Friday bloody friday

The forecast is not getting any better. It looks like we will have changing conditions today. It's best to go out and get a safe run in the bank before trying anything. Well, my 'safe' run turned out to be a disaster and I hit a cone. Now I'm sweating bullets watching the weather, wondering if I'll have a second chance to get a dry run in.

It is starting to drizzle and I'm at the end of the run group for 2nd runs. Now I'm just waiting until they come around for me to take my second run. Then I'm in the car and waiting, and waiting, and waiting - then there is a stoppage for some reason. The course continues to get wetter. I finally get to take my 2nd run. It's already slippery and I'm sliding around a little bit. It's a decent run, not fast, but clean. The announcer does not announce where I'm placed. I have no idea.

The weather continues to come in and now just as Dale finishes his 3rd run, the rain comes in. The cameras come off the car. It's wet enough now that it's not even worth mounting the full tread tires. I opt to finish my last run on the shaved tires and see how much sliding around I can do. I was right, my last run was several seconds slower.

All this time, I don't hear the announcer. I have no idea where I am. Did I move up (or more likely fall out of the trophies) or move down? Either way, it was out of my hands. Fortunately, I only dropped one spot and stayed in the trophies.

Until next year. BTW, if you have never been, this site is awesome. You MUST make a trip out here. Thank you to all the sponsors who have stood by us and provided us with incredible support all year.


I'll let you imagine what Dale is trying to say

Extreme Autofest sponsored by Bridgestone

It was all sun on a beautiful Sunday morning as we arrived to Qualcomm Stadium at our usual time. Usually we are at this very lot prepping that car for a race. But today we traded in out jacks and torque wrenches for tire shine and car polish. It was a very special day since Bridgestone was on of the main sponsors of the event they brought their full rig out to support. The booth featured a Austin Martin, a BMW Z4 racecar, Jenn's Allstar RX-8 and our very own Bridgestone AutoX Civic! Overall the weekend was a great opportunity to shake some hands of attendees and explain to them exactly what we do and that in this very lot they could come back in two weeks and race their own cars. We always enjoy the opportunity to get out and talk about our sport as well and network with our sponsors since so much of time is spent racing we like to go as many promotional events to spend quality time with them.

Special thanks to Bridgestone, The International Allstars Marketing Team, and Extreme Autofest for giving us the chance to give back to our sponsors and the community.

It's time - for Nationals

It's the last day to give the car a shakedown before it is loaded on the transporter to Nationals. I'm up at 4 AM to go pick up the Civic from Jason. The drive is quick - not much traffic on the highway at this time.

We go together to El Toro with the Civic and an Evo X courtesy of Rally Innovations. The plan is to do a final shakedown of the Civic, load it on the transporter and finish the day with the Evo giving taxi rides.

A big thanks to the OCR PCA event staff for helping us with the schedule to get us to the transporter on time.

We finish the shakedown and pack the car, head on over to Ciro Design to wait for the transporter. A very very big THANK YOU to Jason for all the hard work prepping the car. You have truly become a master at setup.





Here are some pictures of the car on the transporter.





A big thank to Rick Jung for arranging the transporter to Nationals. One more week - tick tock, tick tock. The journey has begun...

Bridgestone Potenza™ Car Club Race Report SCCA Solo National Tour Road to Topeka March 15-16, 2008 Qualcomm Stadium – San Diego, Calif.
Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R Tire Performance Summary: Bridgestone-shod cars once again made a strong showing at the second round of the 2008 Tire Rack SCCA Solo National Tour. Cars equipped with Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R ultra high performance tires took victories in the STS, STSL, STS2 and STS2L classes at the 2008 San Diego National Tour. Bridgestone-shod cars took a fourth-place finish in the STX category and a second-place finish and seven of the top-10 spots in the STU category.	SCCA STREET TOURING BY CLASS STS 1. Jason Flores – Bridgestone – 123.030 (8 in the top 10 for Bridgestone) STSL 1. Stacey Miller – Bridgestone – 131.150 STS2 1. Michael Heinitz – Bridgestone – 121.856 (3 in the top 5 for Bridgestone) STS2L 1. Katy Nicholls – Bridgestone –128.024 (top 2 for Bridgestone) STX (fourth-place finish for Bridgestone) STU (7 in the top 10 for Bridgestone)
From Rodreich Stotsenburg, UHP Marketing & Education Support Manager, Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC: “Once again, Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R tires have proven that they are up to the demands that SCCA competition places upon them. From our on-track performance to the continued high level of service offered in the paddock, drivers are recognizing the benefits of competing on Bridgestone brand tires. We at Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC could not be more pleased with the progress we have made with our SCCA program, and we look forward to seeing more and more drivers competing on our tires as this season moves forward. This was our first event this season where we offered on-site support, and we will also be set up at Milwaukee and the Nationals to offer our unparalleled service.” Visit the recently launched Web site, www.Potenza.com, for the latest in ultra high performance and car club news.

