So if you are anything like my mother you probably are wondering what the heck has Chris been up to lately? Well, I am not AWOL, just busy!
I spent last week in Lincoln Nebraska at the SCCA Solo National Championships, what’s that? Car racing. How’d I do? eh, not worth mentioning where I actually finished, but I did get to see friends I haven’t seen since Nationals in 2008, the last time I attended. I couldn’t really believe that I hadn’t been since 2008, but that is the truth, with the move to Colorado in 2009 and then California in 2010 I just didn’t get to go. I’ll have more blog posts/videos/photos from Solo Nationals in the coming week.
When I got back from Nationals I spent two days catching up with Natalie and Jacqueline. Sunday we headed into San Francisco to get out of Half Moon Bay and see some things. We didn’t do much, but had a nice brunch in the Presidio, drove around Golden Gate Park, and walked around near Fort Mason. Here's a photo from a lookout point at the Presidio
This morning we went to Olivia's first birthday party in San Carlos. Check out some of the photos from the party. Saturday Natalie and Jacqueline went to Sophia’s birthday party as well, photos here.
After the birthday party today we had a few folks over for a crab fest. A couple of weeks ago I had a crab dinner at a local restaurant and was kind of grumpy that I paid $22+ for half a pound of crab, so I decided that we should have our own crab dinner at our house. We had the Strohls (4), Jeff Seeling (1) and Heyward and Julia (2) over for dinner tonight. I picked up some crab from the Half Moon Bay Safeway. It was $7/lb, cooked, cracked and cleaned. I had gone to the Half Moon Bay Fish Market on Sunday to see how much it was there, I thought it was a good deal at $10/lb cooked/cleaned. I am glad that I went to Safeway this morning before the party to check things out though, the Yelp reviews for the Fish Market made me start to have second thoughts. Safeway turned out to be great for this dinner.
Basically we took the crab from Safeway, put it into foil lined and covered pans with a small amount of water in them, and put them on the grill for 6-9 minutes. I think they turned out great. We had 5 crabs, probably 12 lbs total, and it seemed to cover the 8 of us, though I think only 5 or 6 of us actually ate crab, in the future I’ll likely do 1 per person if we do this again. I only took 2 photos tonight, was too busy cleaning and having a good time with friends!
This week I have a lot of catching up to do on work! It was great to have the week off, but I feel like I am now way behind at the office!
So where I Chris at? I’m doing this all week!
I’m at the 2011 SCCA Tire Rack Solo National Championships in Lincoln Nebraska. Stay tuned to Flickr and YouTube for videos and photos from throughout the week!
So here it goes. The second attempt at writing this blog post. I had it 50% complete about 10 minutes ago, but then Windows Live Writer started typing backwards and then completely crapped out and went away.
2010 In Review
Well, Day 1 is over, I ended up 5th, 1 out of trophies, Nick ended up in 10th. Long day, lots of sun, the brackets start tomorrow. I'll try to get more time to post tomorrow.
So I guess I didn't need any practice going into the Atlanta Pro Solo next weekend (aka Doublecross). It was raining and windy this morning when I left the house, but I had every intention of running the event out at Gateway Raceway.
I get out there and I see that there are no cones on the lot for a course, and it looks like people are leaving. Sure enough, the damn event was cancelled. I hung around the lot for 20-30 minutes to chat with the stragglers who were still there, and those who were showing up.
This might be my only post today. It took 5 minutes to load this webpage so I Could post! The internet here at the Holiday Inn near the stadiums sucks! I'm here though, ready to race, it'll be a cold day today.
A quick personal post, I'll do a full writeup tomorrow night on www.Corvettez06.org
Jeremy finished 1st and I finished 3rd in SS (I lost second by .080 Sunday).
We both made it into the Hawk Super Challenge that ran on Sunday afternoon. Though, somehow, out of 32 drivers we managed to get paired up head to head. So I went out and warmed the tires up for him, hoping to give him an edge going into the rest of the challenge. He smoked me with his fastest run of the weekend, though couldn't recreate it on his next bracket against a fricken Chrysler Crossfire....
Great job nonetheless.
I think the Days Inn here in Newport Arkansas discriminates against tall people. In order to take a shower and wash my hair I had to shower on my knees because the darn shower head is so short.
If this isn't just one of the coolest things of 2008 I don't know what is. Flickr now allows for video uploads!!!
What's the big deal you might ask, there are already other video services, well I am a huge fan of Flickr, and would much rather upload my videos to Flickr, the same place I upload all my photos. Their clips have a maximum length of 90 seconds, PERFECT for autocross runs!
The above video is my first upload for Flickr. It's actually a very poor video, the camera mount I used this past weekend frankly sucks! I'll hopefully get a new one tomorrow.
I'm headed to Kansas City in the morning to attend two days of the Evolution Driving school. I'll try to post more tomorrow, I need to finish packing now.
A quick post as I have way too much work to catch up on! Dave and I made it back from Georgia early in the morning. Natalie came and picked me up and I think we made it to bed around 3am. Much earlier than I had expected. We made the trip back from Adel Georgia in 11 hours, the trip down took 13 hours with the ice storm and rain most of the way. More on then race later tonight when I get to blog on
Corvettez06.org
Today started out alright. Breakfast at IHOP, headed to the event site to unload the car and mount tires.
Car up on the jack, tires off the driver's side. Time to adjust the shocks. That is when it all went to hell.
