Well, I found a couple more shots of our hats on the Web:

• Motorsport.com: http://www.motorsport.com/photos/popup.asp?N=34&I=alms/2002/atl/alms-2002-atl-rs-0308.jpg&FS=ALMS
• IMSARacing.Net: http://www.imsaracing.net/2002/photos/petitlemans/NiceHats.jpg

Nothing else much going on right now. Word is that we're finally about to close on financing at work! Woo Hoo! As soon as that money hits the bank, we'll move forward on acquiring race vehicles! More news as it occurs.

We went to the Petit le Mans Thursday through Saturday. The weather basically sucked Thursday, but was much better Friday, and exceptional on Saturday. As with all previous Petit le Mans events, this one finished on laps rather than time. Even with a 50+ lap caution period!

That lunatic Boris Said drove four cars in different classes over the race weekend! One of his crew members said they figured he had over 500 race miles on the track that weekend alone.

A bunch of funny stuff happened over the weekend. For example, at one point we're walking around the vendor area in the infield. I look down and notice a drum for 110 octane racing fuel. Some wit had pasted a Dark Dog sticker on it (Dark Dog is an "energy drink" like Red Bull ).

A few minutes later we went over to the Discovery Parts trailer to get driver's suits and gloves. While we were trying them on, Ron Zappendorf (proprietor of Discovery) says "hey, the Panoz display is only a few feet away, let's take your picture in front of the display car". So we grabbed a couple of helmets off the counter and went over there.

While we're getting arranged, with tags still on the suits and helmets, and wearing sneakers, the "Coyote Ugly" girls (similar to the Hooters girls) wander up. Unbeknownst to us, Ron tells them that we had taken first place the day before! At this point, they get excited and basically can't wait to get into the picture. So Ron snaps a couple of shots of us with about six seriously attractive girls hanging on us.

We also wore our "Panoz hats". It was Scott's idea. We put 1:10 scale remote control car bodies for the Panoz LMP-07 car. I painted mine with last year's livery, since it was simple. Scott was more ambitious and did this year's livery. We managed to get all of the Panoz drivers to autograph our bodies, and even got a couple of pictures of us wearing the hats with the drivers on the starting grid!

We were really amazed at the reaction. A hundred or more people stopped us and complimented the hats, and at least a dozen took our photos, including the Panoz team photographer and a photographer for the local newspaper. Scott even made the front page of that paper on Sunday! We even heard the announcer talking about us on the PA system one time, and the TV cameras pointed at us a couple of times, though we don't know if we got on the air. Here are a few links for sites where we've found our pictures:

• Panoz Motorsports: http://www.panozmotorsports.com/gallery/11_oct_track_gal/pages/DSC06136.htm
• Gainesville (Ga) Times newspaper: http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20021013/topstories/279627.html
• Cyber Motorsports (scroll all the way to the bottom): http://www.lasersol.com/plm2002/qualifying.html
• Pirro.com (Emmanuele Pirro's Web Site): http://www.pirro.com/news/2002/petit-le-mans/road-atlanta-gallery-john-brooks/panoz-fans-1.html

We also went and checked out a 125cc shifter kart on Sunday. It looks really good, and I suspect we'll be getting both the kart and the Spitfire as soon as the cash is available.

All in all, it was a pretty exciting weekend.

Boy, this is annoying. The financial situation at work is still not solidified, so all of these plans are still on hold. With any sort of luck at all, it will only be another couple of weeks. :-(

One the upside, the Petit le Mans is later this week, and we're really looking forward to it. The weather even looks like it will be good.

I checked out both new and old Mazda Miatas last weekend, and it's for sure. There's no way I can use one as my only car. There's just not enough room for those holiday trips back to visit the family. I'm seriously looking at selling the Mustang and getting rid of the car payment in favor of something I can buy for cash. At this point, I'm looking seriously at a '93-'97 Ford Probe GT or early '90s Nissan 240sx.

Well, this past weekend saw the HSR Atlanta congregation at Road Atlanta. The turnout was pretty good, but the weather really put a damper on events. I don't think the stock cars ever did get a chance to qualify, and the bottom fell out of the clouds just as they were trying to get into their garage areas.

In fact, the humidity was so bad, that my camera temporarily "shorted out" and refused to even turn on reliably. So I only got a couple of shots. Fortunately that couple included one or two of a Porsche 911 GT1! Simply awesome. I'd only own one for a couple of hours/days/weeks ... then I'd be under a jail somewhere. Sorta like if I ever bought a McLaren GT-1.

We did, however, stumble onto a Triumph Spitfire that's for sale. It's already prepped for SCCA F Production or G Production, and the price seems very reasonable. I've sort of had my heart set on a Miata and eventually Spec Miata racing, but the Spit is interesting. I'm really torn at this point ... but we're still waiting for word at work, so it's not really a problem yet.

I've read about half of Carroll Smith's Tune to Win and I'm learning a ton of stuff. Some of it I had already started coming to grips with from trying to get remote control race cars set up. But Mr. Smith does a wonderful job of both putting the information in comprehensible terms and netting out all of the details to the ones that are important.

