Search

My Photo Albums

Travel Photos
Auto Racing Photos
S2000 / Misc. Auto Photos
Misc. Photos

MiscLinks

Black Cloud over my head!

08/14/2008

And in the blink of an eye...

Category Four-wheeled toys MARRS Race Video
MARRS 9, run September 23rd of last year was the pentultimate race of the '07 season. The weather at Summit Point Raceway was sublime and I was hoping to make a strong showing after my encouraging return to the track over Labor Day weekend. With a well-setup chassis but also a motor that was noticeably down on power to some of my competitors, I just hoped to stay close two-time MARRS champion Kirk Dohne in his Nissan 240SX and future Rookie of the Year Chris Perrera in his Acura Integra. Since I was only racing an abbreviated '07 schedule I had made the decision not to run for points in the MARRS series so as to not impact an existing points battles. Given that both Dohne and Perrera were neck-and-neck in the hunt for the '07 championship going into this event and whoever finished ahead of the other would be crowned as champ, I just wanted a remove as much pressure as possible.

Regardless of any points battles, my goal was a win. Knowing that I was down on power to my two closest competitors, I needed to use my handling advantages, guile and some luck to gain that checkered flag. Perera was on the class pole, gridded on the outside of row 2. Dohne was on inside of row 5, but his Nissan's torque advantage usually allows him to make stellar jumps on race starts. I was to start just behind Kirk, on the inside of row six. During a start that could only be described as hectic, Kirk jumped four positions and found himself on Chris's tail. I gained three positions leaving just one out-of-class car between us.

Chris had been considerably faster than Kirk all year, but his car reliability issues allowed Kirk to stay close all year long. On lap four, Perrera broke a half-shaf (neat name for an axle). When Kirk and I came up on his car, I think Kirk actually let off the gas for a moment in stunned disbelief that Chris was out and that all he had to do was stay on track to win a championship. I saw it as my chance to win! I'm not going to ruin this with commentary. Watch the video below for yourself. Kirk and I were nose to tail or side by side for the entire race. What a thrill!



I had my chance on the last lap. I came out of Turn 10 onto the front straight with one hell of a run, drafted right up to Kirk and popped out just ahead of the finish line. Unfortunately it just wasn't enough. Kirk took the checkered flag but 0.117 seconds. That's 117 thousandths of a second. Congrats to Kirk on his win and the championship.

08/14/2008

Three wheels just don't cut it

Category Four-wheeled toys MARRS Race Video
After the elation of proving that both the new car and I were capable of great things after such a long layoff, the following day, Labor Day 2007, proved to be a bit of a disappointment. When building the newcar, the old car was gutted and provided every "good" piece of hardware it could.

CRXCarcass.jpg

Unfortunatley, that hulk of a shell sat out in the fall, winter, and spring weather, wreaking havoc on lubricated items like wheel bearings. I started 2nd in class and knew from almost the beginning of the race that something felt "off," when I could not pass Bryan Pritt's Integra. After a number of laps, I got the telltale clunking, but felt I could finish the race. It got so bad that once I had passed Bryan, I felt the left-rear tire completely seize. My day was done on lap 14 (of 16), finishing 19th out of 20 in ITA.

08/13/2008

Grab some popcorn...

Category Four-wheeled toys MARRS Race Video

Well, now that I'm back in the land of the living, I figured I'd start positng some of my videos since debuting the new race car. Yeah, I know it looks like the old race car, but it's black. Ya see, during my last MARRS (Mid-Atlantic Road Racing Series) race of the 2006 season, I had the most unfortunate of incidents. While leading the race, the 3rd-place car had a brake failure at the end of Summit Point Raceway's main straight. My '89 Honda CRX Si was broadsided at about 90mph.

A picture named M2

So anyways, it was almost an entire year in coming, but with Martin Burk's assistance in reconstructing the cage, Roger Troxell's Honda and race car building expertise, and the encouragement of my Casa de Amigos teammates, the 3rd iteration of the #72 ITA CRX Si first saw action over Labor Day weekend of '07. Unfortunately I don't have video of the race, but the car (and its very rusty driver performed admirably), finishing a close second in its first outing of a two-race weekend.

More to follow!

08/13/2008

Out with the old....

Category Employment BoxTone
After seven years I decided to take my career in different direction. Having spent oh so many years as an administrator, architect, and project manager specializing in messaging systems (and those from IBM / Lotus in particular), I decided to take an offer from an up-and-coming company in the mobile space.

BoxtoneLogo.gif

I have been with BoxTone, an up-and-comer in the mobile space since early May. BoxTone is currently the industry leader in mobile user management, selling a best-of-breed, end-to-end monitoring and reporting solution for those corporations that have deployed BlackBerry devices and BlackBerry Enterprise server for both Domino and Exchange. Although still ramping up, I will primarily be looking to boost our consulting services engagements, with an eye to IBM/Lotus Domino-centric shops. I haven't a company with this much energy in years, and I'm both happy and proud to be part of this small (but rapidly growing) family.

08/13/2008

Don't call it a comeback

QuickImage Category Long time no see My Website
So yeah, it's been a while, some changes in my life, but perhaps not enough. New job, still racing. still single. I promise to post in a timely manner.... Really.

03/03/2004

New Photo Album Added

QuickImage Category My Website
I've just added my S2000 / driving events gallery to the site. You'll find some very nice cars littered throughout the gallery. I hope to have some of my race photos posted soon.

02/19/2004

And I thought Video Killed the Radio Star

Category Misc. Ramblings

More fun in the music biz this week. First, the RIAA unleashes another 500+ lawsuits, then gets sued under federal racketeering statutes. If we take what the record industry says as gospel, then the proliferation of free P2P systems is the only reason why sales are down and the music business is hurting so much. Don Henley, late of the Eagles, took the industry to task this week in a Washington Post op-ed piece that lays the blame on more than just those of us who use Kazaa and e-Donkey. Henley feels that the industry should bear the brunt of the blame, even for P2P-based piracy.

Rock on!

02/19/2004

Don't lose your head

QuickImage Category News of the Wierd

The Philly Phanatic's Ichabod Crane impression mercifully came to a happy resolution for the green anteater.

For all the fuzzy details, check this out.  

02/12/2004

Best Phans in the world

Category News of the Wierd

They throw batteries. They fight amongst themselves. They had a judge on duty and a prison in the basement of their stadium.

The Phillie Phanatic Has Lost His Head  

02/11/2004

Photos Phinally...

QuickImage Category My Website

It's been a very long time coming but I'm finally getting my photos back on the web for the first time since Photopoint.Com crashed and burned.Thanks to Christian Brandlehner's Open Notes Picture Database I now have a very workable template that runs on top of my Domino server.

To start I've put a lot of my travel photos up, including my Tokyo trip and my last cruise. I should have a lot of my racing photos up soon. Just look to the left at the "My Photo Albums" block for links to the albums. Enjoy.