The truth as shown in the videos below (unlike some fishing stories) is that I was in 3rd Place with a half lap to go when I blew a shift and the #72 Blue Miata slid past me.  I was a half lap short of a dual trophy day.

The race was actually even more exciting than that (at least for me).  I started out in 5th place and by turn 4 of the fist lap I had dropped down all the way to 9th (last) place.  The race starts have the highest incidence of crashes and I see from my videos that I have a tendency to let the cars sort themselves out a bit (definitely a bit too much).

I have included the whole race as posted in three segments on YouTube.  You can see by watching the first minute of part 1 how I drop off to last place when the red #14 car passes me.

Over the course of the 18 lap race, I pass all of the SM Miatas except those in 2nd and 1st place.  I race in 3rd place ahead of the blue Miata for several laps after passing him.  It is on lap 18 that the #72 blue Miata passes me back to take 3rd place back. This part can be seen towards the end of part 3 posted below.

Note, there are other race classes mixed in with my Spec Miata SM class.  You can see the little yellow formula cars as well as an occasional Volvo!  These are not in my class but still were in my way from time to time.

Part 1 – The Start of the race – where I immediately fall behind to 9th place.

Part 2 – Where I continue to chase down the Blue #72 Miata.

Part 3 – Where I finally catch Blue #72 Miata and move into 3rd place until missing a shift on the last lap.

Ted Cahall

Here is a photo of the trophy.
Ted Cahall

The video is a short, 10 second, clip of two cars spinning out in front of me in turn 10.  I added it again here to avoid chasing the link.

Ted Cahall

I really learned a lot and set new personal best lap records almost every week.  I started the year with my best lap in the MARRS 1 qualifier being a 1:37.908 and 8 of the 10 laps being slower than 1:40.  I finished this year in the MARRS 11 final race with a 1:31.826.  Six seconds faster in a single lap is a great improvement.  More telling was the consistency of the laps in each race with many of them clustering in the 1:32 range at the end of the year.

I met a lot of really great people as well.  I could not have even come close to making this happen with my busy schedule if it were not for Mike Collins and his fantastic program at Meathead Racing.  A huge shout out to Wendy, Sherise, Glen, and Jimmy who helped me though a huge learning curve.

The other racers were also fantastic (aside from some early “rookie bumps” out on the track to initiate me to Spec Miatas).  Some of these people are very accomplished racers that turn laps in the 1:27 range.  Yet they will still spend time and talk with the slow pokes like me to help me learn and grow with this sport.  Many of the Meathead Racing teammates also took time to help me get buckled in and ready out on the grid as well.  Such an outstanding group of people to spend a weekend with!  If you have ever considered learning how to race in wheel-to-wheel competition, I would highly recommend contacting Mike Collins at Meathead Racing.  Even for a busy person such as myself, they make the words, “arrive and drive” a reality.

Ted Cahall

We were allowed to pass in one specific zone if we were given the flag indicating it was OK.  I am happy to say I passed a lot of people – but no one ever passed me.  That is the way it is supposed to be (aside from real racers at SCCA Club Racing – where getting passed was a reality for me this year).

You can click on the photo below to see a couple of more images on Webshots.

Ted Cahall

I plan to edit out a small piece of the race where a couple of cars spun out in front of me and post it here.  So far the video editing software converts the whole race – all or nothing.  So I will figure out what I need to do to post a15 second clip instead of a 30 minute race.

This device will let me know how fast (slow in my case) I am entering each corner and what my exit speed is.  This will help me compare to the really experienced drivers and know where to push it harder.  The camera and GPS do not lie.  And they record every lap and every missed shift.  So this should be a huge help towards setting my new personal best lap record.

Ted Cahall

While my job did anything but become more mundane in 2009, I was determined to maintain that delicate “work / race balance” all the HR types talk about for living a healthy life.  I really had no idea what I was in store for as I prepared for the 2009 racing season.  I had planned on racing my 2001 Z06 Corvette and took pains to install racing seats, add in tow hooks, fire extinguishers, and safety harnesses, etc.  Unfortunately I was mistaken on the requirements and did not know that the T1 class for my Z06 required a full roll cage to be welded into my car!  Heck – I even needed a full roll cage to attend the SCCA Driving School – the more you know – the more you realize just what you don’t know…

After attending day 1 and day 2 of my SCCA Drivers School in a “Spec Miata” that I rented, I attended the SCCA PDX and SCCA Club Trials in a “Spec Miata” as well.  It was at this point that I finally realized it would be best for me to have Meathead Racing help me as my “Spec Miata” pit crew and support team for the 2009 SCCA Club Racing season.  I bought a 1999 Spec Miata from Bad Al Bell and I was literally “off to the races”.

Sunday was my second official SCCA MARRS race and fulfilled my requirements for my regional license.  I did qualification laps and the qualification race on Saturday to grid myself for the race on Sunday.   On Sunday, I started in 31st position and finished the race in 24th.  So I moved up and had an incredible amount of fun doing it.  My fastest lap got faster in each of the three qualification and race events during the weekend.  The key is to be safe, improve each week, and try not to fly off the track or bend any metal on either mine or the other driver’s cars.  All was accomplished successfully.

