Sorry for the delay in a blog update, but better late than never... I am still on a “high” from Road Atlanta. What a Track!!!! Having never been there before, I didn’t know what to expect. I had watched many ALMS races from there on TV, but TV doesn’t begin to do this place justice. The rolling hills, and blind crests really get your attention initially, but once you know where the track goes, they all become, well, FUN! I don’t remember the last time I had this much fun driving a track!!! Of course, the weekend was much more low pressure than the typical GRAND-AM weekend, but I still felt the need to look at data, and learn as quickly as I could, as most of my competition had been here before. I did exactly that, and was almost perfect on the weekend, qualifying first, and winning both sprint races. I did have a bit of a lapse late in the enduro, and put a wheel off track in about the worst place possible. I made the quick decision to save the car, and most likely myself and beached it. It was the right solution to my only mistake of the weekend. Overall, the Cayman Interseries cars are excellent, much like a “baby” 996 cup car. Very well balanced, and from what I’ve seen so far, extremely reliable, requiring only general maintenance between sessions. The guys at Napleton Porsche, did a great job making everything seem to flow along without a hitch, even when needing to extract 50lbs. of gravel from a car between an enduro and a sprint race...oops. The other Interseries drivers were all extremely nice, and fun to hang out with as well. It was a very fun weekend, and Im looking forward to the upcoming weekend at Road America!!

Yes, I said Road America!!! Elkhart Lake, WI, Siebkens, The KINK, Johnsonville Brats, Corn on the Cob, Siebkens, Siebkens, Siebkens... I LOVE this place!! Im so excited as I write this, I can hardly contain myself! (well, part of the excitement is the HAWKS, but more of that later). Later today, Im going to drive the short 2 hours to my favorite track, and track town, in the country. Its been a while since I’ve been to Road America, my last time there was June of 2008, when I won the GT2 class in the SCCA National June Sprints. Thats a fond memory for me, as it is the most prestigious win I’ve ever had, and my family and friends were there to share it with me. It was also the last non pro-level race I had done before Road Atlanta 2 weeks ago. The first time I was ever at Road America was a LONG time ago (Im guessing 1989) to watch a CART race with the Newman Haas team, and I had breakfast with the Andrettis (Mario and Michael) at a patio table just outside their bus..what an experience that was. I’ve spent many weekends in Elkhart Lake away from the track as well, as one of my very good friends from high school is from the area, and has a house here. I drove the track for the first time shortly after my “breakfast with Mario”...and then about 2 times a year for 10 years in a variety of street cars. This track is so fast, that when I started to really “get it” I was going way to fast to be in a street car , and it precipitated the first race car. Yep, the first time I was ever in a proper race car on track, it was here. Road America has a special place in my heart, and the 2 hours to get here really doesn’t hurt that!!!

Ok, on to my other passion....The Blackhawks are in the Western Conference Finals for the second year in a row!!! This year, we’re going to need to knock off the Sharks to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals. I’m pretty confident we can do it, but it IS Hockey, and anyone can win on a given night in this game. The series will probably start sometime this weekend, which will make my playoff beard go for a minimum of another couple weeks. This thing is getting itchy, and its a bit of a pain inside the helmet, but with the way the Hawks are playing, I’m not shaving it anytime soon!!!

I’ll give updates throughout the weekend via twitter and facebook, and will post any news / press releases on the news page here!! Thanks for reading!!

-Steve