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!

2026 Season Preview

2026 Fast Farmer Autosport race schedule

February 13-15 Sebring, HSR

April 17-19 Mid Ohio, NASA Great Lakes

May 22-24 Mid Ohio, NASA Great Lakes

June 19-21 Gingerman, NASA Great Lakes

June 27-28 Sebring, ChampCar Endurance Series

July 31-Aug 2 Gingerman, NASA Great Lakes 

August 21-23 Mid Ohio, NASA Great Lakes

September 11-13 Autobahn, NASA Great Lakes

September 24-27 Sebring, NASA National Championships

October 16-18 NCM, NASA Great Lakes 

December 29-31 COTA, ChampCar Endurance Series

That’s my season schedule in black and white, now let’s dive into it in a little more detail, and see what my initial thoughts are of each event. For 2026, my race schedule consists of 11 race weekends in 6 different states, 3 of which will see me behind the wheel of an Open Throttle Racing BMW. All told we will travel 7,400 miles by plane, and spend approximately 85 hours travelling around 5100 miles on the highway towing the Grinch to 8 different NASA weekends. There are also 3 NASA endurance only weekends that I’m not currently planning on driving in, but I would gladly race in one or two of those, if the opportunity presents itself.  

Race 1: Organization: Historic Sportscar Racing

Event/Location: Pistons and Props, Sebring International Raceway, Sebring, FL

Car/Team: 2009 BMW E92 M3 “Cherry”, Open Throttle Racing

This is going to be a great weekend! 

Escaping cold, snowy Indiana for warm, sunny Florida in February ALWAYS makes for a good time.  Throw in vintage planes, vintage racecars and the oldest professional road course in the US, and how can it not be a total BLAST!

Race 2: NASA Great Lakes

Mid Ohio SportsCar Course, Lexington, OH

2012 Thunder Roadster GTR “Thunder Grinch”, Fast Farmer Autosport

I get my NASA season started at Mid-O in April after missing the March event due to a personal conflict. It will be good to get back behind the wheel of Grinch, and to test out my “Frankensteined” engine. My goal for the weekend will simply be surviving unscathed.

Race 3: NASA Great Lakes

Mid Ohio SportsCar Course, Lexington, OH

2012 Thunder Roadster GTR “Thunder Grinch”, Fast Farmer Autosport

If everything goes well at the April event, for Memorial Day weekend, I’m going to turn the wick up a bit.  It will be my 4th time at the track with Grinch, and I should have a good feel for how to drive it.  My goal for that weekend can be summed up like this….. “ I WANNA GO FASST”

Race 4: NASA Great Lakes

GingerMan Raceway, South Haven, MI

2012 Thunder Roadster GTR “Thunder Grinch”, Fast Farmer Autosport

With only getting 5 laps on the track in practice last year before the engine ventilated itself, I’ll be looking to get as many laps in the car as I can, while still being competitive. My main goal again will be survival.

Race 5: ChampCar Endurance Series

Sebring Under The Stars 12 Hour, Sebring International Raceway, Sebring, FLA.

Car TBD, Open Throttle Racing

My last opportunity to get quality laps in at Sebring before the NASA Championships in September. Also, racing at night is an AMAZING experience, as is driving for OTR!

Race 6: NASA Great Lakes

GingerMan Raceway, South Haven, MI

2012 Thunder Roadster GTR “Thunder Grinch” Fast Farmer Autosport

Nasa’s second trip to South Haven in 6 weeks. I’ll try to put into practice what I learn from the first Gingerman race weekend, and see if I can be competitive in a tough GTR class.

Race 7: NASA Great Lakes

THE Mid Ohio SportsCar Course, Lexington, Ohio

2012 Thunder Roadster GTR “Thunder Grinch” Fast Farmer Autosport

Back to Mid-O for the third and final time. With Championships only a month away, I’m not going to be taking any unnecessary risks this weekend. My goal will be to keep my nose clean and turn as many laps as possible, while not finishing DFL.

