Wow, so it has been awhile since I last posted.  Honestly, I am terrible at keeping up with this kind of thing, which I am sure that is painfully obvious!  This year, however, I feel it might be important.  This year is bound to be an exciting, humbling, and immense learning opportunity for me as a driver.  Which might prove entertaining for others.  No promises, though.

I have switched cars this year, and will be running in a 1994 CSP Mazda Miata.  Not just any CSP Miata, however.  The Becker/McCabe/Eckles CSP Miata.  Yeah, the one that has been driven to multiple National Championships.  The one that was featured in Sports Car magazine.  The one that John Becker built, from the ground up, into the amazing cone dicing machine that it is.  I have always wanted to drive this car.  Any time it was offered for a fun run, or for an event for whatever reason, I would jump at the chance.  It was like being offered to drive your childhood dream car.  I guess I have always looked at this car as the pinnacle of Solo racing.  Now, I am not implying that it is the pinnacle of Solo racing, just mine.  Then I heard Becker was selling it.  I was shocked!  But when I learned Sue was buying it, I was quite relieved.  The car was staying local.  But who was going to drive it?  So, after meeting with Sue, here I am, co-driving with two multi-national champions, in a car I have always really, really wanted to drive.  Amazing. 

Now, after telling you all of that, I must also mention that making the switch wasn't an easy decision.  Last year didn't end quite the way I had hoped.  I ended up 6th at Nationals, well off the pace on the first day.  I just couldn't get there.  Not sure why.  Lack of confidence in the car.  Myself.  Not sure.  Either way, I didn't drive my best.  So the performance was lack luster, to say the least.  And to top that off, I was under the impression it was my last event in Bubba.  Jon and I were pretty sure Andy and Teressa would be picking him up on their way to his next post, this spring.  I walked into the banquet, that final night of Nationals, a bit depressed.  Not simply due to my results and that the car would be gone, but what that signified.  My co-drive with my best friend was coming to an end.  As was running in a class with a bunch of people I have really grown to respect, and enjoy racing against:  Kerry Coughlin, Andy Canak, Ian Baker, Darrin Madaffari, David Whitener, and his wife Kim, John Mensch, Hilary Anderson....  The list could, and does, go on.  And that was only the group in STS.  That doesn't even include the ST crowd!  What a fun, and cool, group to race with.  I would be leaving all that, behind.  It was actually really depressing.  Then Andy made the offer.  We could drive Bubba again, this year.  Wait, what?  So now I have to choose between Bubba and the Miata?!    

So, there I was.  Choosing between a class that I loved, and a car I had longed to drive.  A chance at unfinished business, or a new start.  It really was a hard decision.  It boiled down to not wanting to possibly lose the opportunity to drive the CSP car, if I didn't take it right then.  I couldn't risk that.  And while the Miata was local, and would always be here, Bubba would not.  Also, Jon mentioned he wouldn't be co-driving, either way.  He wanted to focus on Rally-X this year.  But the final nail in the coffin, was driving the Miata at one of the last auto-x's of the year.  It just felt like home.  Having started off auto-xing in a Miata (in CSP, then SM2), it just felt right.  The decision was made.  It was time to make the switch.  Thank you, again, Sue.

Fast forward to yesterday, April 22nd.  That was my first event in the car on a nationals style/size course.  Even though we were on well worn tires, the car simply blew me away.  I had become so used to STS speeds, that the CSP car felt like it was capable of warp drive!  The speed differential was intense.  The smaller events I had done in the car thus far, simply couldn't prepare me for what kind of speeds the car was actually capable of.  My first two runs were all "asses and elbows".  I was over driving, to put it mildly.  I heard there were bets on whether or not I would actually spin the car, at one point.  On my 3rd run, however, I managed to smooth it all out, and run a decent time.  But I was still off of Matt's pace by about .5 seconds, after he took his 3rd.  On my fourth run, I found some extra speed on the back section that he and Sue said I was missing, and was set to put together a really solid run.  Then I overcooked the finish, stepping the car way out sideways to the point of needing to back off,  losing a bunch of time.  Oh, and I had some cones.  Either way, first "real" event was now over, and the learning has begun.  Seems this will be a trial by fire, as I have only one other event to get acclimated to the car before Spring Nats!  

So, there it is.  The start... The beginning...  And an end.  Kind of bittersweet, really.  No time to dwell, though.  Now it is time to review some video.  Need to see what I can learn from the tall alien in the red helmet.