What a summer.. a big thanks to those that made it possible! videos

[Steve1968LS2]

Man, it was a crazy hectic summer, but worth every dollar.

I shipped my car back east in early May for the Gingerman event and it stayed back there until just last week, nearly 5 months. And while Intercity Lines moved it the big distance I had a lot of people step up to help move the car around once back there. Without them I never would of had this great experience.

Driving the 120 mile tail-of-the-dragon cruise at the RTTH event was a highlight.. even if it was in the rain with no wipers.

So, I would like to thank:

Scott and the team at Motor State Distributing for holding my car prior to Gingerman, what a great group of gearheads!

Bill Howell and Yancy Johns for moving Penny from MI to Dayton Ohio. Would also like to thank Dave Schardt at Forgeline for storing my car until the Columbus Goodguys event and for swapping on my tires! Also, thanks to Yancy for storing Penny and always willing to help wth the logisticts. Thanks to Bill for putting on a kick ass event (less rain next time though, ok?)

Mark Bowler and Tom McBride for holding my car at thier shop in IL and especially to Tom for doing such a kick ass job on some wiring issues I had. I looked up under the dash yesterday and it's all as neat as can be. They were also nice enough to haul my car to the Run Through the Hills event and then back to thier shop until Intercity could truck it back to CA.

Mary and David Pozzi who took delivery of Penny. David has been instrumental in getting my car together and working right and Mary has made me a much better driver. Plus they show me what my car is capable of.

Nick Licata for putting up with my wacky ideas and for driving the crap out of Penny at the Run Through The Hills V event and for not rubbing it in too much that he's faster in my car than I am. lol

Intercity Lines for being so easy to work with.

Sorry if I forgot anyone.. the summer was all a blur.

So, we managed to hit the following events:

Motor State Challenge in MI
Goodguys Nationals in OH
Bowler Autocross extraveganza in IL
Run Through The Hills V in TN

Not a bad way to spend the summer. In three of the four autocross events Penny had the fastest lap time. Once with me, once with David Pozzi and once with Nick Licata. That girl sure gets around.

Penny got back home (to the Pozzi's shop) last monday and four days later we had the car at Buttonwillow Raceway for some "find out what needs fixin' laps"

We confirmed our shock valving is jacked up and I confiremed that I should have gone early to do a bolt check on the car. Rear caliper mount came undone and ended our day early. hey, stuff happens. We had put on race pads and thought the vibration was up front, maybe warped rotors. In reality it was the left rear caliper having fits. Hindsight really is 20/20.

Were going to autocross the next day, but Penny is now on the injured reserved list until I buy a couple of brake parts. Oh well, you can't make omlets without breaking eggs. Spent yesterday with the Pozzi's cleaning the filthy car and doing small projects. We also did the bolt check and found the subframe bolts to be less than tight. I urge everyone to check theirs.

It was also great to meet and see some many of you again. Having to work sucked up time I would rather use to BS, but it was still great. All the events were a blast and I can't tell you how tempted I am to ship out my car for some fun next year if I can save up the cash.

Again, thanks to all that helped me out and to all I met over the summer.

Some fun new vids: (the links have better resolution than the embeds)

Myself at the RTTHV autocross:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezMy0h-Tu7o

Nick Licata at the RTTHV autocross: (turns out that first gear was the way to go)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN00aT440MI

David Pozzi and a few laps at Buttonwillow. Even with the problems we he had a fast lap of 2:18.546 and was hitting 120 mph in some of the later laps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrhKJhDHB38

Now to get the car ready for the Optima race and SEMA.. David Pozzi has a few ideas.