When I’m not busy working on music, I occasionally take my Miata out to the racetrack. Here’s some of the laps from my June 2010 race at Buttonwillow Raceway. Out of 17 cars, I started 13th and finished 11th. Not too bad for a terrible race car driver!

More on my illustrious racing career here!

This is the first time I’ve had contact on a race track. Someone up front missed a shift and we all bunched up. I tried to get the car stopped but didn’t really have anywhere to go. Neck is sore, car has a bent frame (in front of the front suspension). After spending some time removing some bent brackets and broken plastic bits, it does look like it will live to see another race day.

Holy shit I am tired. That was one totally packed weekend of racing in the Willow Springs heat! I ran in two classes (Spec Miata and ITA) which means there was virtually no downtime—I was either in the car on the track or preparing the car for the track. I did manage to get to the track early enough to realize that the desert is quite beautiful in the morning. Though after it hits 100° I start to forget about how beautiful I thought it was.

Surprisingly I managed to earn myself four podium finishes! Saturday: Finished 3rd in the Spec Miata race. Finished 3rd in the ITA race. Sunday: Again finished 3rd in the Spec Miata race. Again finished 3rd in the ITA race. So the 3rd place Spec Miata finishes weren’t much of an accomplishment… in addition to finishing 3rd I was also 2nd to last. That’s what I get in a 4 car field. But the ITA races were a battle between 8 cars, so I’m pretty happy with my 3rd place finishes there.

With so few cars at this event the in-car videos aren’t exactly that interesting… I had one or two lap battles with a few cars and then was pretty much on my own for the rest of the races. So I won’t post any full races but here are some highlights. Luckily no spins but no record lap times either.

Holy shit, I’m finally going to be able to once again terrorize other race car drivers. I was out of commission for a few months. Motor was dead, now I’ve got a fresh one. Rear differential sucked ass, now I have a better one. This terrible race car driver will be out at Willow Springs raceway with my Spec Miata next weekend. If you want to witness this rookie’s sorry attempt at “racing”, come out on September 25th and/or 26th. Races will be held throughout the day. I’ll be racing Spec Miata and ITA. Spec Miata races are at 1pm, ITA at 2pm. Come on out, have a beer and watch the races.

Willow Springs Raceway
3500 75th St W, Rosamond, CA

Spec Miata Races – Sat 9/25 and Sun 9/26 – 1:00PM
ITA Races – Sat 9/25 and Sun 9/26 – 2:00PM

Map:

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Just washed the car to get ready for the race weekend. Though I’ll will likely go off track within a few minutes of arriving and dirty the thing up again. At least it looks all pretty now.

So I’m pretty lucky to be able to go racing (in my spec miata) every once in a while. I’m not that great at it but it’s one of the most fun things I’ve ever done.

This particular video is a couple months old… it’s of my race at Buttonwillow Raceway back in April. My first race on a real racing license, not just a rookie permit. I spun out during the qualifying race so I got the pleasure of starting 2nd from last. My motor was on it’s last legs so I don’t have a ton of power, but was able to move up a several spots throughout the race.

Biggest bummer was my last lap spin, nearly got slammed into by the orange car (missed me by a few inches) and I ended up losing 3 positions in about 5 seconds. Overall an incredible amount of fun, but sucks to make a big mistake on the last lap.

Note to self: stick to songwriting

Here are the last two quite eventful laps of the Sunday race at California Speedway. Started 19th out of 25 cars, finished 15th!

So I’m out here at California Speedway in lovely Fontana, CA this weekend. We’re running the 2.8 mile, 21 turn course which utilizes about 1/2 of the speedway oval. Top speed for me was about 121mph with a draft, could probably almost hit 130mph with a better driver and a better prepared car.

Today I qualified 23rd out of 27 cars (whoo hoo, not last!) and I think I managed to finish 19th. Had fun bump drafting and battling with Brandon Johnson, who managed to stay in front of me for most of the race even with a bad clutch, but I was able to finally get around him on the last lap. Today was the first day I’ve ever bump drafted, here are a couple highlights below. I guess I’m no longer a bump drafting virgin.

I was the first to arrive in the garage on Thursday night, so I got a few nice shots of my car:

So it’s been a while (6 months) since I’ve been on a race track. And I’m still on my rookie license. So I was quite surprised when I didn’t qualify dead last for my recent race at Willow Springs Raceway. I started 15th out of 22 cars and managed to finish 15th. I lost 5th gear the day before but I still managed to do okay with only 4 gears. Here are a few laps from the race.

And here are a few photos:

So my first spec miata race was this past Sunday at Buttonwillow Raceway. I’m happy to say that I finished the race without any major incidents! Started 15th, I think I finished 13th. Not bad since my main goals were to 1. not crash, 2. finish the race, and 3. not finish last! I think the best lap time I could manage was a 2:11, which was about 4 seconds off the leaders pace. Looking forward to the next race and picking up my lap times a bit.

Here are the first couple laps:

And a few photos:

When I’m not writing music, and sometimes when I should be writing music, I’m driving too fast on Southern California race tracks. I just got started with racing, and am not very good. But it is fun and I enjoy learning how to drive faster, it’s a much different brain activity than writing/recording/performing music which is cool. Here’s a video of me attempting to tear it up at California Speedway. My little Mazda doesn’t have a ton of power but it was still fun to get up to 120mph on the oval.

A couple weeks back I went to the SCCA (sports car club of america) racing school at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, CA. Spent 2 days driving in circles (well not exactly circles but at the end of the 2nd day it felt like that). I guess I didn’t drive too poorly because I did in fact get my racing license. I think my first race will be at Buttonwillow Raceway in May. I’ll post here and let y’all know how great I did. Until then, here’s a video of me chasing a Corvette in my little tiny 110 horsepower Mazda.

So this is pretty much like one of those things that I never thought I would ever be able to do. Or if I did, I would be 70 years old and too feeble to drive. I saved up a bunch of bucks and bought a racecar. It’s a Spec Miata, one of the cheapest ways to get into racing, but even so one of the most fun. I can’t wait to get this thing out to the racetrack!

Just in case this whole indie rock internet recording artist thing doesn’t work out, I joined the Sports Car Club of America– a baby step towards an illustrious auto racing career. So, no, I don’t really own a race car, yet. But I have big plans. Or, maybe just plans.

I got hooked on the whole driving fast thing back in high school, and got just as quickly unhooked when my friend Bill (in his ’88 1/2 Ford Escort) attempted to pass our friend George (in his ancient VW Rabbit) across a double yellow line (with me in the passenger seat) and proceeded to collide into a tree twice as wide as the car. It was a few months of us driving incredibly stupid on the back roads of Western Massachusetts but those days are long gone.

After quite a few years, I finally got the opportunity to legally drive at insane speeds at a Willow Springs raceway driving school back in May. And needless to say I got hooked, and it really sucks because racing cars is not cheap. I won’t be selling my Casio DG-10 digital guitar anytime soon, but maybe I will try to unload a few State Shirt shirts to fund this stupid endeavor.