where the car just wouldn’t turn and I thought I was going to go off even at pace speed.  Faced with those conditions and running dry tires, me and a couple of the others pulled off when we came back around to pit road. It just wasn’t worth ruining a weekend where nothing had broke by trying to race on a slick track with the wrong tire compound.  

After checking my oil first thing Sunday morning. 

The sun came out shortly after, providing 

beautiful conditions for the mornings race.

While it was far from a great weekend racing, it was successful, in that my car suffered no mechanical failures, and I finished both races I started.  Next up is NASA’s annual June visit to GingerMan Raceway on the shores of beautiful Lake Michigan, followed by a trip to the Sunshine State for a 12 hour overnight endurance race at Sebring with Open Throttle. 

Historic Sportscar Racing: Pistons and Props, part 2

 

Open Throttle Race 1

HSR Pistons and Props

Sebring International Raceway

February 12-15, 2026

Part 2: Sat & Sun

Saturday

I woke up bright and early a little before 7 on Saturday….. So much for sleeping in, lol.  So we decided to have a nice breakfast in the hotel restaurant, then head to the track.  With a couple of hours before my group was to be on track for our final qualifying session, I decided to take the opportunity to check out all the planes up close and personal. Those things were so cool, I can't really describe what it was like having full access to those beautiful birds. I mean, you could walk right up to them and touch them if you wanted, no ropes, the only “security” was the two guys working grid, who basically told me just don’t get run over by any of the race cars, lol.  

My favorite plane, an Army bi-plane built in the 30's

After spending a good amount of time drooling over the planes, I took a slow walk back through the paddock to the Open Throttle base camp. Since we were near the far end, it was a very long walk with some amazing scenery, many of the cars racing there had some serious historic pedigrees. We’re talking former Rolex 24 winning cars, LeMans winners, and more than a few IMSA season champions, plus even older stuff, I think I was lucky to not be dehydrated from all the salivating I was doing, lol.  Eventually, I made it back to the OTR paddock spot, and set about getting my mind ready for qualifying, then it was time to suit up again, and go out for qualifying.  I don’t know if it was the cooler air from the 10:30 am session time, or just my boosted self confidence, but I ran a blistering fast lap of 2:29.646, a full second better than my fast lap from Friday’s race!  That left me with even more confidence, and I was actually thinking maybe I would be able to hang with a couple of the slower cars in our group during the race, which unfortunately wasn’t for another 3 hours.  Time for a nap! 

Just kidding, but we did take advantage of the excellent concession stand and had a good, nutritious lunch. After that, I literally just chilled in the rental car with the AC cranked and tried to relax, as it was rather toasty and humid that day.  I was expecting a similar start to Saturday’s race as what we had on Friday, but with my success earlier in qualifying, I thought maybe I could hang onto the pack for the majority of the 20 minute race, and maybe even pick up a couple of positions.  However, when the green flew, a couple of cars further up in the grid didn’t get very good starts, resulting in the entire field being bunched up going into turn 1.  I found myself three wide with a former IMSA TCR racecar and an older Porsche IMSA car…. IT WAS AWESOME!  You just have to elevate all your senses in that sort of situation, and not think about all the bad things that could happen, just focus on holding your line and be ready for someone else not to.  Between turn 1 and 3, the TCR car pulled in front (barely, I was only a few inches off his bumper), leaving me and a classic Porsche race car side by side through turns 3&5, which are probably the two tightest corners on the entire track. WE got through T3 just fine, but then in the kink they call T4, he got a little loose and I reacted by keeping my car a little off line going towards T5, which resulted in me losing all my momentum in T5, and causing cars to stack up behind me, but the HSR drivers are a highly skilled group, and the cars behind me got around with no issues on the following straight. I stayed in contact with the pack until part way down the back straight, those cars just had too much power for me to hang with them on such a long straight section of track. So, again, my plan became to just race myself, try to get consistent lap times while also lowering them. Then part way through the second lap disaster struck…. Turn 9 is a lefthanded sweeper about half way between turns 7&10, and to be fast through that section you need to just barely kiss the curb with your left side tires. The reason is simple: if you're too far off the curb, you are driving extra distance that you don’t need to, therefore making your lap take longer. Secondly, this curb is rather high, it sticks up several inches from the track surface, and getting too much of it will really upset the car, leading to loss of momentum and possibly damaging the car.  Well, for some reason, on this lap, I cut that curve too tightly and hit way too much of the curbing. This really jolted the car, and caused the electronics to “blip off” like they had during Thursday’s practice, when everything came back on, I could no longer shift gears and was stuck in second. I was able to slowly limp back to the pits, and Charlie tried a re-flash of the computer, like what had worked on Thursday, but this time, no luck. In fact, when we started the car up after the reset, the transmission was completely locked up, and we couldn’t move it at all. Team owner, Mike Gorman was driving the other car, a BMW 235i R, and brought it into the pits to let me drive it for the remainder of the race. Unfortunately, my big butt couldn’t fit in the seat that was in that car, so I was out of luck.  This was obviously NOT the way I wanted my race to end, but, honestly, that’s how racing goes fairly often.  To say I was dejected after the race was a major understatement. I feel horrible when my own cars break, to be behind the wheel of someone else’s car,  even if nothing I had done that contributed directly to the breakdown, made me feel ten times as bad.  Thankfully, Zack Barfield got my mind pointed back in the right direction by doing a data review with me. That got me thinking “forward” instead of dwelling on what had just happened on track, and helped give me another shot of confidence, because the data from my qualifying session was really good. I was very consistent, and all my braking events for the major corners looked amazing.  While we were going over data, Charlie got to work swapping the seat from Cherry into “Raptor”, so I could race it in Sunday’s race, and therefore still get my track time.  Did I mention Saturday also happened to be Valentine’s Day? While I was sulking from breaking the car, and doing the data review, plus trying to help where I could, my awesome wife had found us a very nice Peruvian place on the circle in downtown Sebring to enjoy a nice supper.  What had been kind of a bummer day, turned into a very nice evening, with authentic Peruvian entertainment, and of course the food!  Then it was time to get some rest before the final race on Sunday morning.

