This post is about my LAST YEAR’s resolution (yeah, I know I’m a little late in posting this). I don’t think I’ve ever made a New Year’s resolution until this past year. First a little background. Back in the early 90’s I bought an ’86 Mustang GT with a 5 speed. It was a great car and before too long I started doing track days with it. This was back in NY and the track was Bridgehampton; a very cool track that the Trans-Am guys ran back in the day. Well, after doing a couple of seasons of track days I got more and more interested in racing and in ’95 I went to the Bondurant racing school in Arizona. I did their 4 day grand prix road racing course. The first 2 days were in a fox Mustang and the last 2 days were in a Formula Ford. I got hooked on the formula car and ended up buying one and racing it for a few years. Racing the FF was tough and I had a lot of ups and downs (mostly downs). After 3 races I crashed it into a guy that spun in front of me. Spent the next year rebuilding it and then brought it out to California when I moved here in ’97. Raced a couple more seasons with the SCCA and finally hung it up when I lost a timing chain in 2000. For all kinds of reasons I drifted away from the track for the next 10 years.
That brings us to this past New Years. I’m not sure how it happened but I finally realized I needed to get my ass back on track! In a flash it came to me. My New’s Years Resolution was “AT LEAST ONE ON-TRACK DRIVING EVENT EACH MONTH FROM MARCH TO OCTOBER”. Put more succinctly, “DRIVE 2010!”. Well I did it and it’s been a GREAT year. I got a 2003 Z06 and did 3 track days in March, April and May. That got me back into the groove but things really got fun when I switched over to my 1973 AMC Javelin. My 4th track event this year was a weekend at Buttonwillow in June. It was the first time I ever had the Javelin on a road course. The effect was instantaneous. I was like “this is what I was meant to do” 🙂 hahaha… After that I’ve continued to track the Javelin and haven’t run the Z06 since. Things quickly progressed to where I’m now building a ’74 Javelin to race next year in NASA’s American Iron class. My resolution for next year…. “RACE 2011!”.
Just wanted to share and say if you haven’t taken your car on track you should really consider it. It’s been the most fun I’ve had with my Javelin in the 18 years I’ve owned it! So get out there and tear it up!
Here’s a recap of this years fun:
Mar. 12 with Hooked on Driving in the Z06 at Thunderhill. First time on track in 10 years. It rained all day.
Mar. 15 just 2 days later I’m back at Thunderhill in the Javelin. Rented the skid pad to shake down the Javelin.
Apr. 16, Z06, Hooked on Driving, Thunderhill again.
May 12 with Your Private Track Day. Z06 and Thunderhill.
Jun 5/6 with NCRC at Buttonwillow in the Javelin! A life changing weekend 🙂
Jul 9 with TEAM at Thunderhill in the Javelin.
Aug 9 with Your Private Track Day at Infineon in the Javelin.
Aug 21/22 with NASA at Thunderhill in the Javelin. Full track open passing! 🙂
Sep – actually skipped Sept. since I did 3 days in August 🙂
Nov 1 with NCRC at Laguna Seca in the Javelin.
So that was the year. 10 track days! I’d say the resolution was achieved.