you can see the footage by going to www.youtube.com , enter, race the base R8 and it should take you right there. very cool! Congratulations Mr and Mrs 320….thrill seekers extraordinaire to be sure..

Blairica

we had a “pro formula mazda” test day september 4th, a full day for testing, changing one thing at a time, you know well planned specific testing with seven potential changes on the agenda and was it productive!

before I get into it i have to say that the new guys on the team…….well they just aren’t behaving like new guy’s at all. watching them yesterday….. it was a team that was in sync to be sure. good on ya boys, great job!

so to get on with it, we arrive, unload the car and equipment, check the car alignment, make a toe change and were out for our first test.

test session 1.

we started with the springs and sway bar settings that gave us our best results to date, took all the  aero out of the car, no down force at all. first 10 laps done, we come in and make a change, a front spring change, we went with a stiffer spring same sway bar settings. out on the track for session 2.

test session 2.

and what a great change it was. the car now turns in more on a knife edge so to speak and we lost some of the rear loose condition we had. also we got some heat into the tires…and this is the sick part, we are getting excited about hitting 140 degree tire temps. anyway, lap times improved, got some good baseline front and rear sway bar settings and the car is running well.

test session 3.

we put some rear wing into the car, about 2.5 degrees and went out, car was OK but we lost a little straight line speed, about .3 MPH….but the car was feeling quite strong. come in, review data again to make some changes…more rear wing.

why more rear wing? well our data guys, shawn and garry reviewed the previous sessions corner exit speeds, the GG plot, shock plots and they felt a little more aero in the rear just may give us added down force that would get rid of the rear loose condition, give us more corner bite thus more heat in the tires thereby giving us more stick and hopefully quicker lap times even though we would likely loose a little more straightaway speed. we have left the sway bars alone at this time as we are still seeking the correct spring rates for this track.

test session 4.

we got our tire temps to an average of 160 degrees  , we increased our straight line speed by 1mph and we did quicker lap times. you see, the addition of more rear wing got rid of the little loose condition and allowed the car to hook up better all though the turns and this results higher tire temps, higher temps mean better stick and way better corner exit speeds. better corner exit speeds means i am carrying more speed into the straightaway and as a result a quicker lap time with a higher top speed. the change worked great and i was surprised at the outcome…..not that we had a quicker lap time but of so much greater straightaway speed in the presence of more rear wing in the car, that said, we will take those results all day long!

it was a really great day, shawn seems to be getting the data sorted really quite well. garry knows the infrastructure of our MOTEC system really well,  shawn knows how to read the data, look for trends and recommend chassis changes from the dynamic data we have just collected and finally we are really using the data to make the car go faster. in the past we collected data, we looked at the data, did some changes and had to go back to the data to see the outcome. no one on the team really was able to interpret the data in a meaningful way. yesterday we used data to take the car in the direction that would make it handle better and go faster with confidence. each change was based on the data collected by the system, reviewed and some  applied chassis dynamics by shawn and  changes were completed on the car and did it work well or what? we knew why we were making changes regardless of driver input, data reveals what’s really going on versus what the driver may report what’s going on. shawn could,  from the chassis dynamics  see what was really happening, he also recommended some changes i could do in the cockpit and then showed me the improvement on a gg data envelope plot right after each session, we were now using all the tools we have at our disposal, it was just a great day! i know more challenges are ahead but this test day has helped us alot so far.

test session 5.

we added a little more rear down force, another 2.5 degrees and went out. we were sharing the track with closed wheel cars all day so it was difficult to get a clear lap and it was the last session of the day but we thought …..why not? well we never did get a clear enough lap to see if the last change was better or not as there was just too much traffic but we did have have some excitement! i noticed a rear vibration when i was leaving the pit, a vibration big enough for me to feel at lower speeds but it seemed to go away at higher speeds…or so i thought. 2 laps into the session i notice in my left rear view mirror that the left rear tire has a wear pattern that’s not typical, i continue on but this wear pattern is starting to really get bad, i continue on and am going through a chicane at about 80 mph and then boom, the car pitches hard to the left and i am in the weeds on my way into the swamp….i finally get a hold of the car and get it back on the track but something on the rear left has let go. as i limp back to the pit…about 1/2 a mile i hear the grinding dragging sound of the car on the track surface….i am sitting in the cockpit thinking about what could have let go, how bad it was….how much dough-rae-me it will cost to fix….ugh…anyway, i get the car back to our pit and it isn’t that bad. a broken left rear push rod, the diffuser is a little hurt, the splitter tray needs to be replaced, the wood floor is all but done (we have a jabroc wood floor on the underside of the car to protect the carbon tub floor) and the car looks like it has just gone through a weed field…..i guess it should because…well …it was just through a weed field! we reviewed our rear video and it was clear that the push rod had fatigued most likely in test session 4 and simply continued to stress and ultimately fail (really glad it wasn’t driver error). anyway, a bad end to a great day but in hind sight it was one hell of a good test day, not even the broken push rod and incidental damage could take the smile off our faces! the car ran great, the guys did a fantastic job, we got the car to handle better and go faster. we are now using our data in the most productive way we ever have and these were the objectives…just a great day, just great!