Both OTR cars going into T1 at Sebring. I'm in "Cherry", the E92 M3 on the right, 

team owner, Mike Gorman is behind the wheel of "Raptor", the 235i R on the left.

Sunday

My race was at 9:30 on Sunday, but I wanted to arrive plenty early to try and familiarize myself with my new ride. “Raptor” is a factory built BMW 235i R racecar, it has stamps from the factory in Germany where it was built all over the substantial roll cage, as well as a Pirelli World Challenge tech sticker from 2018 on the drivers side “A” pillar.  Sitting in the car while adjusting my belts and making sure the mirrors were right felt very comfortable, and put my nerves of being thrown into another car I had never driven at literally the last minute at ease.  When the OTR crew arrived, I suited up, then climbed inside the car, Charlie helped me get my bearings for all the controls, and let me know what the optimal shift point was along with where the water and oil temps needed to be, then it was time to head to grid. For this final race, my mindset was all about turning laps and coming to grips with how yet another new chassis handled best on the Sebring track. Figuring out how several different platforms, all with very different handling characteristics, like to be driven on the historic track, should be invaluable to me in September when I take the Thunder Roadster there for NASA Championships. It’s sure to handle completely different than anything else, yet, from my experiences with now 4 different cars, it will also share some characteristics with each of the OTR cars I’ve raced there.  And, as I was about to find out, the BMW F22(hence the name Raptor) platform is the closest thing yet to handling like a GTR.  

