My Daytona Report

Well, now that I am back home and my computer is finally fixed I can tell everyone how my Daytona weekend went. As some of you may already know, I checked into my hotel and when I opened my laptop, I found that my operating system had crashed. It’s taken me a week to get back to you about my weekend so I apologize for not posting sooner.

As for my weekend, it was close to perfect but not quite. It started off on Friday with a practice session where I tested everything and everything was working well. Then came the qualifying session where I set a new track record (for my kind of car) and qualified 1st in class. After qualifying, JohnA showed up and we chatted a while and got caught up. Then he did something very nice and took a trip over to Publix and bought me a turkey sub sandwich for lunch. Thank you, John! I showed him around the track and told him how my upcoming 2-hour endurance race would be planned from both inside and outside the car.

My 2-hour endurance race was anything but perfect but we did manage to pull out the class win for our Roadfood.com team. I decided to stretch our fuel mileage by only filling up once with gas during the race whereas all of my competitors had to fill up twice. If I had to race one more lap, I would have run out of gas on the track. After the race, I found that my back was so sore that I could barely move. This was due to the fact that I was buckled down inside me car incorrectly (one shoulder belt was tighter than the other causing my back to be crooked). I had planned a trip to Gene’s Steakhouse after the race but unfortunately could not make it. Instead I opting for takeout at Krystal. Those 10 Krystal burgers and fries were great in my room. Early to bed…

Saturday started with a qualifying session where I learned that my car was not making the necessary horsepower to stay with my competitors. I learned this from none other than fellow Roadfooder SK_Bob. He noticed while watching me from one of the turns that my engine did not sound like it was pulling at high rpms. Turns out that he was exactly right! I was over 4 seconds a lap slower than the previous day. I was completely stumped as to why this was happening but I did what I could in my two races and ended up getting a 2nd Place and a 3rd Place respectively in each race. The best part of the day was being honored by fellow Roadfooders “MiamiDon”, “Baah Ben”, “SK_Bob” and “WhereGreggEats.com” who all came to the track to help support my efforts. Thanks guys. It REALLY meant a lot to me!

After a long day of racing came the best part of the weekend for me…..The Brickyard with my fellow Roadfooders! In all, there were 10 of us including Gregg, Ellen, Chuck, Don, John, Lou, Bob and Peg. The waitress, Lori was waiting for us and gave us the best seats in the house. As you can see from the pictures on other posts, we ordered a ton of grilled wings which was Gregg’s suggestion. For me personally, I loved them more than any wings I have had. I like fried wings and I did not know what to expect with the grilled wings but they were outstanding. Much better than fried IMHO. Thanks to Gregg (once again) I will never go to The Brickyard again and just order a burger. Now I have to get grilled wings as a starter and a burger for my entrée.

Everyone’s burger looked so good. I especially loved seeing how everyone liked their burgers prepared. Furthermore, I REALLY enjoyed talking with everyone about their posting experiences on Roadfood.com. I guess I am not the only one who has had some “interesting” experiences on here. Anyways, some of the guests had to leave after dinner but a few of us stayed around and shot the breeze around the bar for a while. I spend most of the evening talking with SK_Bob and his awesome wife, Peg (affectionately known at 3rd Turn Peg). Turns out that they are old racers themselves and even brought pictures to prove it. What a great couple! Gregg (wheregreggeats.com) is another person I have always wanted to meet. Turns out that this guy puts me to shame with his racing knowledge and experience. On top of that, he is very very well traveled and knows what and where to look for good eats. I loved getting to (finally) know him and talk about all the fun things he does in his life. Unfortunately, I was not able to talk to everyone in great detail because I was either very busy at the track or not seated next to them at dinner. I guess this means we are going to have to do this again, right?

The evening at The Brickyard was really special for me. The reason I did this was to get to know my fellow Roadfooders in the area. But I also came away with new friendships that will last a very long time. One of the best things about this “meat-up” was the fact that I now know I can turn to my friends with complete confidence when I need help with either food or their area of expertise. Getting to know these people on a personal basis was very rewarding in the sense that they all do different things in their lives and I can definitely learn a lot from them. In the end, it was ME that was treated to dinner. Here’s why;

JohnA – thank you for getting me such a great deal on my hotel and thank you again for buying me lunch on Friday. It definitely helped us win that race.
WhereGreggEats.com – thanks for introducing me to The Brickyard and most of all, thank you for coming all the way from central MA!
Ellen – Thanks for making the trip from NJ and also for posting those great pictures and reporting for the group.
MiamiDon – Thanks for driving up from south Miami and taking those fantastic pictures of me at the track. Means a lot!
SK_Bob – thank you very much for helping me at the track and going to another part of the track to hear my engine (or lack thereof). Thanks for bringing Peg too. She is awesome!
Baah Ben – thank you for showing so much interest in my kind of racing. Your questions were welcomed and intelligent.

