I went into this past weekend’s Laguna Seca event with three main goals assuming the fix of the leaking left rear shock gave us the hoped for chassis set-up based on our Thunderhill test day results: (1) achieve a best lap time in the high 1:23’s which would be 1 second better than our previous best, (2) try and give Chris Farrell a good race, and (3) run within 1 second of him on a comparison of best lap times over each session. GOOD NEWS--I am pleased to report we met most of these goals. In fact, 'yes' to both 1 and 2 and 'mostly yes' to 3, but unfortunately, when it mattered most, we fell short here. For that reason alone, I'm disappointed as I secretly wanted more…I really dislike losing.

We’re racing at the highest level of SCCA’s amateur class structure—Prototype 1 or P1. These cars are at the top of the food chain and there are multiple chassis makers and engine suppliers. This means there are multiple ways and strategies to win. This weekend pitted two of the most divergent strategies to try and achieve the end goal of winning the Runoffs.

Chris is a proven winner and reigning national champ in the old D Sports Racing class that has now been superseded by P1. His car (a Stohr) with him in it only weighs about 1000 pounds and is powered by a 1000 cc motorcycle engine making about 200 hp. My car (a Norma) with me in it weighs about 1420 pounds and is powered by a Honda car engine making about 255 hp. Since I’m 6’3” and 195 pounds and Chris is about 5”6” and 145 pounds it is only natural that I should probably try and achieve my goal in a bigger car and, likewise, Chris in a smaller car. The rulebook tries to balance these different approaches by limiting the things we can do to the cars and engines.

Our big improvement to come is a custom built engine that should make about 300 hp but we won’t have it in the car and ready to race until about 60 days from now. So we know we should get faster if all goes well with that whole process. In the meantime, we’ve got to have realistic expectations and try and create benchmarks. We got lucky at the feature Major’s race at Thunderhill in April and beat Chris after he developed a problem. However, he is one of the very best drivers in the country and his car is well developed after years of experimentation. We’re playing catch-up with an October Runoff’s date looming ahead.

With no prize money on the line, but only bragging rights, Jason and I are giving it everything we have to try and win. The fact that we consistently beat everybody else in the 40 car field but one, gives us some consolation. Check out the picture closely to get some idea of the differences between Chris's Stohr and my Norma as we lead the pack at the start of one of the races. As you look back in the field you will see other Stohrs too as they are a popular car having won 13 national championships since their introduction in 2001. I'm trying to break that string of success.

Jim