and before i forget i would like to thank erica, vicky and doug reader from XPS construction (one of our advertisers, vicky is a project manager for XPS) for coming out…. and in team shirts no less, thanks for that…it was great to have you there even it was only for little bit! go to our gallery and you can see a photo of erica in the car with dad, doug along side, vicky took the picture. thanks again for coming out, we love it when you do. also our new web master, zach was out and mike from rotary engine .com. hope you guys had some fun as well.

so have we found the “elusive sweet spot” for car set up…..no…. not yet but we are going in the right direction finally, the car and i are getting along a little better and it may be real soon we report……we found it! 

Blairica

we started the weekend with a PR stop at SEKO Construction located in Edmonton. a stop at the office and we rolled the car out, put on the slicks and fired the car up. many of the employees were excited to see the car and were…. well, a little taken aback by the sound and look of this race car.  it looks great and it sounds even better. once everyone had a look at the car it was on to the grass boulevard for a photo shoot in front of the SEKO / PERMASTEEL signage where i must admit, attracted alot of people who were simply driving down the road. clearly the boys from SEKO have many, many friends in the area as both Kurt and Stelly were asked by several who drove by, what’s up with that race car and the SEKO name on it? it really did have many stop in their tracks to view the car.

on to the race weekend…..

we started out ok but very soon after set up we were chasing the corner weights on the chassis platform and unfortunately had to go out with the corner weights about 30 lbs difference from side to side on both ends on the car….or so we thought.

we practised OK then when it was time to qualify we still had the same main issues we seem to always have had….no heat in the tires, its unbelievable how cold these tires stay… none the less, we went out, our target was to be quicker than a very very quick Stohr DSR ran by Guy Marris. his car is quick and when we were at the base 2 years ago in our formula continental we ran a 1:09 second lap and he ran a 1:06 so the 1:06 was the target…..little did I know he ran a 1:04 at the base last year (we were not at that race) so the bar had moved so to speak without us really knowing it had moved. so in qually, i had yet to get heat into the tires on this car in the earlier session, went out and tried our best. well it simply wasn’t good enough, Guy qualified fastest with a 1:03.8 and we qualified second quick with a 1:04.1, 3/10th’s away, so close but still really far away. the DSR is a tunnel car which means it sticks to the track surface as soon as it starts to move regardless of tire stickiness (stickiness…is that a word?). he set his fast lap on lap 4, we set our fast lap on lap 14, the last lap of qually. man i wish could get heat into the tires sooner and to a much higher temp than we are getting!

the racing on saturday is really in preparation for the WCMA trophy race on sunday so dialing the car in meant we would have to miss a few races on saturday afternoon chasing the platform set up as the set up was just bad….or so we thought.

we chased corner weights and when we were moving weight around from corner to corner nothing was making sense. we would turn weight up and get no change in the weight. after about 3 hours of getting nowhere we rolled the car off the platform and checked the platform for being 100% level and not only had the platform shifted and went out of level, we also had a few very small pebbles find there way under 2 of the scale pads! pissed off would work here but also relief as now it made some sense as to why we were going nowhere. fast forward an hour, set the scale to level, roll the car back on and we were back in business. when i think back, the car was most likely scaled correctly before the platform challenge but we will never know now.

this was also the first travel race for our new team members, garry, matt, nathan and shawn so they did not know what to expect. all systems were working on the car and before I forget, we also had a fresh motor in the car as rotary engine.com did a rebuild for us in 3 days and in fact were quite taken by this race car and decided to add their name to our growing list of advertisers and sponsors of the car….welcome rotary engine.com, adam and staff, mike and ryan.

the boys did a great job for being newbies and I think they had some fun….i sure hope so.

