Yes, another great event! I didn’t want it to end and can’t wait until Ohio.
The fun started in Sebring with meeting some new friends and joining some old ones. We had ample track time on a historic track. I went through 65 gallons of fuel in 4 days and gave 25 rides to different people including my three students. Two people asked me to slow it down so I brought it to a 100% grip, I remember thinking how good the car was working because it still seemed fast. One of the passengers was laughing so nervously loud that it was actually distracting but I didn’t want to bring him down. Because of budget constraints I was running the OE brakes and went through a new set of front race pads over the weekend (Cobalt VR). The OE brakes were challenging in this car, as the car pulled into 5th gear before turn 1, 7, 10, 15, and 17.
Then we trucked to Daytona to get a track tour, I have driven this track a number of times but I wasn’t going to miss hanging out with my friends. A number of us took the Pit-Stop Challenge where three people change a Nascar tire as fast as possible. Each team kept besting the previous times of the day, and the Chicago team beat the all time record. We then checked into the Orlando hotel where they had an open bar every day during happy hour. Did I mention that we drank every day for 10 days? I haven’t done that since college.
The next notable activity was the go-cart racing. At first I was disappointed that we didn’t have the customary NSXPO competition carts with transponders, but the racing was a hoot anyway. Very slippery with drifting and banging. We did eliminations all night until only two drivers remained. I want to add that like any other competition I play to win, and things were going well until another team executed their superior plan of blocking me from victory… rooked at my own game. The last two drivers Ben and Scott were told to pick a blocker (A driver to aid in their victory) Ben instantly picked me “Shake & Bake”. When Scott came back from his previous victory celebration he was told he needed to pick a driver, he also immediately said my name… I was proud to be picked, until it dawned on me… what makes me the first AS&H@LE that comes to mind? Anyway we went to battle and my only objective was to frustrate Scott until he blew a gasket. I hugged the inside where the grip was the best so that he was forced to pass in the sawdust covered slippery part of the track, I then used my momentum to push him off the track into pits and quickly sealed off the exit with the perpendicular of my cart… I could barely hear the victorious sound of the race slipping through Scott’s fingers over the teapot sound bleeding from his ears. Of course Ben had no trouble with straight arming Vaughn (The mastermind behind the blocking that took my easy victory)… back to Ben toying with Vaughn like he wasn’t even on the track. I think we won by 7 or 8 laps but they gave the victory to Scott out of pity. I mentioned the drinking didn’t I?
Later that night we went to a bar name Howl at the Moon, where we resumed the margaritas and had a great time listening and viewing a comedic concert. I think we likely had an unusually good collection of girls doing audience participation parts of the act. After hunting tattoo parlors and breakfast we made it home around 2:40 am.
The next day was relaxing at the pool with more socializing. When Shigeru Uehara arrived at the hotel I was honored that he wanted to see the unique mods to my car.
Friday morning we had a 40-60 mile police escort to the Kennedy Space center where they stopped all highway traffic for our group. It’s a pretty spectacular sight that I have never seen before. I bet this pissed a lot of people off. A Corvette must have passed the barricade because as it passed me and the rest of the NSX’s, one of the motorcycle cops got off his bike and stood in the middle of the road and forced the car to pull over. I don’t know if he gave him a ticket or just a verbal thrashing. I decided to take the racecar so I was a little concerned for the trip back without an escort. The space center tour was good but the best part was the eagle experience. Our bus driver mentioned that we were coming up to an enormous eagles nest that had been used by eagles for 30 years. As we passed the nest he spotted an eagle perched on a telephone pole. We were all excited to see the eagle so close but as we passed he launched into flight and flew at about the same speed as the bus for us all to see through the large windows. The eagle slowly descended as its talons came out and pounced on it’s pray (A white bird). This all happened like 10 feet from the bus in the middle section of the bus, I think four people caught it on camera.
That evening Peter Cunningham and Shigeru Uehara gave speeches at our dinner, Peter mentioned the eagle story and noted this was like life where the predator consumes the prey. I couldn’t help thinking that this accurately described our two road racing careers. That night a small group of about ten of us went to the bar to talk racing with Peter. This was a great opportunity and was a fun glimpse of his dry sense of humor.
Saturday was the vendor day in the hotel parking lot, I got to meet more people I knew from Prime but had not yet met in person. One of the vendors was Makes & Models magazine who had a couple of models to take some memorable NSX pictures with. At one point the photographer asked me and another driver to take the models down International drive for a moving photo shoot. He picked the two most outrageous cars so I asked if he wanted any action… of course he said yes. Wow I don’t normally need an excuse to show off but this was almost like an invitation. I helped the model strap in (All 6 points), then buckled in myself. I put my first beer on hold as the two don’t mix. I proceeded to stop traffic outside the hotel and marked my territory with rubber. A number of people asked if I lost control during the first donut. I won’t lie. Yes, kind of. My first part of the shameless display of attention was a high rev drift but changing directions in a rear engine car is hard because it wants to snap. So yes the car snapped without asking permission but it was something I expected so I went with it and controlled it. The model in the passenger seat was verbally excited… I couldn’t imagine matching that same excitement inside the hotel. (Or at least not in writing) After parking and walking through the parking lot I heard “ Cunningham’s autograph was nice but yours is awesome” knowing he wasn’t talking about celebrity status I looked over with confusion so Milid and Tony showed me a picture of the markings that came from my tires. Cool, it was sort of artistic.
Earlier that day we had a tech seminar in one of the conference rooms, some interesting discussion but we only scratch the surface of what could fill a week worth of information.
Saturday evening we got to hear some stories from Derek Bell, what a fortunate and talented driver. The auction and raffle was interesting and better detailed on another thread. I purchased a couple of race steering wheels to get signed by Shiguru, Peter and Derek. One for my office wall and I donated the other for the auction.
Sunday we went to the Fantasy of Flight museum and airport for a group picture and lunch. I was planning on skipping this event but I knew of at least 10 cars that did the same, so I decided to unload both my cars for the group picture and concourse. I was surprised that more cars attended then I originally thought. I had to be at work the next morning so my time was limited. I didn’t get to here the concourse results because the schedule was changed for after lunch instead of before. Normally the results are shared while everyone is together after the meal.
I may not have the racecar next year but I will still have an NSX and plan to see you all again at Mid Ohio.
If you have eagle pictures or pictures of my International dr. shoot, please post them.
