Playing Softball at Yankee Stadium

As you are well aware, I am not a veteran racer. Nor am I a crew member of an existing race team.. looking for my chance behind the wheel. I was not born into a family that enjoyed racing. I was not karting before I turned 10. I am simply a guy that has always been in to cars.. and always wanted to see what I could do behind the wheel. But mostly, I am a gamer.

Enter crap-can racing. My rotating door into racing. Finally, my opportunity to drive a REAL car on a REAL track.

Last weekend, the nut cases at ChumpCar (www.chumpcar.com) ran dual 7hr endurance races at the world famous Sears Point (Infineon). For those who are not in to cars.. and not in to racing... Infineon is probably just a word you can't pronounce. For us gear-head gamers... we've been racing Infineon since the introduction Gran Tourismo for playstation. It's been a staple track for the Sony game for the last 10 years. I can't even begin to count how many pixelated laps i've driven on this track. And they were going to let ME drive MY race car on INFINEON? epic


As we arrived, I was literally choked up taking in the awesomeness of Infineon. Leaded 118 octane via an onsite 24 hour gas station? Check. 10+ onsite buildings that house cars worth more than I will make in a lifetime? Check. Billboards the size of Texas? Check. Rental garages that housed some of the most famous racers of all time? Check. Seating for 50,000? Check. Sheep wondering around to keep the grass down? WTF? Really? Check!

Weather was marginal with a layer of fog covering the nearby hillside. We were running a little behind schedule thanks to my genius 'shortcut' to avoid Oakland traffic. It turns out that hwy 121 is straight on a fold-up map of the west coast...

But hell... we made it! And tomorrow we get to go racing!

The night time brought bench racing stories of events past, and lots (and lots) of drinking. We had some work to do to get the car prepped for race day... but NONE of us were touching the car sober! We managed to install a new brake master cylinder (thanks Leo) and install matching new front brake lines (nice work Dennis). Prior to the race, we installed new front and rear rotors and inspected the brake pads to make sure we had enough to last. The car was ready! And I was drunk.

But at least i was warm!