Last event

Well, we did the skid pad yesterday and it didn't go well.  Car overheated again and we finished 50th.  That tumbled us down 3 spots to a 5th in class and 35th overall.  Without car problems we should have been approx. another 5 spots.  Car will be going to service this week to try and get if figured out.  Overall I am happy with the finish.  We moved up 8 spots from last year and I continue to learn the cars limits, weaknesses, and strengths.  Already we are excited for next year as we continue to make more friends and keep old ones.  It is the craziest/toughest event I can think of doing, yet look forward to it each year.  Thanks again to my family and friends for the support, and a huge thanks to all of the sponsors and people that donated money in Elizabeth's honoe for Blank Pediatric Therapy.  We are up to approximately $5,000 now!!!  The kids at Blank are going to have a lot more devices to use that they wouldn't have had because of the generosity of our sponsors and individuals that bought stars.  Thank you so much.

Pittsburg Perfect

Things went well at Pittsburg.  Track was short and it was cool so we didn't over heat.  The track was damp on the morning run so I took it easy, but I guess not as easy as other teams and I finished 23rd which is amazing.  The car was sliding around every corner but seemed easy to control.  Afternoon I was 14 seconds quicker as the track was now dry, but finished 28th---weird.  Anyway, we are now in South Bend and going to do the dry skid pad today.  We are in 33rd place overall and 5th in class.  Our 5th is set in stone, but overall it looks like we could possibly move up another position or two with a good run.  I am ecstatic we will finish at least 10 spots better than last year, but can't help but wonder what we would have finished if we didn't have car problems.  I will update on the road later after the awards ceremony.

More overheating

Jag overheated again today on 3rd run of the day on the last lap half way around.  It cost us dearly.  I was catching the excellent driver in the Aston Martin and boom---limp home mode.  It's hard not to think where would be now points wise if that hadn't happened----I am quite disappointed.  We also had a big crash today in the OLOA with the Mercedes Benz SLS AMG.  I could be wrong, but I believe they are out now.  We are sitting in 5th place in our class and 33rd overall.  Hoping tomorrow the Jag can give us two more sessions so we could possibly move up into the 20's, although we were 43rd last year and are still doing quite well this year.  We are on our way to Pittsburgh now and are supposed to arrive about 10:30 tonight.  Hello to everyone.

Doing well---Jaguar and Markjon

Today we are Virginia International Raceway---wow!  Beautiful topography, track, facilities, and weather.  Today is 3 races on 3 different tracks---North/South/Full track.  North I placed 29th and South I placed 30th.  In about 45 minutes they will combine the two to make a 4+ miler track.  So far we are not having any overheating problems on the track, but as soon as we pit it goes into limp mode.  This is fine with me as long as it doesn't happen on the track.  This afternoon there is a straight away longer than a mile, which means another good finish for Team Bad Credit and a very high top speed.  Neither of us slept well last night, but I'm doing well and Steve is shot and a liitle grouchy.  I am going to give him some quiet time and he'll be fine.  I'll update again this afternoon once we're in the car and comfortable.  We head to Pittsburgh tonight.  We are still doing well mentally and physically overall.

Still good on points

Well we are at the hotel and I am calming down.  We lost a couple of positions overall thanks to the overheating, but I'm really hoping it fixes itself before tomorrow.  I have never raced at Virginia International Raceway, but everyone says its amazing.  I still can't believe all the tracks I have now raced at in the USA in the last 3 years---it's amazing.  Tomorrow is a normal day---race in the morning and race in the afternoon with a transit drive to Pittsburgh.  Besides our car issue today things are still going well.  Of course I am doing my best and am very competitive---but also know there are better cars here, better drivers here, and people with more experience.  I do know that no one is as good looking as me---so in that way I win.  Blog you tomorrow so I can get a little sleep.

