I started out karting in my teen age years, working off my tab at the kart shop. I was never able to quite get enough together to be competitive like I wanted. It was fun, and it taught me the same sort of momentum carrying qualities that our cars respond to well, but then college got in the way.
After a hiatus from doing any racing or track events, I got a C5 Corvette from my brother that was already setup for HPDEs which I used mostly at TWS (an amazing track if you can make it out before it gets dozed for housing) while still in my last years of college and then during Flight School at Road Atlanta. While I knew I wanted to race, I also knew I couldn't race a C5 on my budget. While at Flight School and doing DEs with NASA-SE, I blew a tire on the front straight of RA in my C5, an event that was my 'come to Jesus' moment forcing me to decide if I was going to race my vette or get a dedicated race car.
The obvious choice at first glance in Texas was Spec Miata. 50+ car fields and own race groups meant that you always had somebody to race against, but due to my previous experience in a sealed motor spec class in karting, I knew the kind of tomfoolery it would take to run up front (see this years DQs at SCCA Nats). I also wanted to find a class that traveled well since I'm in the Army and PCS every 2-4 years. After leaving Texas, I was looking at moving to Colorado, California, or Kentucky.
One day after graduating from Flight School and while stationed at Fort Hood, TX, I ventured back down to TWS to visit with a Chump Car team I had talked to about possibly purchasing a ride with to get my feet wet racing again. It happened to be the Clownshoe Motorsports crew who was an avid 944-Spec racer at the time. He suggested I look into the class after mentioning I was looking at SM and liked the Spec idea, but wasn't really sold on the Miata. It then became a toss up between CMC (huge in Texas) and 944-Spec. I decided that I liked the 944 platform better due to its ability to race PCA, and the cheaper consumables as compared to the heavier CMC platforms. 944 Spec seemed to travel better to some of the regions I might go to down the road.
NASA numbers dwindled by the time I got my car with most in the region racing with PCA. The one other regular and I to NASA events had massive fun each race normally with a blanket covering the two of us.
Ive since PCS'd to Ft. Bragg, NC, and joined the SE region due to the better numbers (Im close enough to do Mid-A, but theres only 1 car). The SE region is growing thanks to the efforts of Chicken Shack Racing and the comraderie/support the class gives each other. We should have close to 10 cars on track regularly next season. I am now the series director for the SE Region and am making it a point to do driver development sessions, coaching, and car advice. I plan on making a traqmate database on this forum in the SE section of all my fast laps for other to dissect.
Anyone is welcome to inspect and look over my car as I got lucky purchasing one that was fast out of the box. The first time I touched a suspension setting on the car was 2 years after purchase and that was only a sway bar setting for a rain race. I went to 9 different tracks before going to the same one a second time.
My mantra that I am promoting in the SE region is that this a class for racers to have fun, race clean, and help each other out both stay on track, and get faster. After all, the faster we are as a whole, the more fun were having.