Pro Solo Sunday Morning Recap

Sunday morning does not start out the way I had envisioned it to. Mike and I leave Jason's house for El Toro on time. We go to get on the highway and the on ramp is closed. No problem. We take the detour and get onto the highway and start driving. The next on ramp is about 1/2 mile down. When we get there, it too is closed. Now I'm getting worried. It's dark, I don't know the area and how I'm going to get to El Toro without too much delay. I try to indicate to my GPS that the ramp is closed and to find me an alternate route.

It says to turn around, so we do. After following the directions for 5 minutes, it takes us right back to the same closed on ramp. Not much help there. My GPS doesn't give me the ability to indicate the the ramp is closed, just to avoid an entire section, which I don't really want to do. Mike gives me a hand with his phone to try and find an alternate route.

We pick an alternate route and start driving again. My GPS recalculates and gives me a new route that looks really strange. It looks like it is going by all kinds of side streets. Mike is familiar with this highway, so we stick to the highway.

On the way there, it rains in places and I start wondering how much time I can shave off against my competitors if it is wet. Will it be enough to move me back up into the trophies? This weather was also most unexpected. I checked the forecast on Saturday morning before I left home and chance of precipitation was listed at 10% for both days - yet it rained both Saturday and Sunday. As a result, I wasn't prepared and didn't have my rain gear with me. Oh well. It's not the end of the world. Right now, I was more concerned with getting to El Toro and still have enough time to do all the prep since we ran first.

We arrive 15 minutes later than originally planned. Not too bad, but that did leave less time than I wanted. We do a quick walk of each side and then prepare the car with the intention to walk again if there is time. As it turns out, there isn't time, so we have to settle for one course walk.

The car is running, the camera battery appears to be holding it's charge, the MaxQ is running, and it's drying out rapidly with no more sign of moisture, so it's now or never to catch up.

I'm lined up to start on the left side this morning. With a decent right side time, my primary concern is getting a decent run on the left side without getting a red light. I make my run and I don't red light (yippee), but I hit a cone. My right side run is uneventful. Everything is going by in a blur. My 2nd left side run is now do or die. I make sure to wait long enough to not get a red light, giving me a lousy reaction time, but at least the run was clean. It was a good 1/2 second slower than my fast time on Saturday. I continue to attack the right side and my time drops to a 46.1 so I'm happy. Now we have to see how the other drivers do to see if I move up in the standings.



Mike takes his runs, and goes faster on both sides, but unfortunately not enough to change his final position.

Now we head off to impound and much to my surprise, the final results were brought out within minutes of us pulling into impound instead of a long wait. There was a big crowd of STS drivers around the results sheet and I couldn't see my result, so I wait. Mihai is kind enough to look over everybodys shoulder (he's tall) and tells me my final position - I had done it. I had worked my way back up into 3rd place, behind Andy Hollis and Kevin McCormick. Given this weekends events, I'm happy with the result.

I put my hat into the drawing for the bonus challenge. I want another shot at the course. After the drawing, I'm not one of the lucky eight, but Mike is. He gets a make up session for missing his Saturday afternoon runs. I'm exhausted and head home early to be with my family.



Mike ends up placing 2nd in the Bonus Challenge, which earns him some money towards ChaseCam products. Very cool. Congratulations Mike.

At the end of the day, this is how the International Allstars/Lucas Oil/Hyper16Valve team performed:

2nd in Bonus Challenge (Mike)
3rd in STS (Stephen)
3rd in Honda Tuner Challenge (Stephen)

Day 1 of the San Diego National Tour

PRE-REPORT
Day 1 at the SD Tour looks like its going to be a great day. To start off we want to start the day by thanking the International All Star and Lucas Oil Racing for coming on board in the last few weeks. We are proud to be part of the team and hope that we can make everyone proud.

POST-REPORT
Day 1 of the San Diego tour is over, and we have some wonderful results to report. Jason finished the day in 1st place and Steven is sitting in 3rd place. Both of us are ahead of Kevin McCormick. Very very cool. Jason also surprised me with new uniform from our sponsors, they look pretty cool. Come check us out. listen

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