Finally got all the schedule figured out for this year and REALLY looking forward to getting the car back on track! Now that February is here its time to get the car ready (hope that gas that has been in there since August didn’t gum crap up) and need to get the new front wing and a-arm on the car. More as that unfolds here. I am going to be committed to updating this page at least twice a week from here until the season ends folks so keep checking back. 
2009 Trackpedia Racing F1000 Schedule
3/28/2009 - St. Louis Gateway National - With Billy
5/2/2009 - HPT Double National
5/16/2009 - Blackhawk Farms National
5/31/2009 - Mid-America America National - With Billy
6/19/2009 - June Sprints Road America
7/24/2009 - Cat National
8/16/2009 - Mid-America National - With Billy
8/29/2009 - Kettle Moraine National
Should be a hell of busy year. As always I am sure I won’t make all the races with my travels for work and other junk but one can only hope.
Cars, F1000, Racing, SCCA Club Racing, Stohr
F1000, Gateway, Heartland Park, Mid America, Road America, SCCA, Stohr
Here are some of the videos from last summer posted on Youtube (I plan on using vimeo in the future just because its a little clearer for all the videos that I have seen) so you can check out what my first year of learning was like in the F1000. These are videos from the June Sprints and from the Cat National at Road America in June/July 2008. I’ll add an Autobahn video when I get a chance here to get it uploaded over the next few days.
Cat National
June Sprints
Cars, F1000, Racing, SCCA Club Racing, Stohr
F1000, in car video, June Sprints, Road America, Stohr
So since I promised updates on all the races over the summer I figured I would go in order starting with the biggest event of the year the June Sprints at Road America and shoot through August before I get to the winter projects and other miscellaneous ramblings over the winter here. 
So here we go recapping of one of the first times out running the F1000 after a ton of work from the guys helping me get it together.
First and foremost I gotta thank my friends and family for busting their asses all weekend with me chasing the car all over Wisconsin trying to get it close to working the way I wanted it too (finally figured out something by the race and actually had grip!) and all the FB guys I talked to for being awesome and helpful as all hell and most importantly coming out. A HUGE thanks to Jeff Dinges for helping me sort and work through issues with my car that I was battling all weekend dealing with temps in my car following the same path as Mike B’s as well as figuring out how to get the car balanced aero wise as it was tricky for a newbie and his team. Overall as i was heading to impound I was thinking “damn the weekend after the race felt not to shabby for the sixth race of the career and whopping second in the car.” Whole weekend was a fricking blast and really what racing is all about.
But the bad news is that both Kyle and I got bumped down to 5th and 6th respectively (behind all running cars at the end of the race) for having our rear wings be 4mm to wide. Yep thats right 4mm to wide. 95.4cm versus 95cm per the GCR. It was a kick in the nuts to end a hard weekend that had turned around massively and finally during the race. We had to sit in impound for fricking 2 hours waiting for a decision and that sort of drove the thorn deeper into my side as most of us had long tows home and needed to get on the road. After two hours we got informed we could pay a nice 100 dollars to appeal the decision (how the f can I possibly want to pay 100 bucks to argue with the fact that 95.4 > 95) and then go on to the SOM and appeal a crap ton of more times. What pisses me off most is that according to my crew they measured the wings after quali one and didn’t say a fricking word to us about it. It sure as **** didn’t change size in the time between then and the race for btoh Kyle and I. In the end both Kyle and I just accepted it and moved on. Hopefully karma returns the favor to us.
Thanks guys for all coming out and making the sprints a lot of fun. I know we all didnt have much time for hanging out and BSing but next year when we all have our cars sorted and are whipping up on the Atlantics like Coop and Kyle were we’ll look back and laugh.
More pictures here http://picasaweb.google.com/scca.june.sprints.2008.b/RoadAmericaSCCAJuneSprints2008
Me in the Stohr F1000 at Road America Turn 13 - 2008 June Sprints
Cars, F1000, Racing, Stohr
F1000, June Sprints, Road America, SCCA, Stohr
God what have I been doing since I last posted. Well my time can be broken down into three main areas. One is work…this summer has probably been the most intensive year I have spent working at IBM. I have enjoyed it all, as always however still playing the lottery, but it was a lot of work! My second main area of time spent was figuring out what the hell car to buy and race next. Let’s just say this area will be touched upon in my next post. My last area of time spent was on the track baby!!
First we started off at Road America for the PCA HPDE event where my buddy Rob and I shared driving his brand new 1987 Porsche 924. While she had been prepped with a cage and stripped interior that was about all she had. We liked to call her the leaning tower of Rochester as we pushed her around one of the greatest tracks in North America. Overall the 2-day event was a blast and it was great to get back in the car.
A little picture of the 924 leaning tower.
Rob Wisniewski's Porsche 924 SP1 chasing Billy Newports SP1 at Road America
Next up was a combined Skip Barber lapping day at Road America followed by a one day PCA HPDE event at Blackhawk Farms once again in the now newly race ready 924 of Rob complete with a full suspension setup, corner balance and real 7 inch wide phone dial wheels instead of the 6 inch ones she was rolling on before. First up was the Skippy Lapping day. Personally the lapping day to me was a bust…yeah it was fun to get the instruction but jesus we only probably got max an hour of track time for nearly 1k. Hindsight being 20/20 I would have just held off and done the 2-day school (which I plan to do this spring if the cash tree in my back yard grows). The PCA event at Blackhawk was a lot of fun as well but the weather sucked. We met up with Mark Repka in the morning after driving down from Milwaukee and that’s when the clouds opened up. It rained pretty much the whole day and learning a new track in the wet was a royal pain. It sucked even worse to not get to test out the new suspension that we invested so much time (not to mention eBay profits from our dead Porsche 914 project) in. But at least I have some knowledge of the track for racing down there next year.
With these days out of the way it was on to Road America for the SCCA Chicago Regions Kettle Moraine Double Regional Race which was going to let me keep my racing license. Once again I was behind the wheel of Rob’s 924 SP1 completely outmatched in ITS with my 135 rear wheel horse power versus the 200+ in some other ITS cars. More to come in my next update…
Cars, Porsche SP1, Racing, Racing School, SCCA Club Racing
Blackhawk Farms, Porsche SP1, Road America, SCCA, Skip Barber
Well just typed up a nice big long entry and what happened…of course it disappeared when I tried to post it. Mother F*cking software.
Anyway now a much shorter entry on my race schedule this year
May 19/20 - Mid America Motorplex - Midwest Division Regional/National
July 7/8 - Blackhawk Farms - Central Division Double Regional
Aug 24/25 - Road America - Central Division Double Regional
Sept 8/9 - Brainerd International Raceway - Central Division Double Regional
Sept 29/30 - Milwaukee Mile - Central Division Double Regional
I am going to do a Skippy lead/follow as well during June I believe so hopefully that will get me a little more comfortable at Road America as I really would love to get more seat time there and what better way than with a instructor following your ass.
Update on the car is that its at home and will hopefully be running by this coming weekend. I have fuel lines and wiring yet to do but I can’t see it taking much more than a few nights to get that done. Then its time to hit the starter button and crank it over for the first time…man oh man if she starts the first time I will crap myself!
Racing, Racing School, SCCA Club Racing
Blackhawk Farms, Brainerd, Mid America, Racing Schedule, Road America, Skip Barber