Both of you that were paying attention (and didn't delete the e-mail) may
remember I was placed on probation for three events after my ill-advised
passing attempt during Saturday's race at Savannah over July 4th weekend.
The race on Sunday counted as my first event, so I really wanted to get two
more races in before heading off to Ohio the end of August.  It just so
happened there was a two-race weekend at Daytona on Aug. 3,4, I love
running Daytona and I could work in a family visit (the folks are in
Orlando) besides.  The only problem is/was finding something to drive since
we needed to take Lucifer apart to get him ready for the Runoffs.  To the
rescue rode Joe Hooker and Meredith Haupt with Turn One Motorsports
(http://www.turn1motorsports.com) of Kershaw, SC.

I've raced against Joe many times over the last five years and would dive
into any corner beside him.  He used to drive an RX-7 in GT-2, but over the
past three years has become the organizer/promoter of the GTA East series
for big Detroit iron.  The GTA cars are relatively low cost because they
rely heavily on short-track stock car technology.  The rules (and cost) limitations
keep them from being competitive with National-level GT-1 cars, but they make
the right noises, are rear-wheel drive, look like "real" racecars and have
enough horsepower to get you in trouble if you're not careful.  After a
quick trip to their shops at the gates of Carolina Motorsports Park
(Kershaw) to make sure I had enough room, I signed up to drive one of their
school cars at Daytona.

Short story - I started 29th of 53 on Saturday and finished 15th, while on
Sunday I started 20th of 47 and ended up 21st.  I had worked my way up to
13th overall on Sunday but looped the car when I hit some oil in Turn 1
(yes I know that no one else spun, but that's my story and I'm sticking to
it!).  My best lap of the weekend was a 2:14.5, which I didn't think was
too bad with a 3000# car and 355 horsepower (a top-flight GT-1 car will run
1:58's, but they weigh 2700# with almost 700 hp).  The most important thing
was that I came back with all body panels unscathed and got signed off of
probation, but the car was an absolute hoot to drive as well.  Add in the
positive experience of dealing with a professional organization like Turn
One and it was an extremely successful weekend.

If you're thinking about getting into a GT-1 type car at any point in your
future I'd HIGHLY (!!!) recommend you consider the GTA series.  The cars
are durable, relatively low cost, responsive, predictable, sound right and,
perhaps most important, there are a gob of them out there to race with (we
had ten GTA cars running at Daytona and the numbers are increasing each
year).  At Daytona there were fifteen cars within a second of me either
way, which made for some interesting moments when dealing with traffic.
There's no such thing as affordable racing, but if you want to run big
Detroit Iron this is the best place to play.

And if you're uncertain, Turn One offers driving instruction and test days
where you can drive the cars and see if it's for you.  Two drivers at
Daytona started out in the schools, decided they were having a blast and
graduated to full-blown GTA cars during the season.  As I wrote once before
on the GT1DA website, if I didn't already have Pete's inheritance tied up
in Lucifer, I'd probably be driving at GTA car today.  Check it out.

Next event for B.K. Racing is the test day & National at Mid-Ohio on Aug.
23-25.  The results from that will tell us whether or not we're in
contention for the GT-1 National Championship Sept. 15-22, so stay tuned...