A break from the rules and a question answered!
So this morning while reading a Time Attack competitors Facebook page where he was getting some flak regarding his times and subsequently decided to make a new post regarding why he races obviously feeling somewhat compelled to directly address his critics I was messaged and asked why I Time Attack given how much crap I stir up and my vocal disdain for the rules and where the sport lies currently.
After thinking about it for a second I figured it might be something vaguely interesting to put down on paper so to speak!
I attended my first TA event in I believe 04 that was held at the then California Speedway as part of a huge event involving the JGTC field, a friend of mines shop was running an Evo and I'd to a small degree assisted with it's participation, from there I also went to one other event later that year at Streets of Willows and really enjoyed the concept.
At this point TA was really new to the US and I continued on with my focus which at the time was working as part of a Grand AM ST effort to quell my racing fix, In 06 when the guys working for me and I had enough of being a part of someone else's business and branched out we built a car for the NASA 25hr, we didn't exactly have a stellar event although I maintain to this day other than build and approach I'd do it all over again!
Following our less than spectacular event at the 25hr TA was building up a decent head of steam in the US and the Grand AM team I was working with was winding up so the guys and I decided to put on some sticky tires and turn up the boost from endurance mode and have a crack at TA. This was the season opener for RTA at Buttonwillow in 07, I think we came 2nd overall but more importantly we had a blast and I saw a very viable opportunity that would benefit the business!
The viable opportunity was not only we go out and have some fun racing but we could use the car as a fantastic R&D and overall learning experience, from my personal standpoint at this time I wanted to develop engine packages so pushing the component limits in a event format that promoted high HP made a lot of sense, what I never saw coming was wealth of knowledge we would gain in the overall package encompassing chassis, braking and Aero. What we have learned and continue to learn cannot be measured in dollars!
I'm extremely thankful for the knowledge we have learned and certainly wouldn't change very much if anything at all if I rolled the clock back (I've learnt as much from our fuck ups as I have from our successes that's for sure) I've also been truly blessed to work with and glean knowledge from some very good people along away, Marshall Pruett, Gary Sheehan, Andrew Brilliant, Christian Rado, Scott Stanwood, Chris Harrington (really do miss and think of you all the time brother, RIP) and Jeff Westphal to name just a few (it would be a really long list)
Something changed along the way, partly due to our success and possibly as I got older not really to sure but I really started to enjoy helping others nearly as much as helping our own program. I found I was continually passing out info be it setup wise or sharing company contacts to help hook someone up, lending parts, tires or even just a general helping hand wherever needed.
I think during this phase I believed we're all TA brothers, friends etc or whatever you'd like to deem it and paying it forward so to speak was the thing to do. It also made me feel pretty good, it didn't make me a better person or anything as I'm a dick and no sending someone the email address for Hankook or giving them a set of wheels etc is going to really change that but I certainly felt like I was helping and perhaps ultimately the sport would gain as a whole (this all really started as TA in the US was taking a hit)
Over the past two years as we as a team decided to step back and not rush a rebuild things changed a lot for me as an outsider looking in with a keen interest as we still aimed to TA, I'm not 100% sure it was just me as this is something shared by the crew here but what we all thought we were missing was hanging out with friends and overall paddock spirit at events which all of a sudden sort of clicked to us is more of an illusion or quite frankly a thin veiled mask of complete bullshit!
Stepping back a little and looking on opened my eyes to what I see more now as a bunch of small clicks holding a candle that should be flame of a niche sport, perhaps if my perception is in any way, shape or form accurate this accounts for a part of where the sport is currently over here. Regardless if I'm right or wrong my thoughts remain and the fact that I have gone from enjoying to be a part of helping others to feeling like I'm a complete twat to be used in doing so!
Where does this leave me and what I regard as the best crew out there in any form of motorsports (you'll be hard to find a more dedicated group of people on the planet) Simple, we're going to go back to our roots a little and refocus our efforts!
You may ask why continue attending events as you've basically posted above you think people you thought were friends basically used you for shit all the time? That one is also simple, as a person that has always been a fierce competitor at anything I have attempted channeling good or bad things into motivation was something I was trained to do from the earliest of ages.
So here's why we do Time Attack, as a team we're more than that everyone on the team is family and we are all agreed on the fact we have really enjoyed learning to build a car around a fantastic driver with very limited resources and going up against big budget builds and the others in our class is something we really enjoy doing and none of us see that changing. We are going to put forth all of our efforts to continue to develop and learn with the goal of being the fastest TA car there is.