While sitting on grid, I began to realize that I might enjoy driving this car, I was so comfortable in it that if I had closed my eyes, I might have fallen asleep. Then, during the pace lap, while warming tires and getting a feel for the acceleration, braking and steering of the car, I started to get very excited about the next 20 minutes!  I was very patient on the start, not wanting to get involved with any battles the other cars may have, and also wanting to slowly ease into pushing the car, unfortunately, we had a 2 lap full course caution starting at the end of the first lap.  Oh well, more time to adjust to the car under a “controlled” pace, and make sure the tires and brakes were properly warmed up. When they pulled the yellow before lap 4, I was ready to GO!  That first green lap was a 2:39, which I learned the basics of how the car handled, and what gears I should be in, along with the braking capabilities. On laps 5&6, I pushed it a little bit farther, bringing my times for those laps down to a 2:35 & 2:34 respectively, while also learning even more about how the car liked to slide around the corners, allowing me to keep more momentum, and how absolutely great the brakes were on it. Unfortunately, while on the back straight of lap 6, i got a call over the radio that the white flag was out, meaning I only had one more lap to really push the car and have fun!  So, as I came to the last corner, my main thought was just carry as much speed through it as I could, to get a good run down the front straight, setting myself up for a fast lap on the last one. As I came off the corner, My only thought became “PUSH! Grip it and rip it!”  I carried a ton more speed through T1, then nailed T3 better than I had all weekend, along with a perfect little slide exiting T5, and I was on pace for a blistering lap a third of the way through. Coming up on T7, I had learned that you could brake extremely deep in this car, and it wouldn’t get upset, so I pushed my braking point deeper than I had all weekend, while still trailing off the brakes at the same point, allowing me to also nail T7 better than I probably ever have.  Next up was the section of track that I struggle with the most turns 10 through 16, if you mess one of those corners up, it’s really hard to recover any time. As with T5, I got into 10 with enough speed that I had a perfect little slide on exit, and was like “OH YEAH!”. Then I focused on T13, and tried to brake in the same spot as I had been, but much lighter on the pedal, and again, on exit, the rear end had just the slightest little slide to it, and off I went toward Bishop’s Bend, a double apex left handed sweeper leading into the deceptively tight and slightly off camber turn 15. It literally felt like I was gliding a couple inches above the track as I went through there, then I absolutely nailed T15, along with 16, leading onto the long back straight with plenty of time to get in my head. But I kept focused on trying to brake later, and not use as much brake going into the final corner… I still over slowed, and also ran a little wider line than I should have, but it was much improved, and I came to the checkers with a BLISTERING 2:32.2 lap time, nearly 2.5 seconds faster than the lap before!  In fact, that lap was the fastest the car had ran all weekend!  Team owner, Mike Gorman, had driven it all day Friday and Saturday, and the best he could manage was a 2:32.9, so in only 5 green flag laps, I bested the cars owner by 7 tenths of a second, despite him having 5 full sessions in the car.  As good as that lap was, I honestly think it’s capable of turning laps in the 2:30’s, I NEED to find that out first hand!  

As always, it was an amazing weekend hanging out with the Open Throttle Racing crew, in fact, I have come to think of them as extended family! I can not wait until the next time out with them at the end of June, and for any of my racer friends reading this that are curious about doing an “arrive&drive” endurance weekend, I can’t recommend Open Throttle enough. Get in touch with them, you won’t regret it!  

Next up for Fast Farmer Autosport will be my first NASA Great Lakes weekend of the year at Mid Ohio in April, time to find out if my Frankensteined engine is up to snuff!

Historic Sportscar Racing Pistons and Props, pt1

 Open Throttle Race 1

HSR Pistons and Props

Sebring International Raceway

February 12-15, 2026

Part 1: Wed-Fri

Wednesday

We arrived in Sebring early Wednesday afternoon to get our registration all in order. Since I had never driven with the Historic Sportscar Racing organization before, I had to pick up my “hard card” (the id card that allows competitors and crew to get into the event) in person instead of it being mailed to me.  I didn’t know how long that process would take, so I wanted to get there as early as we could. Turns out, it really didn’t add much to the registration process at all, and we were all done in about 5 minutes.  I still needed to take my helmet and head & neck restraint to tech so they could make sure it was up to date, and met their requirements.  Again, the whole process took about 5 minutes, so I didn’t need to worry, but it’s better to be safe than sorry in that type of situation.  One thing that made me take a second and go “whoa” was walking up to the tech location and seeing a semi trailer with IMSA logos all over it. That was just the first of several “wow” moments that I never imagined would happen.  After getting my gear checked out, we headed over to Wine Country Motorsports, just outside the track to get a communication system installed in my new helmet.  Unfortunately, there was only one guy working in the shop that afternoon, so he wasn’t able to get it done that day, but promised I would have it before my first session at 10:30 the next morning.  With that, we went and checked into the hotel, and just chilled out until my test day driver's meeting at 4….. 

Turns out, I got a little too relaxed, and when I looked at my phone to see if it was time to head over to the track, it said 4:05.  Whoops!  Luckily, they had a second driver’s meeting at 7:30 the next morning, so I was ok, just a little annoyed with myself.  I still wanted to go find where we would be paddocked, and see if I could help any with getting the cars teched. Those bright green Open Throttle BMW’s are quite easy to find, so it didn’t take long to locate the team’s trailer. When I got there, Charlie Crilly already had my car for the weekend, a 2009 E92 M3 by the name of Cherry, sitting at tech waiting to be inspected.  It was great getting to see Charlie again, the whole team feels like family to me, so I’m always happy to see them after some time away.  There wasn’t really much I could do to help the tech/setting up process, so we didn’t hang around too long. But, since I had never driven this particular car before, I did get in the car for a quick test fitting and familiarization session, so I would have an idea of how everything worked in the morning. With that done, it was time to head to Cowpoke’s to grab a very good steak, then start to focus on the next day.