And just how hard is it to find a place locally that sells Snell SA 2000 helmets? Let's be real, here. There's no way I'm going to plunk down that amount of cash without trying the thing on. Size is one thing, but, like a brassiere, shape is important, too.

There seem to be four places in Atlanta, but they're all quite a ways from my house and job (which are close together). There used to be Racer Wholesale, but they've closed down their storefront and only do mail and Internet orders now. The closest one left is at least a thirty minute drive, even though it's only ten or fifteen miles. The next closest is thirty or thirty-five minutes; the next close to an hour; the last over an hour. Sheesh! I think I'll just catch up with Ron Zappendorf of Discovery Parts or Tim Lee of Safe-Quip Racing Products at an event at Road Atlanta.

Boy, the "Hot Lap" last Thursday really got me going. I can't wait to get something out on the track somehow. I think I'll order brake pads and fluid for the Mustang and set up a Track Day or HPDE event. It's driving me nuts!

Well, I've had to quit looking at the classified ads and ebay Motors for cheap Mazda Miatas. The frustration was just getting to be too much. Things are kinda unsettled at work right now, and I can't drop that kind of coin until it's sorted out. That should occur by the end of September, for better or worse. If it's for better, this page will continue. If it's for worse, I'll be looking for a job instead of a car!

I needed to perform a little "retail therapy", though, to assuage my subconscious. So I wandered over to the Barnes & Noble web site and bought some books about racing:

• Smith, Carroll. Carroll Smith's Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners, and Plumbing Handbook. Motorbooks: April, 1990. Paperback, 223pp. ISBN 0879384069.
• Smith, Carroll. Drive To Win: The Essential Guide to Race Driving. Smith, Carroll Consulting, Incorporated: June 1996. Paperback, 192pp. ISBN 0965160009.
• Smith, Carroll. Tune To Win: The Art and Science of Race Car Development and Tuning. Motorbooks: January, 1979. Paperback, 173pp. ISBN 0879380713.
• Staniforth, Allan. Competition Car Suspension: Design, Construction, Tuning, 3rd Edition. Haynes Publications Inc.: September, 1999. Hardcover, 268pp. ISBN 185960644X.

On top of that, I went over to the web site for the Grassroots Motorsports magazine. They did a Miata project recently, and I figured they would have some good input for our (eventual) Spec Miata project. So I ordered two of their sets of back issues. One is five issues with articles covering the history of the Miata. The other is five issues covering their project car and its progress, add ons, performance, etc.

The order from Barnes & Noble has already arrived, and those books are going to take several readings to completely digest. I'm waiting for the magazine back issues with bated breath!

Tonight was the night! We went to the Petit le Mans preview and saw the new livery for the Panoz Motorsports LMP-01 Evo 2002. We also did our "hot lap" with a professional driver from the Panoz Racing School in one of the school's GT-RA purpose-built race cars. I was paired with Cass Whitehead, probably one of their most experienced drivers.

The "hot lap" of Road Atlanta was a blast! I was surprised at how violent the braking was, though. If Cass was "rolling onto" the brakes, you couldn't tell it by my neck and the helmeted mass bouncing around at the end of it. There didn't seem to be much "rolling onto" the throttle, either.

The other thing that surprised me was how short the straights on Road Atlanta are. In the simulators I've used, even much more powerful cars get to the end of the straights a lot slower than the GT-RA did tonight. The GT-RA, in reality, goes a lot slower than a "prototype" car, say, an Audi R8C or a Panoz Motorsports LMP-01 Evo 2002.

In addition, the simulators downplay the amount of rise and fall in the track, and they don't give a true representation of the complexes at turns 2/3/4 and 10 A/B. These turns are much more violent than they seem to be in the various simulators.

We also got to play around on the skid pad with an Audi A4, also with one of the driving school instructors on board. They had the sprinklers going, and the instructor taught us a bit about handling skids by periodically pulling the emergency brake.

Finally, they had an Audi TT 1.8 liter turbo all wheel drive, and a short autocross track. On these, you went out solo! That was really a blast. After the crowd died down, we got back into line a couple of times for additional passes. The turbo would really catch you out if you weren't careful, as it didn't spool up until the middle of a couple of the straights.

Having become more devoted as race fans over the last couple of years, we both sprang for "season tickets" for the 2002 season at Road Atlanta. They call the program the Grand Prix Club. It provides entry for all thirteen spectator events of the season, a discount on tickets, and things like that.

It turned out to also include an invitation to a Petit le Mans preview reception, including a "hot lap" with a professional driver. That's coming up soon, and I'm really looking forward to it. I may take along some Depends^TM, though.

We're thinking we should start out our on-track adventures by doing a little work to our daily drivers and getting in some time with HPDE and Track Days seat time. That gets us on-track a lot quicker. It'll only cost a couple of hundred to do brake pads, fluid, and lines, and regular maintenance to be ready. We'll have to get helmets, but we have to do that no matter what.

The medium term focus, however, is putting together a 1990-1997 Mazda Miata for the Spec Miata class. More on that as it develops.