Good news/Bad news

First the good news---I did well at Carolina Motorsports Park.  Morning session I finished 29th and afternoon session I think I remember I finished 30th.  Quite good and I like the track a lot.  An hour ago we left BMW Performance Center and that was a train wreck.  The Jaguar overheated after one lap and it went into limp home mode.  I was smart and kept going so I still got points, but we finished 2nd to last.  If you don't already know the car runs on 4 cylinders to save itself.  I waived everyone by, but as you can imagine I was pissed and it happened at BMW (I'll just leave it at that).  BMW was very gracious and gave us a box dinner and drinks.  There were also hundreds of people there watching which made it fun as well---of course until the Jag got hot.  We are headed to Virginia now and the car is running fine, it's also a beautiful drive.  Those of you that know me well know I don't like things that don't work perfectly----I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THE JAG RIGHT NOW.  It better be good to me tomorrow at VIR.  We only have about 145 miles left  to get to the hotel for tonight.  Plus, I have a little head ache from how mad I got.  I'm Looking forward to getting cleaned up and laying down tonight.  Thanks for checking in.

BIG CRASH---not us.

We just had 5 minutes ago our first big crash (we have had several minor ones).  An EVO lost it in a kink and just went through a tire wall.  Crews are with him now, and he is o.k.  It happens to be the car that is parked right next to us today, so we'll no all about it when it gets towed back.  It certainly seems their week is over---big damage.  We are in line to go two groups after they get the pieces picked up.  It's a perfect day weather wise here at Carolina Motorsports Park.

Daytona afternoon session

It's almost 9 pm eastern and we are somewhere in SC.  Nav says arrival time of 9:54---we are still doing great and really moving right now.  Second session today at Daytona was 3 seconds faster than the morning session and only went 165 mph.  It sure shows what changing your braking zones and changing your line a bit can do.  We moved up a couple more spots and are quite happy about it.  Tomorrow we race at two venues.  First track is Carolina Motorsports Park.  This is a nice track plus I have already been there and know the layout which is always a big help.  We have a morning and afternoon race and then drive to Spartenburg to race on BMW's test track.  We have also already raced here as well (two years ago in OLOA) so should do well.  By the way the coolest new App you need is called WAZE---check it out.  We are having a blast with it.  Many people on OLOA are on it and it can really save your butt.  We are looking to a little extra sleep tonight.  Car is still a hammer on the big tracks.  Dave you are crazy if you don't start doing this event!  Have a good night everyone.

Daytona/Daytona

I am currently sitting in garage stall 48 at Daytona International Speedway.  Even if you don't like racing you can't help but feel the history.  I just had my fastest top speed ever---171!!!  I thought this car had a governor at 155, but thankfully it doesn't.  It was still pulling well when I had to break just after the start/finish line to go on the inside track (remember we are doing both the inside and outside track from the Grand Am/Rolex series).  We just finished 23rd overall and moved up 9 spots overall---today is a good day.  We should move up several more spots this afternoons session.  Weather is perfect and had a good lunch right next to the winner's circle.  We also got to walk the track this morning.  You can't imagine what it feels like to walk on or drive on 31 degree banking.  Car is performing beautifully and still having fun hanging out with Steve.  Tonight we drive to Kershaw South Carolina, I think it's about 450 miles which isn't too bad.  Have to go now Steve is doing parade laps around the track now.

Much Better

Much better today just like I predicted.  NOLA Motorsports park in New Orleans is beautiful unlike the rest of  New Orleans we saw.  State of the art facilility and track.  It's about 2 3/4 miles long with an 8/10ths mile long straight (141 mph).  We finished our best positions today which gave us a lot more points, but didn't move us up overall.  We are within 40 points of moving up 7 spots.  Tomorrow will be another great day for Team Bad Credit at Daytona International Raceway.  We will easily top the car out going around the track and again have a great day points wise.  We are currently in a pack of about 5 cars running at 90.  We have passed many, many police but they are just letting us go----it's awesome and Steve is just killing this transit drive right now.  We should be in by midnight tonight at this pace including the time change.  Today is easily the longest drive at 650 miles.  The XKR couldn't be better on these drives and has given us 0 problems so far, and we don't expect any---I think it likes this.  We enjoy the stops for fuel or food and the people that want to take pictures of us and the car.  Weather was flawless today and tomorrow looks perfect as well.  We are still really enjoying ourselves and are fortunate to be able to do this.  As Steve says its a once in a life time opportunity we get to do every year together.  This is a crazy event and I love touching Elizabeth's name above my door before each race.  Hello to friends and family.