Race 8: NASA Great Lakes

Autobahn Country Club, Joliet, ILL

Our only visit to ACC this season will also be my first at the track behind the wheel of Grinch. This track is the one I’ve struggled the most at, dating back to my HPDE days. I can never seem to find a rhythm here, for whatever reason. Since this race weekend is only 10 days before Championships, I’m just going there to try and figure out how the GTR handles on the track for next season. Plus any seat time is good seat time, especially when fairly new to a platform. There’s a decent chance I won’t even go out for the final race of the weekend, and, if I feel good with how the car ran Saturday, might not run at all on Sunday. 

Race 9: NASA National Championships

Sebring International Raceway, Sebring, Fla

2012 Thunder Roadster GTR “Thunder Grinch” Fast Farmer Autosport

This is the race I have been preparing for since December, when I drove for OTR in the ChampCar NYE 14 hour. Hopefully all the seat time I will have gotten here in the three different events I’m doing with Open Throttle will pay off. I’m not under any delusions of winning the thing, especially when taking into account how many extremely good and experienced GTR pilots there are in our region as well as the Florida region, but I am hoping to get myself into the top 5.  

Race 10: NASA Great Lakes

NCM Motorsports Park, Bowling Green, KY

2012 Thunder Roadster GTR “Thunder Grinch” Fast Farmer Autosport

The NASA Great Lakes season finale. Two races on Saturday to decide all the respective class winners, then a single race on Sunday just for FUN!  NCM is my favorite track in the region and third favorite I’ve ever raced at, so I’m very excited to finally get the chance to race the GTR there.  Saturday I will try to learn as much about how the car drives there as I can, and also try to interfere with any season points battles as little as possible. On Sunday, it’s GO TIME!  I’ll have all winter to fix anything that breaks, and I want to send a message that in ‘27, I will be somebody to watch out for!

Race 11: ChampCar Endurance Series

The Lonestar Double Down, Circuit of The Americas, Austin, TX

Car TBD, Most likely a green BMW, Open Throttle Racing

ChampCar moved their annual New Year’s Eve race to COTA for 2026, and I couldn’t resist the chance to race on the track for a second time!  It will be an 8+8 format, meaning an 8 hour race on back to back days, so two opportunities to WIN!  Plus, welcoming in the new year in Austin is bound to be a good time!

That’s it, the “locked in” 2026 Fast Farmer Autosport race schedule!  There are enough gaps in it that I could squeeze in a couple of other races, if the right opportunity presents itself, but if not, there’s enough here that I’ll be happy.  Look for a recap of the “Pistons and Props” weekend about a week after we get back home. 

2025: The year that was..... and wasn't.

 

Fast Farmer Autosport 2025 Season Review

Well, what can I say about the 2025 race season? First, let’s take a quick look at a couple of pretty big milestones.  June was the 10 year anniversary of my very first track day, and that guy would wonder what you were smoking if someone went back in time and told him of all the things I’ve done on track since then.  Something I did just out of curiosity turned into so many incredible experiences….. A couple of years later, I joined NASA with the intent of running Time Trial, autocross on a racetrack was how I initially thought of it in my head, LOL.  Then, after a couple of years in the NASA HPDE system, deciding that wheel to wheel racing was where I ultimately wanted to go. This leads into the second “milestone”..... October was the 5th year anniversary of my first wheel to wheel race, a ChampCar endurance race at historic Road America, yeah, that guy from 2015 would have never imagined doing that!  And the driver I was then still wouldn’t have believed where and what I’ve raced since!  From racing door to door around the high banks of Daytona International Speedway (Yes, THE DAYTONA where the NASCAR boys play!) winning the regional season points championship for my Time Trial class in 2023, to racing in the WRL (World Racing League-an "amateur” series that also happens to attract a fair amount of pro teams and drivers) at Circuit of The America’s, one of my favorite virtual tracks and home to Formula 1’s US GrandPrix, buying and racing a Thunder Roadster(HOLY FUUUUUUdge, those are insane!), then racing at Sebring International Raceway, (one of the oldest, continuously used circuits in the country) TWICE, and at night! Plus, the first one resulted in my team finishing FIRST in class, for my first ever victory!  Those things would have absolutely blown my brain 10 or even just 5 years ago.  After looking back at the last 10 years, I can’t help but wonder what sorts of accomplishments and experiences the next 10 years have in store…. One thing’s for certain, it’s going to be one heck of a ride! 