Great to finally put a face to all the names. I can’t say when I will be back in town but I will certainly let everyone know. More to come when I have time…

What a gracious and lovely post. You sound like a special person! Hope that the next time, your wife and son are able to join you to get together with other Roadfooders.

I agree with Greymo! Well stated and very classy. You deserve much credit for your generosity and for putting Roadfood.com on your car.

Continued success on the track (and elsewhere) and I would love to share a meal with you on my next trip to South Florida.

Rich,
You are such a sincere, caring person... and I'm a very sentimental person, so your post got my eyes watery.
I like the way you really value your family and your friendships. It was great to "meat up" with you for our 2nd occasion. Don't hesitate to write or call anytime you want to talk Roadfood or life..

I also appreciated the pics that Miami Don took of your "Bluemaxx" racecar...it gave me a better perspective of your racing life.

I do hope to meet your wife Erin sometime, as well as your little Tommy.
Hey GREYMO, I'm sure Erin would've loved being with us at the Brickyard, but as Bluemaxx said, it would've been way too much for little Tommy (as he's only 2 years or so old)
Time went so fast inside the Brickyard, that before we knew it, we were there for THREE hours.
That's how good all our schmoozing was...

Thanks again, Bluemaxx ! The special Brickyard "meat up" will always live on!

What a nice post. Reading everyone's experiences and views made it just as special for me.

Thanks for sharing it with all of us.

No matter where you placed in any race, you are a WINNER in my book!!

Keep up the great work!!!

BlueMaxx,

I was a bit "under the weather" that weekend, but it was a great time. Did you ever find out why your power was down on Saturday? Even so, it was a challenge to frame, focus and shoot photos of you when you were moving by so fast! I'd like to try it again. Give me a shout when you race at Moroso or Homestead.

We all enjoyed the meeting everyone at meat up too ... Nice meeting your friend, Crew Cheif, spotter, cap com, Cindy too.

Here are some of the other reports:
http://roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31352
http://roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31312
http://roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31275

Thank you everyone for all the kind words but your fellow Roadfooders are the ones who deserve to be recognized. On anoher note, I have posted all four of my videos on YouTube if anyone is interested.

First video is the Start of the 2-Hour Enduro. As you will notice, I get passed by alot of cars in the first 7 minutes as my tires were very hard and my engine was not producing enough power:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CMS9QU_FHI


The second video was shot during the middle of my 2-hour enduro race. It is not as exciting but shows the speeds we are doing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Ikmdl4szM


The third video is taken closer to the end of the 2-hour enduro race where I had a nice battle with a pro driver in a BMW. The video ends before I could show what happened but I did end up beating him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF5_YyF-WoA


The fourth video is the Start of the first Sprint Race on Saturday. I ended up getting second place in this race but despite my car troubles, it was fun geting there as you will see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJL2gdNR9Xc

Enjoy and let me know if anyone has any questions.

I certainly enjoyed the videos.

Daytona Beach sure is getting a lot of good exposure from all of the terrific trip reports being generated by the attendees. Maybe next year we can get the Chamber to kick in some advertising dollars But I would not hold my breath. I know I speak for everyone when I say thanks again Rich.

Thanks for the report. Congrats on your racing skills. I have always loved meeting my fellow roadfooders and it continues to be the best thing about the boards.

sorry about the delay in posting, changed jobs working 13 hr. days. just want to come home to ice cold Buds,the couch for an hour,& a good dinner.
thanks Bluemaxx for everything. a gracious host to the MAXX.
once a racer,always a racer even out of the drivers seat, I knew something didn't sound right even without seeing these cars race before.
if finances permit we'd like to come south for the other races on your schedule. 3rd turn Peg is too good on the stopwatch. I couldn't get away with 2/10ths on a 5/8 mile race track.
Great meeting everyone at The Brickyard to put faces to names & get to know everyone, what a bunch of characters.
Very nice and memorable, each and everyone.
thanks to each and everyone for touching my life. SK BOB