No Racing, No Cry

It's official - my race season is over.  AFM round 7 happens in a couple weeks, but I'm off to a wedding in Oregon.  I asked them to reschedule the wedding around my race schedule, I think it's kinda selfish they won't do it, but c'est la vie... he's a good friend so I'll skip my race and attend anyway.  I will drop down in season standings from currently 4th to somewhere between 6th and 10th... we'll have to see how all the guys right behind me in points do that weekend.

Even typing this plan out in writing tastes like vinegar pouring out of my fingertips.  It would be one thing to race and just get clocked, but in this case I'm going to let the competition beat me by NOT EVEN SHOWING UP.  This goes against most every fiber of my being...  90% of life being participation.  I'm neither the smartest or the best looking guy, but especially in the last 10 years I have good, "being present" skills.  This is a big factor in my career progress and value I deliver to my employer (as with many technology executives, see: 170 flights/ year...)

So to deliver some semblance of internal peace about this race skipping business, I'm doing two cool things:  (a) I raced in the WERA round at Auto Club Speedway in Los Angeles last weekend, and (b) I'm doing a track day at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah in a couple weeks.  I think this is a good way to wrap up the race season anyway, doing fun days with friends in semi-exotic track locations.  I will be checking the laptimes posted on MyAFM during the AFM round 7 though from my phone, refreshing every 10 seconds.

So about now begins the campaign of letter writing to potential sponsors.  Show them I made a race season happen with no crashing (wow!), raced with two clubs, got some top five finishes, graduated to the "expert" license status, racked up some points in three classes, and have my head a little picked up looking out at the 2011 season and my sophomore race season.