Now onto my look back at the actual racing I did this year…..

Race 1: NCM Motorsports Park, March, CMC

A new season brought a fresh look to the CMC car. I repainted the body matte black from its usual flame red, and combined with the blue flames it looked awesome!  It also performed well, after a set back on practice day, and being spun out on the opening lap of the last race, I ended up with a podium sweep for the weekend.  A third place finish in all three races!  With that momentum, I was excited for the next event at OIR.

Race 2: Ozark’s International Raceway, April, CMC

With NASA holding its yearly championships at OIR in September, I was planning on racing there as many times as I could, plus it is my favorite track to race on.  The weekend started great, I was immediately on pace with my fast lap times from the previous year, even in warmups. Qualifying saw me improve on those times and set a new personal best, it was looking like an EPIC race weekend!  Race 1 started ok, I gained a couple spots in the first few laps, but then we had 3 laps of full course caution. We had a green, white, checkers situation on the restart, meaning only 2 green flag laps to end the race. While the caution did allow me to get very close to the rest of the class, I was unfortunately separated from them by a pair of out of class cars. When we went back green, the second of those cars decided it would be a good idea to race me for some reason. I finally got around him after about a half lap, but was now several seconds behind the next place CMC car, as we crossed the line to begin the white flag lap, I was 2.9 seconds back, and TICKED OFF!  I absolutely drove my heart out on that lap, eclipsing my personal best by around 4 seconds, and it was the third fastest lap of the race in the entire CMC field…. But, I was too far back. I crossed the finish line .8 seconds off his bumper, one more lap, and I would have had the spot. BUT, the lap time, combined with shrinking the gap by 2 seconds in one lap, left me feeling extremely good for Sunday.  I got off to an awesome start in the morning race, gaining a pair of positions on the opening lap, while being in spitting distance with the next pair of cars…. Then the bottom fell out.  Halfway through lap 2, the car started behaving unpredictably in the corners, then back on the front “straight”, it was all I could do to keep the car off the outside wall. Just before the brake zone for T1, the right rear tire went flat, and somehow I kept the car from spinning out and hitting the wall, but my race was done. The third race also ended with a DNF, I started getting motion sick just past halfway, but I was well out of contention anyway. What started out as an extremely promising weekend ended up being one of the worst I’ve experienced.  I was determined to bounce back at Mid Ohio on Memorial Day weekend.

Race 3: Mid Ohio Sportscar Course, May, Thunder Roadster GTR

This race weekend was the maiden voyage for my new trailer that we purchased between NCM and OIR, AND it was also the Fast Farmer Autosport debut in the Thunder Roadster class!  Somehow, I managed to keep it a secret that I had bought a bright, gecko green Thunder Roadster known in the region as “Thunder Grinch” for over a month. It was quite the debut!  I spent the Friday practice day getting as many laps in as I could in the car, to try and acclimate myself to how it drove. The beginning of the first race showed me that no amount of practice laps could have possibly prepared me for racing in a pack of those amazing machines! Somehow, I managed to make my way to the front by the time we got to the front straight to lead my first race lap in the car!  Despite a valiant effort, as the race wore on, I began to fade back and finished in 7th, but I held my own for the first half of the race, and felt very confident going into Sunday.  The Sunday morning race ended for me before making a full lap, I got spun about ¾ of the way through lap 1. Normally that’s not a big deal, just get pointed in the right direction and get back after it, but with a GTR, if you don’t get the clutch in quick enough when you spin, the starter will get spun too fast and short out, rendering the car dead in the water.  Due to the kindness of a few other competitors, I was able to get a new starter installed in the car and make the afternoon race.  It had a similar feel to the Saturday race, with me getting a good start, then fading as the race wore on.  It wasn’t a great weekend in terms of finishing position, but man, it was fun, and I learned a ton!  I couldn’t wait to get back on track at Gingerman in June!

