They haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets…

It’s been a busy summer, but nothing that really seems to stand out, at least since the 24 Hours of Spa.  I was in Pittsburgh (F3/F4/Trans Am), Virginia (Lamborghini Super Trofeo), Road Atlanta (Ferrari Challenge, Road America (Trans Am) and Watkins Glen (Pirelli World Challenge).  That’s a busy, if somewhat unremarkable month.  Definitely some cool tracks to visit, though not as exciting since I didn’t get to drive any laps…

I’m currently waiting to fly to Atlanta for F3 at Road Atlanta, my last event of this month.  So far it’s included a road trip from Watkins Glen to Summit Point (West Virginia) for an F3 tire test.  From there I flew straight to Indianapolis for the Midget race in the infield of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Last weekend I was in Road Atlanta for the Ferrari Challenge race, and now I’m headed back.  Seems like it’s been a lot of Road Atlanta the last little while…

I guess the midget race is the only other thing I really want to touch on.  Blake’s Dad, Dan, ran two cars at the event, which was a nice break from the 4 he normally runs at the Chili Bowl.  We had two of his ‘regular’ drivers, so it was an entirely familiar group, which was good because the event was a bit of a different format, and that along with the timing and the weather resulted in it being rather chaotic.  It had been a long time since I ‘worked’ outside at night at a dirt track, it felt rather familiar if a little strange after all the other stuff I’ve done the past few years.  We didn’t get the result that we wanted, we might have had the weather cooperated a little more, but I guess we will never know.  But we learned a few things for the Chili Bowl, sorted a few gremlins, and generally I think moved the program another step or two.  Fingers crossed it pays off in January!

Which I guess brings me to the last thing I want to write about, and one that has rather occupied my mind the past week or two.  I found out the week of the Indy Midget race that FRR would cease operations at the end of the 2018 season.  No more 78 car.  It generally left me speechless, and rather sad.  That has been such a big part of my life the past few years, and I have a lot of friends who will be significantly impacted by that news.  It was a two year period of my life that, for better and worse, win and learn, I will always remember fondly.  I had always thought/hoped that I’d end up back out there in some fashion, and I guess now I will have to come up with another scheme.  I’m trying to work a Denver trip into my fall schedule, and now it seems that much more important to make it happen sooner rather than later.

Life continues…