Hey All,

I have definitely been a bit MIA and will unfortunately continue to be for another week or so as I am trying to finish up my college career and move back across the country so I apologize for my website being left on the back burner.  Soon I will update everything to reflect what has been happening so far in the 2009 season.  A quick synopsis for those who are interested on the inside scoop: I signed with the great Team M.E.R. to run this year's Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup series.  Team M.E.R. is a fantastic group and have won the championship for the past three years in a row.  I have also partnered with a fantastic company for this season (and hopefully beyond!) named Tire Lyna so be sure to check out www.TireLyna.com.  Unfortunately, I have not had the best start to this year but there is still plenty of time to turn things around. 

In Atlanta for the opening weekend we were chasing the setup on my car all weekend and I seemed to be going in a different direction than most of my teammates.  It is tough because I am still not sure exactly what these great little cars are "supposed" to feel like so at times it can be tricky to nail the setup.  I feel pretty good about Road Atlanta as a track, but the best I could manage was to qualify 6th.  However, in post qualifying tech we discovered that there was a problem with my car.  Long story short, there was a piece in the suspension that some people ran in the 2007 season but was outlawed for 2008 and the car I am racing did not run any pro races last year so it was inadvertently left in.  Not only did it cause all of my qualifying times to be disallowed, but it was also probably the reason for the poor handling of my car!!  Anyways, it was an oversight on our part and surely will not happen again.  So now I had to start from the back of the field, but I was confident in my ability to make my way through the pack.  I did just that at the start, but it cost me dearly.  I made what has to be one of the better starts in an MX5 Cup race as I estimated that I passed 13 cars before Turn 3 on the opening lap!  However, not more than 5 seconds into the race I got crunched between two cars as I made my way through them; I don't think either driver even knew I was there!  Now hindsight is 20/20 and every racing driver also thinks they are the next Ayrton Senna, but turning into turn 5 on the opening lap the car did not feel right; perhaps something had bent/cracked when I got crunched or perhaps I just messed up, but in either case I ended up in the wall.  After entering the esses I was nicely tucked between two of my teammates and entered Turn 5 normally and suddenly understeered off the track driver's right where there is a large bump and some gravel waiting for you.  I clipped the bump and had a massive "tank slapper" going down the following straight and saved it about 10 times but lost it 11 and hit the wall.  it was a pretty good whack and my day was over on the spot; not exactly the best way to start off a new season!  However, luckily the new MX5 rules for this year allow you to drop one race in the points so all was not lost.  I felt really bad as I knew I had the speed to run up front and the M.E.R. crew had put a really great car underneath me, but I had to look forward to the next race at that point.

Laguna...excuse me, Mazda Raceway was our next stop.  I'm trying to write a quick synopsis right now as I don't have many good pictures yet and nobody wants to read a long block of monotonous font so I will keep it short.  Mazda Raceway Lagua Seca is an unbelievable track and to finally drive somewhere with such historical significance is truly an honor.  There are a few tracks in our country that are simply so much larger than life: Indy, Daytona, and Mazda Raceway to name a few; so I savored every moment of my time there.  Anyways, I will try to skip this poetic/nostalgiac verbage and cut to some of the facts to save us both a bit of time.  I felt good from my first session on track.  In qualifying I made a "slight" error that then caused the setup to be "slightly" off.  So with the steering wheel cocked about 45 degrees sideways for most of the session I was happy to squeak into the top 5, but knew there was much more potential in the car and myself.  M.E.R. worked really hard to give me a great car for the race and it was just that.  I slotted into the top 3 early and held that spot for quite a while.  Again the toe had gotten knocked loose somehow in the front left corner (this time not my fault!) and it was making the car difficult to drive, but you don't have much choice but to drive-what-you-got in a 45 minute sprint race.  I got caught out by a very strange restart in the middle of the race and lost several positions.  I was starting to work my way back up through the field and then on the last lap I was hit from behind going into the infamous Corkscrew.  It was one of those situations where I think he was wrong and he thinks I was wrong, but I was not very happy as I got spun around and watched several cars fly by my from the bottom of the hill.  Luckily I got going again, but by that time I had already dropped back to 11th position and that is where I finished.  Again a tough pill to swallow: finishing 11th when I ran in the top 5 for the majority of the race, but such is racing.  I know that I have the potential to win one of these races and that is definitely one of my goals this year, but with it being so early in the season still I have to keep my eye on that championship and produce consistently good results.  

So with that mindset I head into New Jersey this weekend so wish me luck (and looking at the weather report I just may need it!).  After New Jersey and after my move back to Chicago things should calm down a bit and I will do some much needed site renovation, but for now it is back to the books so I can actually graduate college.  Although another year out in California wouldn't be all bad.....

Thanks for checking in,

-Nick