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See ya at the track... |
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Most of you know I "retired" from
Home Depot just about a year ago and gave being self-employed a try, but both
the racing and Cool Shirt businesses are very seasonal and inconsistent. I'm
still working at those part-time, but with Tony Dudek's help (and I'm
apologizing yet AGAIN for giving him crap about being a Yankee all these
years!) I've spent the last three days working for Modis, Inc., as a contract
programmer assigned to Certegy. The one-way commute is twelve miles and takes
less than 30 minutes, which is a far cry from the 33 miles and average of 90
minutes it used to take to Home Depot. It's a return to 30+ years of IT
experience, I feel like I'm making a contribution and it's good to be back in
the business world. I've yet to receive my first paycheck, but I expect it
will also feel good to get one on a regular basis again.
Second and just as important, Joe
Hooker & I have agreed in principle on a deal to swap our respective race
cars. The only issues outstanding at the moment are the logistics of
executing the swap, but we're shooting to have everything concluded by
mid-June. He gets Lucifer and related spares with no engine and in a partial
state of repair, I get his (race ready) #8 GTA Monte Carlo and related spares,
an extra Jerico transmission, an extra Winters QC rear end, and cash. He gets
a car that's capable of contending for the GT-1 National Championship, I get a
car that's (still) a hoot to drive and much more affordable. We're still
Turning Money Into Noise, we'll just make a little less noise much more
frequently. Obviously it's a win-win for both of us.
Minuses for us:
- it's a slight step backward in
performance
- it's not as flashy as racing a
Corvette
- we need to update the website
sooner
- we need to come up with a new
car name (see below)
Plusses:
- four (4) times the racing for
the same budget
- still makes the right noises
- still capable of getting
sideways in an instant
- still rewards good driving
- more people to race with
- get to go racing much sooner
(we're looking to debut July 9,10 in Savannah)
- still capable of low 1:32s at Road Atlanta
- frees up budget to build another (faster) Corvette
in the future
- still get our own class (GTA) at
the ARRC each November
- still capable of 170 on the
banking at Daytona (and we can do it in 2005!)
- much less heartburn if a future
renter happens to mess up
- did I mention it's MUCH cheaper
to run?
More later, and we'll see you at
the track...
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Send mail to
ebartel@gmail.com with questions or comments about this web site.
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