Racing in Topeka
This week I'm out racing in Topeka at the SCCA ProSolo Finale and Solo2 National Championships. I was able to just fly in and drive, because some nice folks from Texas are allowing me the use of their cars. The ProSolo Finale finished yesterday. I drove an MR2 Spyder, which I had no relevant previous experience driving. Saturday night I was sitting in last place due to hitting pylons. Fortunately, the results are not cumulative, but are based on your best time through each of the two courses. On Sunday everyone got two attempts at each course, and I was able to turn times good enough for 3rd place in the C Stock field of thirteen drivers. That finish was also good enough to put me in third place in the year-end standings!
Today is a break before the Solo2 Nationals start, so I will do laundry, walk the courses, buy snacks and Gatorade, and otherwise get my act together for the competition on Tuesday and Wednesday. For the Nationals, I wil be driving a Miata that's just like mine excet for a significantly different suspension setup. It should be fun!
More generally, I am still living in Sunnyvale, California, and working at National Semiconductor. Ellen has found a great job in Baltimore, so we have been flying back and forth across the country and looking for a job in Baltimore that I'd like to do.
Update: On Tuesday it started raining right at the start of my first run, then I was a cone-head on Wednesday and couldn't complete a run without bopping a pylon. A disgraceful performance compared to the ProSolo, but I had fun doing it. The photo above is from my last run on Tuesday.
posted by John S. at 12:26 PM
4 Comments:
Seriously cool picture. Are the traffic cones supposed to be rolling around like that? Do they represent schoolchildren, like they do for the CDL test.
The cones that start standing up represent a 2 second penalty. Cones lying on their sides indicate which direction to go. Sadly, I can't find any photos in which I've sent cones flying in all directions. That's because it never happens, of course!
I've just finished reading Janet Guthrie's autobiography - she got her start in autocross, in a $1200 Jaguar, and did "hill climbs," which she said you don't really see anymore because they're too dangerous.
She was almost 40 when she got her first ride at Indy and Charlotte. Should we look forward to bigger (and faster) things for you?
Getting into pro racing takes money. You have to finance your own race team until you are "discovered", and that's very expensive. Maybe once I win a national championship in autocross, I will want a bigger challenge.
But right now I'm just not that interested in the on-track wheel to wheel stuff.
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