Entries in Onboard (31)

Monday
Jun302014

My first Wheel to Wheel battle!

This past weekend was a tremendous one at Thompson Speedway in Connecticut. The circuit was originally a road course used in SCCA races in the 1950s, but in more recent times a small NASCAR oval was the primary track in use.  The owners of the circuit decided it was time to bring road racing back to Thompson Speedway, so they built an all new track with certain sections of the oval and also of the original road course.  To tie back to the history of the place, they invited the VSCCA and VRG to run at their official grand opening! The track is very challenging with some extremely tight corners and a lot of off camber exits making it very slippery.  There is one long straight with a tight 2nd gear corner at the end. The rest of the corners are quite technical.

At this race, I was able to hang with the other Giuliettas and MGAs and finished a 5th overall in Sunday's main race.  Here is an 8 minute snippet of the race where I had a hammer and tongs battle with two MGA's.  I was fairly sure I could have caught the white car eventually, but my brakes seem to have overheated (we need to still figure out what actually happened) and I didn't have enough stopping power to make the corner, opting for the escape road toward the end of the race. I managed to rejoin, losing 1 position.  Overall, it was disappointing to go off, but I was really happy with the driving I did and all 3 of us got together and had a good laugh afterwards and patted ourselves on the back for such a close, clean race.

Thursday
May152014

The Automobiliac goes racing at last!

After dreaming of being a vintage racer since age 11 or so, I finally have managed, at 33, to live that dream!  I will be posting more photos of the car in the near future, but for now please enjoy my best lap from my inaugural VSCCA race at Lime Rock Park!

I know there is much work to be done to get my lap time from the low 1:12s into the 1:09 territory, but hopefully as I learn the car more and more I will be getting closer and closer to the limit.

 

Wednesday
Oct162013

Brian Redman shows us the Targa Florio in a 914-6

Just found this great period footage of Brian Redman giving a practice tour of the Targa Florio in 1970. You have to love the way he threads his way through the village traffic.

 

Wednesday
Sep112013

Porsche 918 Spyder breaks the lap record at the Ring!

There is a lot of exciting auto news from Frankfurt this week, including the sensational BMW i8 launch. But this video of the new production car record lap at the ring really brings home just how far road cars have come in 30 years. This kind of performance is basically at Formula 1 car levels of the 1980s. And this is a beautiful car (admittedly an expensive one) that anyone can just go out and buy! It really boggles the mind. Kudos to Porsche and also to Mark Lieb, who offers a master class in clean, precise driving here.

Wednesday
Sep042013

Giulietta Dog Fight at Lime Rock vol. 2

Our intrepid mechanic and friend Santo Spadaro posted this great onboard of him and the other Alfa Giuliettas dicing at the Lime Rock historics this weekend. I am still going through all my photos, but we'll have a gallery up very soon! In the meantime, turn up the volume and enjoy!