as racing began I must say I was not getting along with car that well. I looped it (that’s code for spin) a few times in race one, still managed a class second place and third overall but that is just not acceptable to me. on we go to the next race and sure enough…..did some high speed canola planting at about 125 mph, another pirouette or two. man i had more spinning going on than you would would see at a ballet.

we never did get the car back to our qually time on saturday. sunday we felt was a new day, wicked smoke in the air from the fires burning in BC and really not as good air as it was saturday. quick times evaded us as the best I could muster was a 1:05.2.

wcma trophy race comes, warm up lap, car feels ok, not great but ok. we get the green flag, we are starting from row 1 outside grid position with guy marris on pole, green flag and we are racing. i go down the inside of guy into turn 1 and take the lead, we are able to hold the lead for……. not even a lap before guy pulls out beside me on the last short back straight and then adios to guy and his dsr. that car makes the coolest sound when its at full song and your right beside it!  all i see of him the rest of the race are his tail lights. secure in 2nd, still first in our class i took it easy and tried not to spin the car. jorgen krausewas in third spot right behind me, waiting to capitalise on any mistake i would make. thankfully my mistakes were small and once i got some rhythm we were able to leave him when we wanted to but to my surprise he was much faster than i thought andwhen i slowed he would be right back up to me about 10 car lengths behind. this really shouldn’t be as the pro mazda is more car than his tattus, not to take away from his driving ability as he is good but it really is testament to us not finding the elusive sweet spot with the car set up. i just cant get any heat in the tires….its bloody awfulto drive, anyway as luck would have it, we ended up first in our class, second overall for the day.

not too bad but still nowhere even close to getting this car and i together. we just have yet to connect. what i and all race car drivers seek is to be one with the car. for those who are reading this, who have raced you know what i am speaking of. man, when you hit the sweet spot in a race car you know it, you feel it and the car tells you as a driver that you can pass on the high side, the low side or anywhere you want to basically. hard to explain but when you get it right…..it’s just feels right!

sooooo, on we go. more testing, more practice, more testing more practice. i hope we can get the set up right and real soon as the race season is going fast. shawn has asked if he can help garry in using the on car data to augment his efforts in using data to set up the car (this is really what the data is for) and so he now has that opportunity. shawn and matt are studying mechanical engineering at the u of c and recently both attended (on their own dime i might add) a 3 day claude ruelle race car dynamics data seminar in Indianapolis so bring it on boys! lets see if it was money well spent

that’s it for now, we have 2 more races to attend and a few more test days. i look foward  to the day i will be reporting….THE SWEET SPOT HAS BEEN FOUND!……. soon, real soon…..

Blairica (there’s a long story behind this moniker,maybe one day we will share it with you)

pintos rock and mazdas really do go zoom zoom! and does it suck fuel or what!

we parted ways with our crew chief of the last few years so that was a bit of a setback but we have moved on, no more crew chief on our team as I have taken on the majority of those tasks. we have a new race car mechanic / data guy by the name of  garry maclean. although he is new to race cars and data he is keen and seems to be picking up the required knowledge very quickly. we have also added a few more hands to the team in nathan hill and then we picked up two automobile engineering students, shawn madro and matt glanzer, from the university of calgary who are also very keen and are heavily involved in the Formula SAE program at the university and can’t wait to use our data collection from the car to augment our set up but both of these young guys will first have to learn a bit more about the car. welcome garry, nathan, shawn and matt. we will post photos of the new team members very soon.

so whats been happening in so far as race results…..well we have won every trophy race we have started this year (3), we seem to have the car going faster all the time. we set a new qulifying track record at race city, we set a new race track record the same weekend then went out and went even faster 3 weeks later at the same track but the sweet spot in the car still proves to be hidding on us. the car and i are still looking for each other. i cant wait to find the elusive sweet spot!

mechanically the car was just not what it was represented to be! over 600 hours went into the car to get it race ready and everything we took apart, rebuilt or replaced has been fine. it’s things that we took for granted that are letting us down….things like the MOTORS! we got 2 with the car, one was reported to be fresh and the other a little older. well, we blew up the fresh motor and when we went to install the spare, we found one of the worst cared for motors I have seen in a long time (and this car and spares came from a PRO team, shame on them) so it simply will not see the car until it is freshened and we are confident it’s a solid part.

the car looks very good, seems to be reliable for the most part and it does appear that it can take the punishment of road racing, it’s quite robust in that regard. it accelerates very well and each time we come back from the track we have made the car go faster.