Race 4: GingerMan Raceway, June, GTR/TTGT

Gingerman in June…..  The month and place that saw me take to the track for the very first time back in 2015, then in 2017 it’s where I spent my first ever NASA weekend, moving up from DE1 to DE2 at the end of the weekend, fast forward to 2021, and the June event at Gingerman is where I went through competition school to get my racing licence. With those good memories in my head, you would think it would be a favorite event of mine, but you’d be wrong.  Every time I have raced there, it has always resulting in my car needing varying degrees of repairs after the weekend….IF I actually finish the weekend. In 2022, I parked it in the middle of the first race due to a bushing in the transmission tail shaft housing backing out. I got the new part installed just in time for the next race 3 weeks later. 2023 was fun, I threw down some seriously quick lap times…. BUT, that was in TT, the race car didn’t even make the trip.  2024: Missed the first day due to a family emergency, drove up Sunday morning for races 2&3 of the weekend. Started hearing a strange noise from the rear towards the end of the morning race, only ran 5 laps in the afternoon race. The result? Three teeth broken off of the pinion gear, PLUS, a melted area on the gas tank. Again, I got the car ready for the next event 2 days before loading up.  That brings us to this year.  5 laps into the first practice session, I started hearing a strange noise from the engine, coming out of the next corner I started smelling oil, then saw smoke coming from under the hood.  Back in the paddock we discovered an extra hole in the left side of the engine. Game over. I felt bad for myself for a couple of hours, then it dawned on me….. I have a perfectly good TT car sitting in the barn less than 2 hours away!  I ran home, did a quick race prep of the 2010 Camaro, then “raced” back to the track.  I ended up having a great weekend, taking second in my TT class both days, and setting the track record for the class in the second session Saturday morning.  After that, I needed a vacation, so we went to Florida a week later!

Race 5: Sebring International Raceway, June, ChampCar, EC

After 5 days celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary on a Florida barrier island, I was rejuvenated and ready to get back behind the wheel!  We arrived in Sebring on Thursday afternoon, and got acclimated to our hotel before going to supper and a movie. We watched F1 The Movie on opening night in Sebring Florida, and for someone as obsessed with racing as I am, that was pretty cool.  On Friday morning, we made the lengthy journey from our hotel to the track( just kidding, the hotel is located between turn 7 and the entrance to the track) . It took just as long to walk to our car from the room as it did to drive to the paddock.  After re-introductions to the Open Throttle Racing crew (I had previously raced with them in December of 2024 at COTA), it was time to meet my steed for the weekend. Sapphire was a bright green BMW E46 M3, and it looked FASST!  It was also pretty spacious for a race car, with great visibility, and had a very smooth, easy to reach gear shift… I was going to have a FUN weekend!  After getting signed in, it was time for the drivers meeting, which I ended up being a tad late to… shhh, don’t tell anyone! I was getting fitted in the car and used to how the controls were laid out, and where the pertinent gauges were located.  After the driver’s meeting, it was time for a 4 hour practice session. I got strapped in and headed out onto the track to turn my first ever laps in that car and at that track, that feeling is quite a rush!  Unfortunately, after just a couple of laps, I noticed the water temp seemed a little high, but I couldn’t communicate effectively with our car chief over the radio, so had no option other than to go back to the paddock or risk hurting the engine. Turns out, I forgot to turn one of the fans on, DOH!  After going over all the switches again, and making sure the temps dropped, they sent me back out. I got myself into a good rhythm with the track and how the car felt, and was really enjoying myself. Unfortunately, after several laps, the car lost power exiting turn 10, and I was forced back to the paddock. This time, there was an actual problem, and having used up my hour of allotted time, I hopped out of the car with only 8 laps under my belt. The crew got the problem fixed within a half hour, so the other three drivers got plenty of seat time before practice was over. With the race being an overnight race, scheduled from 6pm to 8am, Saturday was spent just trying to get as much rest as possible. We went to the track around 4:30, just in time for an absolute torrential thunderstorm to hit the track!  The race ended up being delayed by 2 hours because of heavy rainfall and lightning, and once it did start, it was still raining steadily.  I got in the car for my first stint around 9:30, and was probably as nervous as I’ve ever been strapping into a car. I had all of 8 laps on the  track and in that car during a perfect afternoon, and now I was heading out into a race, in the dark, AND rain, with a car I’d never driven! You learn real quick how to drive a car in those conditions, not to mention how to get around a new track while managing traffic.  Fortunately, I have a tendency to figure out tracks quickly, and was having a great time in short order.  That stint ended a little after 11, and since my next wasn’t scheduled until between 3 and 4 am, I went back to our rental car and just relaxed for a couple of hours.  My final stint actually started earlier than scheduled, getting into the car a little after 2:30.  I got out between 4:30 and 5, and changed into some clean clothes before watching the rest of the race.  When the checkers finally fell at 8, we came home first place in our class, by 40 laps!  The next day, while driving home from Indianapolis, it suddenly dawned on me….. For the first time ever, I had WON A RACE!!!  I’ve had several podiums, but this was the FIRST time I came in NUMBER 1, what a feeling!!!!!  That turned out to be a great source of motivation to get my own car back up and running before the next NASA event at Mid Ohio in August.