Ted Cahall

We started the day at 7:00AM by signing our lives away.  It would have been unpleasant to have wrecked one of these as I think I promised the future lives of all my relatives for many centuries to come as collateral.

Then we were  out to the cars for the group photo and then the road.  Each driver took a turn in each of the five cars.  We had eight drivers and only five cars, so each driver had three legs as either an exotic car passenger or in one of the lead or chase vehicles.  This was the only let down of the whole morning.  I am not sure I would have registered had I known that.  OK – I probably would have – it was a total gas.

I was lucky enough to sit out the first segment – as that was driving through town in a very slow, deliberate manner.  No fun sitting in a high performance car in traffic!  My first segment was in the Audi R8.  It is a fantastic car that handles superbly.  It clearly can be a daily driver (and Ash Patel at Yahoo uses it as one).  My only complaint was that it was somewhat under powered for an exotic car.  I was also at the very end of the pack – so lagging back to rev the engine was somewhat more difficult.  Still great car and I was very impressed.

My next segment was in the Callaway C16 Corvette.  It is supercharged and was by far the very fastest car of the day.  It has an automatic transmission as well as paddle shifters.  The automatic was so well tuned there was no need for the paddles.  I did a hole-shot out of the parking lot and was shocked by the power.  It got a bit squirrely even with the traction control on.  Yeah – that’s what I’m talking about!  I was second in the conga line behind the Lambo and I lagged back quite a few times.  The car was like a rocket ship when I would nail it and downshift two gears.  The whine of the supercharger was outrageous and the power literally pinned you to your seat.  I have owned some fast supercharged cars – but this was the best.  Callaway got this one right.  I noticed that there was blue smoke pouring out of the back of the car when I would pound on it.  I figured I would point that out when we stopped next (I really did not need to since I was coating the 3 cars behind me).  It turned out that the blue smoke was a harmless leak from the supercharger cooler that only occurred under very high load (ie. me).  I must have done 5 or 6 power runs after lagging back and flooring it.  That ride alone would have been worth every penny – but it gets better.  We got to a straight, well paved, wide-open section of two lane highway following a slower car.  The lead car passed and and the Lambo followed, I lagged a bit so I could wail on the C16 and then hit it.  We blew past the car and began to climb into the back seat of the Lambo.  I am sure we went a tad over 55…

Eventually we pulled over and switched again.  I got the Lamborghini this time.  I figured there was no way I was going to enjoy that after the C16.  While the Lambo does have 10 cylinders, it is not supercharged, etc.  Well, I was wrong!  The thing was amazing.  I was behind the pace car (driven by Roland who is an experienced pro racer that could have made a tricycle go fast).  I let Roland get a good pace ahead of me and pounded out the Lamborghini.  It was almost as impressive as the C16 – but it is all wheel drive and really was incredible in the curves and corners.  I pulled a number of power downshifts in this car too and was rteally torn as to which car I now liked best.  Either way, there is no loser out of these two.

When my turn was next, I got to drive the Ford GT.  This is a true supercar and was the only car with a real stick-shift and clutch.  One of the instructors always road in the GT.  No problem.   This was a great car and extremely fast.  It is also supercharged – but for some reason the power was very linear and smooth.  It did not really let lose and snap my neck back as I had done in the C16 and Lambo.  It might have been due to the instructor sitting next to me – but he never made a peep each time I lagged back and then hit it as hard as I could.  No question a fantastic car – but it did not rank with the C16 or Lambo.  It might be due to the manual transmission.  The automatics they are making in these new exotics are really phenomenal.

When we were well on our way back to the hotel, it was time for my final drive.  I was in the Alfa-Romeo 8C.  It had the nicest sound to it – but unfortunately resembled more of the Audi R8’s power band than the other power beasts.  Unlike the Audi’s fine transmission, the 8C would bog under full power shifting.  It was also grumble backfiring on downshifts or when I let off the gas.  All of this – and it was the most expensive of all of the cars at about $300k!  They are only letting 75-80 of them into the US – so it is a rare collector’s car.  It is a good thing – because even at about $200 this would not see any sales volume when compared to a Lambo, Ferrari, or other car in that range.  It was definitely my least favorite of the five cars.  So I was glad it was the one that I had to waste part of my turn in city traffic as we parked back at the hotel.  I guess it has some appeal and some woman actually called out to us (another driver was my passenger) to let us know she liked our car…  So Italian sound appeal counts for something.

Ted Cahall

I realize other friends get real exercise and often wear helmets on their bicycles.  I have a bike – but I do not own a helmet for it.  I probably should, but I ride it once every third year so it is not a good investment…  There are football helmets, and baseball batter’s helmets, etc, etc.

The head is a pretty important part of the body.  I think I will continue to protect it.  Being bald, I also wear a lot of hats in the summer to keep it from burning.  Not quite a helmet – but still a protective device for us bald guys.

Ted Cahall

I was still able to maintain that delicate “work / race balance” this week by holding all of my work meetings including my travel to NYC to accept the Green IT Award from the Uptime Institute for AOL.