we will get some photos of the new car on the site along with some video real soon but when our crew chief was released so was our web site guy! we now have a new host and site admin guy who will be uploading more photos and videos real soon so please come back and check on us mid september.

as of now, we have a fresh motor in the car, all is well and we are off to the namao air force base for a test / race this weekend. i am really excited about this weekend for a few reasons, first we will be stopping by one of our sponsors SEKO CONSTRUCTION to show the car, some photos and pr. we have a fresh motor and clutch in the car, we are going to a high speed track that finally, hopefully will allow us to put more aero into the car and get it pushed down to the ground and maybe….just maybe we will get some heat into the tires and get to see just how this car does perform because there is way more in the car than what we have been able to extract from it so far. max corner g force we have been able to get is 2.78 G, i think we should be way over 3 but if the tires don’t get hot and sticky, just when you push a little harder the car pushes through the turn and adios to the lap time. i know this is us not hitting the sweet spot in the setup just yet but we will get it…we will get it! and finally i am excited to see the new team members work with the established guys on the team. last time out i was surprised to see just how efficient the guys were with new surroundings but other than taking longer to do changes on the car than it should, the guys did a heck of a good job. i expect they will do even better as they get more comfortable in the team.

the last time we were at namao military base we did a 1:09 lap time in our formula continental car. we have to improve on this and i look forward to the post race report that hopefully will have quicker times at the same track with the new pro formula mazda! race report, pictures and video to come…..

we get the car to the track for the first time and wow did we miss the baseline set up! the first session was short as we had some knits show up, most of the data system seemed to be reporting, all the cars engine vitals were working but really the car was so off, very nervous and darty we called it a day and went back to the shop to re access our set up.

next time out, it was apparent that we are now on the right track with the car and the car and team performed quite well. at this point we had completed about 75 laps in the car from the 2 test days and are well on our way learning about the car.

along the way I released crew chief Ashton Evans from the team but none the less the work goes on.

fast forward to this past weekend test / race weekend and wow what a difference!

we were not getting enough heat into the tires, we run radials on this car versus bias ply tires and they are a completely different tire in ALL aspects. we had a good test agenda this past weekend; played with the toe settings on the car, chassis rake, spring rates on the front and rear of the car, fuel trim settings, sway bar settings, wing angles and so on. every adjustment we did was evidenced in our data and data review, the car is very direct in responding to changes so we learned….we learned alot this weekend.

on saturday we rolled the car out on previously run tires, they were ok for a few laps but when a radial race tire is done….it’s done! unlike a bias ply tire like the ones used on our Formula Continental car which when they start to go you can salvage more laps from them by softening the front and rear sway bars, the radial has nothing left no matter how soft you make the car and add to the fact the Pro Formula Mazda  hates a soft set up to be sure. 

right out of the gate we had increased our tires temps with old tires….very good, we adjusted some aero components on the car which ended up getting us more straight line speed and better front end grip on the 2 high speed turns at race city. our lateral G force is climbing all time which is a number that indicates how the car sticks when turning into , going through and exiting the turn. our straight line speed increased by about 8 MPH on average and with some fresh rubber (that’s code for new tires)….get ready………on sunday we were told that we set a new track record with the car on saturday. not too bad, not to bad at all!

the crew did a great job all weekend, we have a new member on the team who will be looking after data collection, review, debriefing and chassis set up changes to be contemplated, his name is gary maclean, welcome gary and btw, he did a great job on the weekend, all the guys were happy to see and learn about data plots, what they mean, how to read the difference from one set up to the other and so on. i should also share that we also have another new member, nathan hill. right now nathan is floating in regard to a specific team function but it looks like he will be going to general mechanic and aero adjustment guy function for the short term. nathan did a great job, all the crew, jes, myles, gary did a great job. with no crew chief everyone had a few more things to do and they did it well, very well. the team is also getting some interest from students enrolled in the university of calgary, mechanical engineering department by way of the formula SAE students who would like to get involved in our race effort and the Pro Formula Mazda so i hope to be reporting progress of additional team members joining as we go forward. of the things i hope to improve on, one area is getting a dedicated race car mechanic who specialises in quick, accurate mechanical changes at the track as well as basic car prep in the shop.

and before i forget we got some interest….finally, in our “arrive and drive” racing experience rent a ride program so hopefully that will take off soon.

so to sum up, we have no crew chief, we have the car working better all the time, we set a track record, new team members now, new potential team members wanting to join us in the future, the arrive and drive looks to be taking off and overall a really good feeling going forward.