Race 6: Mid Ohio, August, Thunder Roadster GTR

The August NASA event at Mid Ohio would offer one last chance to get some seat time in the Thunder Roadster before the championships in September, as well as the only opportunity I would have to test out the new engine I put in the car after GingerMan.  The engine ran strong in the first practice session, but during my after session checks back in the paddock, I discovered a mess under the hood.  There was oil EVERYWHERE, my first thought, since the engine had to go through a few minor modifications to bring it to GTR spec, was that I didn’t get all the bolts tightened up properly. I put a wrench on every single bolt and a few of them did tighten up a little, so I figured that was the end of it.  WRONG. A few laps into the next practice session, I had the black flag workers check under the hood, and it was leaking just as bad as before.  It would be a problem I chased all weekend, never figuring it out.  I had a few of the other TR drivers look it over, and we all decided that it probably wasn’t leaking very badly, so just run it and keep an eye on the oil level.  The race Saturday got off to an exciting start, I made up a couple of spots on the start, then coming out of a section of the track known as Thunder Valley, the car just snapped sideways and I couldn’t bring it back. I was able to get the clutch pushed in in time so as to not fry my starter, but the car stalled and I was left sitting counter to traffic in the middle of the track with the entire field coming at me on their opening lap.  NOT an ideal place to park a car. I held my breath and saw some magnificent driving displayed by other NASA racers, somehow no one hit me, nor were there any other accidents while avoiding me. Being over a half lap behind the rest of the TR’s, I treated the rest of the race as an extended practice session, and got front row seats to a great ST class battle. It was a good learning experience, but I was ready to attack on Sunday.  That mind set didn’t last long. On the start, I tried to go three wide and make a pass to the inside, but ran out of room and was squeezed off track. By the time I got the car gathered back up and on track, I was in the middle of the Spec E46 group.  I tried to get through during the first lap, but found it difficult to get through all the traffic racing for position. Not wanting to interfere with battles for position, I just found a gap and settled in, again relegated to just getting seat time and learning how to drive the car.  With a couple of laps to go, all at once my brakes got spongy, being well behind any other TR’s, I decided to just park the car instead of fighting through a brake problem and possibly wrecking.  The final race of the weekend saw the same thing happen, my brakes went soft on me with just a couple laps remaining, so I parked the car. Unfortunately, this time I was in the middle of my class actively battling for position, so that made it more disappointing.  Next up was the NASA Championships at OIR in just 2 weeks, not much time to figure out what was wrong with the car and fix it.