Yesterday I was at the track for the qualifying laps and the qualifying race.  I did not have all of my paperwork in order to switch from the “T1″ class to the “SM” class and getting this corrected all the way from registration through the timing booth cost me the qualifying laps.  That meant I got less practice, and that I needed to start at the back of the pack for the qualifying race that went off at 11:00AM.

The good news is that I finished the qualifying race later that day.  The bad news is that one of the very best drivers (while lapping me in only a 10 lap race) had metal to metal contact with me.  I thought I had gotten to the line before him – but apparently what you learn in driving school  and how they race for real are a bit different.  Needless to say, he stopped by and gave me some “pointers” after the race.  I felt like an idiot after I realized he is one of the few racers that can turn a 1:27 lap.  Needless to say, I apologized…

But that was only the beginning of the fun.  After I pinched him in turn 1, I got bumped in turn 2 and then rear-ended between turn 2 and turn 3!  These guys are really serious and are not afraid to let you know they are there.  Maybe it was the novice stripes on my car and their way of saying, “welcome to the SCCA”.  I finished the race near the back but not dead last.  I of course finished ahead of the people that crashed and could not complete the race…  My fasted lap was 1:37.  A full 10 seconds slower than the best of the best (only 2 people turned a 1:27 in the qualifying race).  No wonder they were lapping me.

I went home feeling like a rookie (if that) but with a decent sense of accomplishment.  I finished the race.  I set an official “personal best lap time”, and I was all set to go for the big race on Sunday.

Sunday morning I made sure I was up and ready to go with plenty of time to spare.  I made it to the track by 7:45AM and was able to do some prepping before the “hardship lap”.  I made sure I got out on that lap and got some needed practice in.

At 8:40AM we were “on grid” in pit row.  I was started in position 42 in a field of 44 cars.  One of the better racers on the Meathead Racing team was behind me (his car threw a piston rod through the crankcase in the qualifying lap the day before and did not finish).  I let him know I was letting him by as soon as we got the green flag (and did).  We were sent out on two warm up laps and given the green flag at 8:50AM.  I let Brian pass me and was the sole and complete owner of last place.  A comfortable place if you do not like someone in your rearview mirror as you settle in for the next 35-40 minutes of racing.

Within about 20 seconds all I could see was brake lights and tire smoke.  I backed off and as I went through the smoke I saw cars on each side of the track.  All of this was on the first lap in front of the flag tower!  I thought, “damn – these guys *are* serious”!  Then I saw a crumpled “Bad Al” Bell pointing at me (wrong way) and clearly driving the car back onto the track.  At least some of the folks in the pile-up were still able to re-join the race.

As the track cleared out, Bad Al roared by me and I again was sole owner of last place.  I did my best to try to keep Al in my sights and as I was racing I realized there were a couple of cars in front of me that I felt I could race with and likely catch.  Eventually I passed a couple of the slower cars and came up on #8 and then #37.  I was able to get by them and realized that if I finished the race, I probably was not going to come in last place.  Clearly I would finish ahead of the cars that crashed and did not finish – but it was a great feeling to upgrade my goal from simply “finishing” to “not finishing last of all the finishers”…

I was surprised to see that #37 was not keeping on my tail.  She was in my driver’s school and had been beating me fairly consistently. Possibly she had car problems as after it was over, I noticed she was out after 10 laps (which still counts as a finisher of the race since she completed half or more of the laps).

#8 was a different story though.  We traded positions at least four more times during the race.  We were each blocking the line on turn 1 and would trade positions.  I was actually able to take him in turns 6 and 7 one time.  That was awesome.  Once he went into turn 1 too hot and went off the course.  I was shocked to see he drove it back on and was behind me again a lap later.  Drat!  I thought I had lost him.  Towards the end of the race we again went into turn 1 side-by-side.  He had the inside and started turning wide.  Another car had gotten inside of him (faster cars that were lapping us) and we were three across.  He bumped me and pushed me off the left side of the track.  I was able to hold the car steady, re-enter the track and stay on him.  I passed him the next lap and was able to hold on for the remainder of the race.  That was fun.  We both were lapped by the fastest 19 drivers twice – but we had our own race going on – and that made it really interesting.

I ended up finishing 32nd of 44 cars.  Six cars did not finish due to accidents or car issues. Two other cars appeared to stop racing before the checkered flag – but after the race was official (10 laps completed).  So, in the end, I finished ahead of four cars that were still on the track at the end of the race.

One of the more important metrics was my fastest lap time.  These can be thrown off due to other cars stealing your line, etc.  The interesting thing is, I improved my fastest lap from 1:37 on Saturday at 1:34 today.  It may not sound like much – but every second counts and it least it shows I am moving in the right direction.  The bad news on this issue is that only three cars has slower fastest lap times.  Still much work to be done there.

The fastest lap was a 1:27.338 by Dean Copeland.  He won the qualifying race as well yesterday.  He also holds the lap record for the Spec Miata SM class.  If his time stands today, he will have set a new SM class record as his previous record was 1:27.790.  It must have been a really fast day (perfect weather, etc.).  Five racers (including Dean) beat the previous record of 1:27.790 if their times stand as official.  What a fast pack and great race.

Ted Cahall