Year of the Tiger

January 1, 2010
5:30 am
The new decade came in with the clear-minded feeling that I could change anything. Anything that needs to change can be changed and I can let go of whatever needs to go. This is how this year, this decade began, strong in my Buddhist faith and Zen practice. Born in the year of the Tiger - 1950, now 6 decades later, this is the year of the Tiger, my year.

So what does this have to do with Racing? Everything! It has always been about racing for me, not about the cars. The car(s) have always demanded the attention, time and always money. After learning in early January that the #55’s 3.8 engine needed new cylinders ($8k+) and that I would not make the first, and possibly the second, race of the season, it was time to revisit what results I was after. Marty, my relentlessly supportive spouse, reminded me that our business is Managing for Results (www.weidnerinc.com) and that’s what I should do with Racing.

Conclusion: Let go of the race car, let go of the idea of owning a race car. Just go racing. What an idea!

Amazing things happen when we let go. In January I had the opportunity of a lifetime to drive at the PCA race at Sebring with The Racer’s Group in February. Because of a scheduling conflict I couldn’t make the race but it was the start of new day for Leaping Tiger and this racer. No doubt I’ll be racing with them at some point.

February 2010
Following that, as well as Marty’s advice and my incredible other business partner and friend, Raechel Barnes (http://raechelbarnes.blogspot.com/), I signed up for 3 days of the Advance Road Racing (ARR) at the Bob Bondurant School in Chandler, AZ. Mike McGovern is the Chief Driving Instructor and a long time Grand Am driver. Mike is a great guy and a great instructor. He rated my performance 3.3 out of 5.0. Mike gave Jimmy Johnson and Tony Stewart 4.5. I was good with that!

March 2010
Following the ARR, Mike referred me to Karl Thomson with Compass 360 Racing, the Honda team out of Toronto. When I called Karl, he said Mike had already called him. Compass 360 Racing won the ST Grand Am Championship last season. Check them out at http://www.grand-am.com/teams/team.cfm?series=k&tid=1374.

The upshot is that I’m driving with Compass 360 in the Grand Am race at Barber April 10. I can’t wait! In the mean time, I’m going back to Bondurant for 1-day ARR on March 30.

Check out my exceptionally-talented teammate and co-driver, Alex Kirby, http://www.alexkirbyracing.com/. We are the Intergenerational Team!

Back on the Track for 2010!

The new #55 is back on the track and so is this passionate racecar driver!

Brainerd International Raceway is a great track, now FIA approved, and in early October provided my first time back on the track in over a year. The Driver’s school at BIR, run by former ALMS driver Gary Curtis, features Spec Fords, which I found a great venue to get back into the seat. Check out former IRL driver Herm Johnson who is their chief instructor. The track - Turn 1 is a blast at flat out at 135 mph with 8 degree bank and Turn 2 flat out will bring back that lovin’ feeling – the pucker factor! Great restart, great track, great folks at BIR.

Now down to business – we really didn’t know what we had with the new ‘white’ car – the new #55. Well race fans, after a test and tune weekend at TWS at the end of October, and another late November, it is safe to say we have ourselves a racecar! The #55 3.8 RSR is going to be very fast!

First we had to do some work to make it drivable. Together with Brian Kamery of Kamery Race Engineering, crew chief and close friend, we quickly scoped out what the car needs to become race ready. Suspension work done at the track, including installing a missing rear drop link and finding our way through the AFCO shocks, stabilized the car - it started right away to drive like a race car. We also lowered the car considerably front and back. We are quickly finding our way with the Goodyear tires and tire pressures. All in all, huge progress was made in two weekends – from wondering what we had – to the car driving like a racecar. Both Brian and I drove the car and had a blast.

Second, we found that the 3.8 engine is strong, very strong and the G50 transmission is solid. The suspension is very workable as a starter race set-up and can be improved over next season. We’ll probably need to do a dyno on the engine and the shocks to find out what we really have. Overall, a great first outing and one that makes 2010 very promising.

Along the way and back in the garage in Austin, we moved the engine back 1+ inches and cut out and re-fabricated the front clip, loosing some unwanted weight and creating a crumple zone in the front. We also installed a Fabcar shifter for more precise changes of the gears, freed up the throttle linkage and created a better fit in the cockpit.

Stay tuned, race fans, we are getting close to the 2010 race season! We are planning to race the full Texas NASA season and a couple of SCCA weekends to reacquire the SCCA National License.

So come joint us at MFR Houston for the first NASA race of the season on January 30-31!

Racing History - by Marv Weidner

Driving on the race track began for me in 2004. It had been a dream of mine since 1964 when I began with a learners permit driving demo Mustangs in my Dad’s Ford garage in Toledo, Iowa. I no longer ask why it took me 45 years to get to it, it just did. Kids, career, you name it came between me and the dream.

The first car was as you would guess, my street car, a sweet 1986 cabriolet. We had some fun learning how to drive a Porsche on the race track. Here we were as I progressed through the DE ranks and learning how to drive the corners.

The way I got to the track and the way I continue racing is because I'm married to the most supportive spouse on the planet! Marty purchased the first weekend on the track with The Driver's Edge here in Texas. Here she is posing as a Track Babe!

Racing was the only thing I could think of doing next so we built the #55 as a purpose-built race car. It started as a 2.2 and progressed to a very bad ass 2.7. We first put it on the track at MSR Houston in August 2006. That fall Marty and I traveled to get more track experience and we ran DE’s at Road America, Hallet, Texas World Speedway and Pueblo.

Then in 2007 we got serious about racing. Racing licenses in SCCA, NASA and PCA came with experience and so did success. With my great friend, coach, crew chief and fellow racer Brian Kamery, (Kamery Race Engineering KRE) I had 23 starts, 17 podium finishes with 7 first place class finishes spread across all three race organizations. It was a GREAT FIRST YEAR! A serious blast of adrenaline came from finishing first in class in the 90 minute PCA Enduro Race at TWS in March of that year and being voted Rookie of the Year. Another highlight was to set a track record in ITA at MSR Houston. Door handle to door handle, wheel to wheel in the corners, racing is like fire in my middle aged veins!

It was a great year, but it ended hard. In November at No Problem Raceway during a PCA race weekend, I won my class in the Saturday race and felt really good about everything – the car, my driving and how we beat the competition, including several cars in higher classes. During the Sunday race, I was leading my class and several others when a higher class car passed me, took two off on my left, came back on the track at full throttle hitting me in the left rear quarter and spinning me into the wall at about 95 mph. Needless to say, the car didn’t fair very well with a double impact. The car was for sale at the time of the wreck and became a near total loss.

Time to move on. Earlier that fall, in September, we had commissioned a new car. Racing and cars bring great joy and some real heart ache too. This time it was the ache part. The car builder (not KRE) had promised to be on the track in May, but didn’t start building until late December, so the deadline was missed by a good six months. The builder compounded that by having problems bringing the 3.0 engine up to 300 BPH. He discovered after months of trying to figure it out, that the spring height was too short for the very serious cams we put into the engine. He corrected the problem but there went my 2008 race season. Here is the car:

2009 started with shoulder surgery and more waiting to race. The car issue came to a great resolution when Dr. David Vanhooser from Enid, OK and I met at MSR Houston at an SCCA race in January. He owned a very serious 3.8 RSR but wanted a car that was as well built, but with less power. I had a great car now making a little less than 300 BPH and he had a car making over 400 BPH. We made an even swap, with complete honesty along the way, are both happy with the deal we made.

With the shoulder healing well, we will be on the track in the fall of 2009 with the goal of a full race season in SCCA in 2010. See you at the track!