NASA Championships: OIR, September, Thunder Roadster GTR

I was looking forward to champs, since I absolutely love Ozarks International Raceway, and have driven there several times.  I was planning on using both practice days to slowly dial in to driving the Roadster on the track and be ready to compete with the rest of the field come Saturday’s qualifying race.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, my oil leak reared it’s ugly head again, but this time I was able to figure out where it was coming from.  I was able to repair it, but the sealant needed 24 hours to cure, so I missed out on the final two practice sessions of the day.  On qualifying day, I ran the morning warmup session, and the leak seemed to be fixed! We had two qualifying sessions scheduled for the afternoon, but the first was wiped out by rain, so the second one would serve as another practice session for me to get into a rhythm with the car before the qualifying race on Saturday.  About halfway through Saturday’s qualifying race, one of my air filters decided to leave the chat, and I had no choice but to park the car, finishing third from last.  My goal for Sunday’s championship race was to just try and stay with the rest of the pack as long as I could, and maybe make up some positions through the 45 minute race.  I was accomplishing that goal fairly well, then we had a full course caution on lap 4 that lasted for 3 laps.  This set up a green, white, checkers restart, and put me right on the bumper of the next car in front of me.  I drove my rear off those last couple of laps, staying right with positions 7 and 8. I set a new personal best on the 2nd to last lap, then got a little crazy on the final lap trying to get close enough to the next two cars to be able to make a move for position later in the lap.  This caused some severe damage to my engine when I hit a curb at the wrong angle, and I had to limp to the finish, getting passed right at the line to finish in 10th place.  Not at all the weekend I envisioned for myself, and it effectively ended my NASA season. I tried valiantly to get a new engine put together from 3 broken ones, which technically I did, BUT I couldn’t get it to start.  It was a VERY frustrating end to my first season racing a Thunder Roadster.  Fortunately, I had one more race on my schedule, another endurance race with Open Throttle, this time at Circuit of The Americas in the WRL.  Then NASA announced where the 2026 championships would be held….. SEBRING!  I was able to switch my race with OTR to now drive for them in a ChampCar race at Sebring at the end of December.

Race 8: Sebring, December, ChampCar, EC

For my final race of 2025, I headed back to sunny, and WARM Florida to Sebring International Raceway. This time for the ChampCar Endurance Series New Year’s Eve 14 hour, held on Sunday the 28th.  With practice being on Saturday, we needed to be in Sebring by Friday, the 26th, the cheapest flight we could find happened to be late afternoon on Christmas Eve. So, for the first time ever, I spent Christmas away from my family, it was strange, BUT, the beach made up for it!  For Friday afternoon’s activity, we found a nearby state park, and spent a couple of hours riding the bike loop and walking a couple of the trails. It was very relaxing, and helped clear my mind in preparation for the weekend's racing.  Saturday saw the combination of driver registration in the morning with practice in the afternoon, which is somewhat unusual for the series as generally you can sign in the evening before practice.  My goals for the practice session were simple: Re-familiarize myself with the track, and get some initial impressions of how the car handles and what it likes. The car I was driving for this race was a 2016 BMW F30, with a turbo 4 cylinder engine and a 7 speed automatic transmission with paddle shift, making it quite different from anything I had driven before on track in race conditions.  After the post practice data review, I felt pretty confident for the race. There was really just one problem I was having, and it was the same in every corner, making it easy to work on.  After supper at a nice steakhouse with a couple of good friends who were also driving for Open Throttle, it was time to get a good night’s rest before the BIG day on Sunday. We had three drivers in our car , so for a 14 hour race that meant each of us got 3 turns in the car, I was second in the order, so my first stint started around 9:30, with my second coming in the middle of the afternoon, around 2:30-3, then the last towards the end of the race, around 8.  After my first stint, I felt GREAT! I had come to terms with how the car drove, and more importantly, with how all the traffic behaved. 100 cars took the green flag, so there was very little time that you weren’t passing another car, being passed, or BOTH. It was exhilarating!  Prior to the race, I had been invited to do an interview on the ChampCar Live YouTube stream, so between my first two stints, I got to check that experience off.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared it would be, and Melanie is going to put her prior experience as a speech & debate coach to good use so I can do a better job in the future.  My second stint was similar to the first, I just ran consistent laps while keeping the car in good shape for the next driver. It was fully dark for my final stint, which, with the amount of cars still running, made for a hectic time in the car. But, again, I just focused on keeping the car clean and trying to run consistent laps, which, despite being a little slower than my two previous stints, I did a good job of.  In the end we brought the car home in 7th place in our class, which was a good result over 14 hours when comparing the performance potential of the other cars in our class, and taking into account a fuel pickup issue that resulted in shorter than anticipated pit stops.  

All in all 2025 was a season full of surprises, both good and bad, along with several exciting firsts!  It would be easy to just look at all the failure’s and say it was a bad year, but when you step back and look at all the new experiences, you have to say it was really a very good year for gaining experience and developing new skills….. Those two things are invaluable in racing!  Still, I hope 2026 is a little more stable, and there’s less mechanical issues that limit track time.  My first race of the season is only 10 days away, so we’ll be back…… SSOON.