Head on over to www.corvettez06.org to find out...
Good news for me! After taking a year off of Nationals in 2006 I'm once again headed to Topeka for a week in September! I registered this morning in CStock in a 2007 Pontiac Solstice! The Collins have asked me to codrive this year in Topeka, a great honor for me to be asked. Bud was also mentioned as a contender for the CS National Championship so I'm doublely honored to get the opportunity to assist him in doing so.
I booked my hotel for the week in Topeka this morning and registered for #63 CS as well! More on my Nationals adventure coming up here online! Also, I want to thank Nick Jackson for also offering me a ride in his STS Civic at Nationals. While I had looked forward to trying my hand at a FWD car at Nationals again (my first two tries I think left me with DFL both times) I couldn't turn down the opportunity to drive a RWD stock car, one that has a great chance at winning to boot!
See you all at Nationals, and look for reports from our crack reporting staff this year in Topeka!
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Why do I torture myself so? Seriously? All day, well since around noon, all I can think about is buying a Pontiac Solstice to autocross. There's a silver Z0k (sport suspension) package available in Iowa, 485 miles from my house. Seriously why do I do this? I have car in the garage, and a Tahoe in the driveway, but all I can think about tonight is getting a Solstice, getting some wheels and tires and competing in it at every autocross I can make it to.....
Hopefully this feeling passes...
I was digging through some old photos tonight looking for photos of Jeff Krekeler, when I ran across this photo I took back in June of 2004.
When I get bored, lazy, or tired of working on the Project240z, I only have to look at that photo and realize what I'm striving for. That car is beautiful, and I hope my car can one day look that...
I finally got to working on the SM2 project today. I didn't do much, but I got over a big hurdle.I got the 240Z moved out of the garage and moved the 280z 2+2 into the garage so I can start tearing the motor out of it. I also removed the hood and hinges from the 280, fit the hood onto the 240. That was another concern, if the hood would actually swap nicely between the two. So far it looks like it will, though I didn't bother putting the hinges on it and onto the 240 as I will just have to remove it when I go to put the motor back into the 240Z when ready.Hopefully this week I'll get started on pulling the motor out of the 280, though I'm going to have to see if I can get someone to buy the 240Z motor first, It's taking up too much room in the garage.
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Well, my 2003 350Z Enthusiast model is officially paid off. It is also no longer my car!My buddy Jasyn "Dozzle" Randazzo took a train from Kansas City to St. Louis last night and drove the car home today. I talked to Dozzle this afternoon, he made it back to KC and was out and about showing the car off to friends.Have fun with her Dozzle! She's a good ride! Now that the 350Z is gone I hope to spend more time on the 240Z to get that going soon.
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Looking for something to do in St. Louis this weekend? Here's what I've got planned.Forest Park Balloon RaceRacing at Grandprix Speedways. they'll have a close to 1/2 mile track open this weekend.Rallycross at GIR on SundayBuy my car! posted from...
I'm selling my 2003 Nissan 350Z. It's currently on Ebay. You can find it by following this link. Details, a 2003 350Z with just under 79k miles on it. I'm selling it in stock form, but have other items I'd consider selling to set it up for BS in Solo if there's interest. Contact me for more information!
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I've been putting things on ebay this evening,
Here are my 350Z Enkei RPF1s, 17" wheels, BStock legal for 17" 350Zs.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1,1&item=150032437137
Also listed a dual weber setup off the 1973 240Z.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=005&item=150032411962
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The new ride is now rolling on 20s! Why you might ask? Because they were a great deal at the time of purchase. I have these wheels and the stock set of wheels/tires to put back on when the weather turns for the worse.Between the 5 cars in the driveway/garage there are 20 wheels and tires on the ground, that's in addition to the 12 extra wheels for the 350Z all with tires on them, plus the 7 extra tires for the 350Z and 4 wheels/tires for Tahoe.That makes for a total 36 wheels and 43 tires in my household. Add 2 more to each of those if you count the wheels/tires for the Scooter! posted from...
Due to the fact that I'm not going to Nationals this year (wedding/honeymoon in december and I'm out of vacation) I'm open to the idea that someone else competes my car at Nationals. My usual codriver has taken an excellent opportunity in a BSP STI, so he won't be driving the Z this year.
I believe this car to be the most well prepared 350Z in the country. Not to knock Carter Thompson's car, but I think the 2003 Enthusiast model 350Z is the car to have in BStock if you're going to be driving a 350Z. I've managed to keep up with Carter a few times this year, finished in 10th place last year, and I'll stand up and say I'm not anywhere near the driver that Carter is.
With someone who has some skill I'm sure this car could finish at the top of the class, even against the lemmings, err I mean Mazda RX-8s.
Stats about the car.
2003 Nissan 350Z Enthusiast ModelTC Kline DA KonisHotchkios FSBEnkei RPF-1sKumho 710sHoosier Wets (for the rain)6 SpeedNismo Titanium Y-Pipe with custom 3" exhaust system
This is the only 350Z that has competed at Nationals every year since the model was made eligible for BS, I'd love for someone to keep that statistic going.
Rental Price negotiable, also an option to Purchase the vehicle and all my spares is available as well. Delivery to Topeka Kansas is also an option.
Contact me for further information.
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Found this link to
http://www.tunerzine.com/articles.php?id=188
and the build site
http://www.geocities.com/projectzt/
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