A little better

We are doing a little better.  Today we did two events at Talledega Grand Prix Raceway.  We did much better than day one.  Still not what I want, but we did move up 7 spots.  It was supposed to rain all day, but it was perfect for the first two events at the road course.  We did just get rained out of our drag race event about 30 minutes ago, so we are already on the road to New Orleans.  Nav says we should be there about 8:30 tonight which is a gift in this event.  We will stop around 6 and have a good meal which will feel good.  Tomorrow is another road course and from what I heard is another fast track which should help us move up a little more.  Yesterday we literally drove in rain all but 100 miles, but we're lucky again to have it stop for the road courses today.  I really wish the drag races would have happened because the Jaguar is very consistent and at last years drag event we finished 2nd which was great for our overall points.  Hello to everyone and thanks for following us.

NOT HAPPY

We are now south if Indianapolis.  Overcast and 63.  I am not happy for obvious reasons.  First two events are just not good for the big Jag.  As you can see we are getting our butt kicked.  Steve has 120 miles before we need fuel and will switch drivers at that point.  I am making no excuses right now, and I have sucked.  Starting tomorrow the tracks get larger and I can let the Jag stretch it's legs.  This isn't too long because I am not in a good mood regarding our position.

The sponsors are on and we're ready yo go.

We got out of Tech a few ours ago.  Of course all is well with the Jag, we had all paperwork in, and signed much more.  The event starts tomorrow at the wet skid pad, and as soon as we are finished there we head south 82 miles to our 2nd event of the day at Grissom Air Force Base.  It will be a very large AutoCross course that we run 3x.  We then get to keep the best time and points are given based on that time.  After Grissom we have a horrible drive south of about 600 miles!  Hopefully our adrenaline will keep us going for the first big day.  We have Hankook brand tires on our car and today the Handcook rep stopped by and gave us a bag full of goodies and a $200 AMEX CARD for anything during the event---awesome!  We are going to our favorite Chinese restaurant tonight and try to get a good night sleep before the start of the craziest thing we do each year.  We'll do more updates tomorrow.  Thanks again for following us.

2013 OLOA WE ARE HERE!

We are in South Bend!  Not an exotic place to be, but where the start of OLOA is.  We left town a few hours early today due to the weather in Des Moines.  We got out of town while the roads were just wet.  Just imagine a 510 HP car on summer tires in snow----not good.  It was a great decision to leave early.  A big hello to everyone at Blank Children's Hospital/Methodist Hospital/Willis Auto Campus/The Morning Club/Schneider Graphics/Family and Friends.  Thanks to you we have raised approx. $3,500 so far for Blank Pediatric Therapy in memory of my daughter Elizabeth.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!  Tomorrow is what is called Tech.  We check in late morning, we then get all of our ads to put on the car for the race and a huge packet of directions for the 8 day event that starts first thing Saturday morning.  We are obviously very excited to get going.  One thing we are extremely happy about is our car number which is 25.  That means nothing to anyone else reading this, but it's Brock Yates best guess at where we will finish this years event.  That is our lowest number yet and shows us his confidence in our driving after 2 previous years in this event.  Remember this is a Pros vs. Joes event.  It's also the approximate running order for each race.  This means the quicker you race the quicker you can leave---we like that a lot.  There is some amazing talent at this event.  Our goal is to finish anywhere under 30th spot.  That would be an exceptional finish for us and 13 spots better than last year.  We will give another update tomorrow night after we get this years paper work/pass tech/get the rules and info. for this years OLOA.  Again, thanks to everyone for their support.