We experienced a fantastic and fitting ending to our 2012 racing season at Sonoma Raceway two weeks ago as we won both the final USTCC race of the season along with our final Time Trials (TTU) outing of the season. Each was special in its own way for the Life’s Good Racing!TM team. Following is a recap on the day.
Dave Brown qualified the Life’s Good Racing!TM Lancer on the pole after two qualifying sessions, one Saturday and one Sunday. At the drop of the green flag the only thing Dave saw during the entire race was open track in front of him as he lead the field every lap of the entire 30 minute sprint race. I will be posting the video of the race, however I’ll only show the rear camera as there are no cars to be seen from the front! This was a masterful job by Dave from the initial launch where he was able to put all the power down being generated by the WORKS Motorsport’s tuned motor (thank you Supertech for the fantastic componentry) with the grab provided by Competition Clutch (CCI). and the “whoa” from Hawk Performance, which produces the best brake pads in the business. This win represents the second of the eight race season, and a welcome reprieve from the mechanicals we dealt with in prior weekends. The win also sends a loud-and-clear message to all USTCC competitors that Life’s Good Racing!TM will be a force to pay attention to next year.
It was great to see Dave standing at the top of the podium getting the recognition he, and the entire Life’s Good Racing!TM team deserves after so much hard work and after dealing with so many setbacks. We expect this to be a much more common sight next year in 2013, both in this series and others in which we are planning to compete.
In TTU (Time Trials Unlimited) we completed a clean sweep of every competitive event for the 2012 season, winning all 17 competitive events! We had some great competition, however the 1969 Camaro was unstoppable. That 440Hp and big, meaty road race tires gave it the power and grip while endless chassis tuning provided us with the all-around performance we needed to win, regardless the track.
The weekend didn’t go down easy, however, as we struggled with a number of small problems. Here, Crew Chief Chris Hovey scrambles Saturday morning to get us on track as he works through a problem with a wheel stud on the 69 Camaro. We were able to get on track shortly thereafter and take the session thanks to Chris.
The fantastic performance we had this year with both of the Life’s Good Racing!TM race cars is testimonial to Chris’s commitment and that of the entire team. Significant contributors this year include: “Uncle Mike” Brown, Eric VanZandt, James Gouveia, “Pitt” (Dave Pittenger), Ken Blake, Chris Carstens, Andrew Pittenger and Dan Chicca. Everyone sees the drives crawling into and out of the cars, but they represent only the tip of a monumental effort to prepare and setup the cars, often taking many days and sleepless nights. Thanks go out to the entire team for what each of you did to make this happen!
We go into the next three months (December through February), traditionally the winter “down time”, with a laundry list of work to perform on each car in order to prep for the 2013 season. There will be absolutely no let-up to the intensity of the work that will be done, which will include on-track testing days as we work alternative set-ups.
And, of course, we will soon be debuting the 2012 Camaro (#96) as the 550Hp LS3 motor arrives in less than two weeks. At 2500lbs, this car promises to be nothing less than amazing. We expect to do very well in next year’s racing competition with this beast.
Here you can see #96 adjacent to #69 at a charity event held at the Danville Auto Museum earlier this month in support of the Diabetic Youth Foundation. From left to right are: me, Claudia, Dave and Chris. Thanks goes to PJ Kiely for making the arrangements for those of us who were able to attend with our cars and display them in such a beautiful setting for such a worthy cause.
It’s time to get back to work as three months goes by all too quickly.
See you NEXT YEAR at the races!