Summa Summa Time...
Ladies and gentlemen... the semester at IUSB is over so that means work is slowing down a little. My busy fraternity travel time has wrapped up, and now it is summer time. As the Fresh Prince said...
Drums Please... Summa Summa Time...

Now there are a lot things I love about summer: Novali will be out of school soon. That means more time to hangout, go places, do some fun things, and juts enjoy relaxing long weekends. It also means vacation time away from the office. I work a lot... luckily I love what I do so I don't mind so much. However everyone needs some time away from the office. I am not sure what I have planned right now, but I just need some time to relax and not working (that means no consulting, no IUSB, no fraternity, nothing). My parents and both my Brothers are coming to Michigan in June. Its gonna be great.

One passion of mine in the summer, and the thing I can not do in these cold winter months is RACE! Racing season is in full swing now and I love being close to so many events now! I blogged about my race on April 20th... well I did one on May 10th in Grand Rapids with Furrin Group and just finished one on May 18th with my South Bend Region (SBR) Sports Car Club of America.

I was thinking at my Furrin Group race that it was their first race of the season... I remember their first race of the season four years ago when I skipped my graduation to go and race. I need to look up the old pics of that day but I did find my blog post about it. Check this link for two posts about the NX: April 2004 Blog

While looking I thought I would compare my times. Times for AutoX are done in two ways. First is the cars are broken into categories by class. This is by engine size, types modifications, tires (Street or Race), and other items (too many to list). With my NX I an in STS (Street Tire Class that allows lots of mods) which is usually a big class with lots of cars. Right now I run GS (G Stock which means very few mods are allowed but you can run race tires) which doesn't have a lot of cars, but the class is very competitive and in SBR some of the top drivers are in my class. Second is all the cars are classed and put in a class index to rank all their times together.

Well here is my comparison over two different Furrin Group Season Openers.

April 2004 - in STS placed 9th out of 12. Overall 44 out of 64 on the Index.
May 2008 - in GS placed 2nd out of 6. Overall 19 out of 83 on the Index.

So as you can see in a couple years I have really moved up the rankings! I am having a ton of fun and its is a huge stress reliever for me. I like coming home the days before a race and getting the car stuff ready, packing a lunch to take to the event, and then just hanging out with car guys. It has been a little sad lately cause all three events this year I have done alone. I miss having someone come and watch me and just enjoy the day.

Anyhow... no more races for a couple weeks. I am hoping to do a race with the Saginaw Valley SCCA club while my parents and brothers are in town. We will see... well here are pics from my first three races of the year: 2008 - April and May AutoX

Pics of my car were taken by photographers at the events, other pics were taken on my Treo so not the best quality but enough!