buckle-up

When I wrote my final post for 2011 “ Memories? Fuggedaboutit! ”, you could be forgiven if you came away thinking I was about ready to give up on track weekends. After all, we had a dismal run of luck and as much as we prepared for every event, it turned out to be nothing but one frustrating session after another. However, as we really looked under the hood of our wonderful, supercharged Corvette – the C6 Z51 “auto” coupe, the more we came to realize that, perhaps, this wasn’t going to be the car that would allow us to progress any further. While we had tamed it somewhat and pulled horsepower and torque back from earlier levels, even at the altitude where we most often ran, it still wasn’t a satisfying car with which to tackle track days. The picture above? From a tuning day, just as 2011 came to an end. Today, the C6 ‘Vette, or Big Blue, as we fondly refer to it, has undergone a remarkable transformation under the watchful supervision of Curt at Corvette Spa, in nearby Longmo

  . We looked forward to November for a number of reasons. It would be our last Great Adventure of The Year in the RV. Acquired just this year and earmarked to become our home away from home when we returned to California on business and as a hospitality suite on weekends we were at the track, we were certainly taking full advantages of all that it provided – this would be our fourth major excursion to California. Margo has done a tremendous job in turning the RV into an office and a home and over the course of the year we have come to enjoy overnighting in WalMart Supercenter parking lots across the western states. Our adventure called for us to do an early winter crossing of both, the Rockies and the Sierras, and we had been apprehensive about what we might face, but fortune smiled on us and while our drive across Wyoming was windy, as were parts of northern Nevada, the temperatures remained mild and we didn’t encounter a single snowflake. When I had made inquiries about hav

  When you drive into Utah from Colorado you can’t miss the billboard that marks the transition, declaring ever-so-subtly that you are “Leaving Colorful Colorado”. However, on our most recent trip west our destination was Zion National Park, en route to Las Vegas, where we were catching up with Brian and Jan Kenny. For all the years I have been in business Brian has been my mentor, helping me to better understand the finer points of running a business. And did I mention that Brian also drove a red Corvette, likes apple martini’s, and was just as fond as I am of succulent bone-in rib eye steaks, slow cooked country style boneless pork ribs, and together with his wife Jan, finds the time to join us at road courses around the western states of America! The month of October proved to be heavily skewed to travel and it was again the routines associated with travel – the desperate last-minute packing, the stress over plane schedules and the adjustments that had to be made to the loss

 August nights may indeed be hot, but as I observed when closing the previous post, fall is on its way and with the arrival of September we certainly have enjoyed more variety in temperate conditions. And yes, last week, it rained, and heavily at times, but above 10,000 feet there was just a dusting of snow that still could be seen through the weekend. However, we still had one more outing in August and this time, it would be the last Monday of the month – a first for us, as we had never before ventured to the track on days other than Friday, Saturday and occasionally, Sunday. And the picture above is of us at High Plains Raceway (HPR) getting ready to head onto the circuit even as the heat began to make its presence felt. Margo is working very hard on an event she manages for a non-profit association. As the Chief Meetings Officer (within associations, they avoid the title Chief Events Officer for very obvious reasons – the CEO role being otherwise filled), Margo is responsi

With August’s oppressive heat bearing down on us it was good to be able to take the RV to the track. Readers may recall that in my last post I complained bitterly about not having the RV with us, writing about how we had to suck it in and take the 105+ temperatures as best as we could. And this was just two weeks prior to our return for this weekend, early in August. While fortunately the temperature didn’t return to these levels it was still extremely hot, and being able to retreat to the cool, air-conditioned, Pyalla Technologies Track Days command center made the outing enjoyable. The weekend’s activities would be centered on the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) Rocky Mountain Region event and to prepare ourselves we elected to arrive early Friday morning to take advantage of an open lapping day and the picture above is of me, the red Corvette and the RV. The High Plains Raceway (HPR), to the east of Byers, Colorado, has now become our “home circuit” that both Margo and

What began several months ago as a possible side-excursion in Las Vegas, while we waited for a Computer trade show to start, took on a life of its own in the lead-up to the event. We had been considering renting a couple of modern-era supercars from “Exotics Racing – the ultimate driving experience”. The more we looked through their garage of cars, and before we finalized the deal (Margo had already decided on the Aston Martin V8 Vantage and the Porsche 997 Turbo S while I had gone down a different route choosing instead the close relatives, the Audi R8 V10 and the Lamborghini Gallardo), the more we thought that this might also appeal to our good friends from Simi Valley, California, Brian and Jan. However, during the time that they visited us, to help us come to terms with our new RV, they purchased an Aston Martin of their own. In the post of May 22, 2012, “ Three weeks to remember ... ” I developed a story line around this momentous occasion, including how over the course of t