Thursday

Thursday was the scheduled practice day, and I was looking forward to becoming familiar with my car, since I had never driven Cherry before. My first session wasn’t until 10:30, but, since I missed the Wednesday afternoon driver’s meeting, I had to attend the one at 7:30 Thursday morning.   After the meeting, I had plenty of time to have a granola bar for breakfast, and get all my gear situated in the trailer so it would be easier to keep track of everything and get dressed quickly. It also meant Melanie had plenty of time to retrieve my helmet, complete with new comms installed!  Finally after what seemed like FOREVER, the time came to suit up and get in the car for my first practice session. After getting all strapped in, and my helmet connected to the car, I had Charlie go over all the controls one more time, just to be sure I remembered everything, of course, I hadn’t remembered everything, but most of it was retained from the night before.  Sitting on grid and looking at all the eye candy preparing to share the track with me, I couldn’t help but feel some nerves. Having never driven this type of car, I didn’t really know what to expect in terms of handling, and absolutely didn’t want to make a mistake that could lead to damaging any of those extremely valuable vintage racecars.  I didn’t need to worry, because as I found out, Cherry is an absolute joy to drive. She handles quite predictably, has plenty of speed, and brakes to spare. As long as you keep your head, you won’t have anything to worry about driving that car.  Having survived the first practice with no issues, and gaining some confidence in the car, my plan for the next session was to push the car a little bit harder, but still not all out. 

 Unfortunately, Sebring lived up to its well deserved reputation as one of the toughest tracks on earth in terms of beating up cars. The first time I really pushed the car through turn 1, I hit one of the famous bumps on exit, causing some sort of electrical glitch. All of the electrical components in the interior of the car blacked out for a second, then popped back on. I thought everything was fine until I hit the straight between turn 5 and turn 7. For some reason, I was hitting the rev limiter even though I was nowhere near the 7,500 rpm shift point. After analyzing the gauges closely, I noticed that the tach had reset itself so the redline was now at 7,000 rpm’s instead of 8,200, meaning I had to shift gears a full 1,000 rpm’s sooner than what I should have been to avoid the limiter. Once I got to a section of clear track where I could describe my problem, I radioed Charlie, and he had me come into the pits.  Have I mentioned this guy is a genius when it comes to fixing racecars? He took one look in the car and immediately knew what needed to be done to fix it. Turns out that electrical “blip” had reset the car's computer back into a more conservative “tune”, and all we needed to do was shut it off, reflash the computer, then fire it back up and we were good to go!  I headed back out ready to push the car for the remaining few laps, and boy, I had a blast that first lap, then I came through turn 1 at speed again, and nailed that same bump….. Yep, everything blipped out for a second and came back on just like before. Except this time as I exited turn 5, I realized I couldn’t shift gears!  Everything on the dash looked normal, but the shift paddles had no effect on the transmission, i even tried moving the shifter into “D” and back to sport, and bumping it up and down the gears, but nothing would work.  So I was stuck in second gear having to travers ⅔ of the Sebring track before getting back to pit road, let me tell you that back straight is LONG when you can’t go faster than 65mph. This time, it was determined that the blip had caused the car to enter “limp mode”, and by the time Charlie had its brains straightened back out, the session was over. Back in the paddock, Charlie checked everything over that could cause the issues we were seeing, and along with a possible weak alternator, he discovered the transmission fluid was slightly low. 

Having all the issues fixed, I was ready to really lean on the car for the third session. That final practice session was huge for my confidence in myself and the car. Cherry performed flawlessly, and I wasn’t bad either. I ran four laps right in the middle of the session separated by just 2 tenths of a second, that type of consistency is what I’m always looking for to tell me I’m in tune with both the car and the track.  Having experienced a great final session on track, I was more excited than nervous about how Friday would play out. The only thing left for Thursday was the race driver’s meeting at 4:30, then it was time to get a good meal, and relax while attending a Ross Bentley webinar before getting to bed at a decent time. We were the second group on track Friday morning at 8:30 for our first of 2 qualifying sessions to determine Friday afternoon’s 1 hour “endurance” race. 

Friday

I woke up ready to run on Friday morning, which is always a great feeling!  We got to the track just after 7, and I almost immediately suited up, I was READY.  Then in the first qualifying session, I went out and proved how ready I was by running a 2 minute and 30 second lap, backed up by a 2:31.  That was over 2 seconds quicker than what I had ran on Thursday!  We weren't sure if the set of tires on the car would make it through the endurance race in the afternoon, so decided to put the new set on prior to the second qualifying session. Since we were scrubbing in new tires, the second session would be a “throw away” in terms of setting a fast lap, but was still useful in terms of getting more laps on the track and learning how the other cars behaved.  We had over 3 hours between Q2 and the race, so I was actually able to eat a somewhat normal meal for lunch, while taking in the NASCAR classics qualifying session from atop the pit garages. You haven’t lived until you experience a pack of 8-10 90’s to early 10’s NASCAR’s going down the Sebring front straight at full throttle! The sound is unbelievable, but even more so are the vibrations you feel coming through the building, it is something else!  Having calmed down from the “NASCAR experience”, it was time to make sure I understood the pit stop rules for our race. Being an “endurance” race (I don’t consider an hour long race much of an enduro, but whatever….), we had to make a pit stop for fuel sometime during the first 40 minutes. Making this more complicated was the rule that the driver had to be out of the car and over the pit wall before fueling could begin.  Once we had that all straightened out, I still had plenty of time to just relax and do some visualization, to mentally prepare myself. 

Being in a car that was sorely outclassed by all the former professional, factory built racecars, my strategy for the race was to just focus on my own driving, and try to be consistent while lowering my lap times. At the start, the field in front of me took off and by the time we got to turn 7, I was well behind them. This allowed me to settle into a very nice rhythm pretty quickly and I really had a great time sharing the track with some very cool cars. Then it was time for our 5 minute pit stop.  It was a non event, I pulled into the stall, shut the car off, got out and hopped over the wall, took my helmet off and grabbed a couple drinks of water, then reversed the process. The timing worked out almost perfectly, by the time I was strapped back in, it was time to go, so I fired the car back up and headed back out on track.  After just one lap, I was immediately into a nice rhythm, running 5 of the next 6 laps consistently in the high 2:31’s and low 2:32’s, with a fast one towards the end of that stretch nearly identical to my fast qualifying time.  It was a great way to end my first official HSR race, I proved to myself that I belonged on a track in a big time atmosphere, alongside very skilled drivers in extremely valuable machines.  It was a huge boost for my self confidence!  After the race, I had just enough time to change into shorts before the highlight event of the weekend, the parade of vintage aircraft from the active airport to the HSR grid area.  There were ten vintage planes built from the 30’s through the 60’s, about half were former military, a couple were vintage air racers/acrobatic planes, and then there were a few just “plane” planes.  They taxied these planes in single file at full throttle down the Sebring back straight from the airport to the grid, and our paddock spot was situated perfectly to watch.  Being somewhat of an aircraft nerd, I thought it was one of the coolest things I’ve seen!  After the planes were situated, it was time for the HSR “family reunion”, a fancy name for drinks and dinner. They actually had some pretty good food, and plenty of carbonated, non-alcoholic beverages. It was also a nice time to chat with some of the other participants, and meet some of the pilots, it was very cool.  With our first session for Saturday not scheduled until 10:30, we were able to end the night by enjoying some popcorn while watching a movie without worrying about how early I went to sleep, and it also meant I could sleep in slightly on Saturday morning.  To be continued.......

HSR Sebring Pistons & Props: Planes at a racetrack?!?!?

The Historic Sportscar Racing series held their season opening event February 12-15, 2026 at Sebring International Raceway. Since 2016, HSR has been hosting a Sebring event called “Pistons and Props” which combines vintage sportscar racing with displays of vintage airplanes. Why airplanes? The Sebring facility was originally a World War II military base, Hendricks Field. In 1946, Hendricks Field was deactivated and became Sebring Airport. The first sports car endurance race in the US was held here in 1950, and since 1952 the “12 Hours of Sebring” has been one of America’s greatest racing traditions.

So, an unusual activity for us during a race weekend was that we shared grid with these amazing vintage planes, and even got a front-row seat as they drove through the track from the current Sebring airport to the HSR grid!

Here are some photos from the event that include planes (plus a few racecars). Don't worry, actual racing content and an event recap will be coming soon, but had to share these photos!

~ M

Qualifying Session # 3 on 2/14, panoramic view of grid

Here's Nick driving into grid Sunday morning for Sprint Race 2 ... past all the planes! So cool!

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Planes moving from the airport to the grid, down the backstretch at Sebring!