this race activity doesn’t happen without the financial support of our advertisers and the hard work from the crew so to all of you, a huge thank you, thank you, thank you!

blairica

pintos rock and mazda’s really do go zoom zoom!

we had a new participant in the promotion category for the BUILDEX show and i am happy to share with you it was the HARDWARE GRILL ( www.hardwaregrill.com ) in edmonton and although they were only with us for this show they made the contest a huge hit just by being the host dinner gift certificate contest  winning prize! if you don’t know of HARDWARE GRILL in edmonton you should! great food, cool atmosphere, the waiters are freindly but you don’t feel like you just found a new best friend for 2 hours and now they boast a cruvinet wine machine (they call it something else but they are the same). A cruvinet machine affords the proprietor the opportunity to offer very high end as well as a vast selection of wines by the glass without the wine going off once opened. it does this by way of injecting a gas into the bottle. that gas occupies the place of the wine (it does not mix with the wine) just poured so the wine maintains it’s integrity from the first to last glass even if it’s been opened for a month or two. anyway that’s the readers digest version…if you seek a better explanation you need to go to the wine spectator!!

the manager is Sarah and she was very helpful in getting the HARDWARE GRILL give away gift card handled, of course it couldn’t have happened without the green flag from the owners, larry Stewart (chef) and his wife and business partner Melinda. the night I went to pick up the gift card i couldn’t resist the opportunity to dine at the restaurant and of course couldn’t resist the many, many  3 oz. samples of all kinds of great wines paired with my food selections.

my waiter was shane and he was very knowledgeable, in tune with the menu and had some great recommendations of wine to compliment my dinner selections. i could go on about the whole night but i wont. i will tell you that if you go there the menu is seasonal and if i were you i would get there soon because the butter lobster braised with sage and mascarpone cheese risotto was ….well….fantastic!!! i paired that with a pinot gris and wow…… the dish was created by sean o’connor, a good italian guy….just kidding of course. he is the guy on the right in the pictures posted in the gallery page, larry is the guy on the left and we have ryan in the middle.

when the race team is in edmonton racing at the air force / army base i take the guys to HARDWARE GRILL on saturday night. they work very hard and after all, a little fun, great food and the company of all the guys having some laughs is a win in of itself, i can’t wait to get back to HARDWARE GRILL this summer.

on to the show…what can i say, BUILDEX www.mmpiwest.com is a trade show that showase’ new building products, building techniques and trends in the building industry. the cool thing for is that we are there representing all our advertisers and we don’t sell anything other than the message that our advertisers on the race car are, open for business, healthy companies serving the building sector well, in western canada, for many many years…and a dinner gift card to the person who correctly answers the skill testing question!

it’s kind of kooky, people think that we have some other motive for getting them to enter the dinner gift card draw but we don’t, just some fun to add to the trade show. anyway i am sure you are on the edge of your seat wondering who won the draw but first you need to know what the skill testing question was this time;

(now picture the race car sitting there, the engine cover is off, full wings front and rear, the left pod top is off exposing the engine)

this race car uses a FORD 2.0 litre engine. what FORD model of car is the engine from?

the answers given were;

1)FORD RANGER 2)FORD PINTO 3)FORD FIESTA 4)FORD MUSTANG 5)FORD PANTERRA 6) FORD FOCUS. the entrant was to circle which answer they thought was correct, here are the results;

147 entries total, 4 answers for #1, 55 answers for #2, 14 answers for #3, 10 answers for #4, 5 answers for #5 and 59 answers for #6 and the correct answer was #2, FORD PINTO, and we all know PINTOS ROCK!

and now the winner of the $200 dinner gift card at the HARDWARE GRILL in edmonton is……………drum roll please…….the winner is BARRY YEREX  from the edmonton area…..tadahh! congratulations BARRY, i am confident you’ll enjoy the HARWDARE GRILL.

 so that’s about it for our recent trade show activity, the ARRIVE and DRIVE racing experience is heating up and our PRO FORMULA MAZDA is coming along so we will have alot more to report over next few weeks. so until then…

Blairica

well it’s been a very busy off season, so busy it seems we have had no time off at all! we just recently attended the MMPI West www.mmpiwest.com BUILDEX trade show, held in calgary on behalf of all our advertisers and it was a huge success. we have also started to plan the trade show and promotion schedule for 2010 and we will be busy in 2010 to be sure.

now to the headline………

2 cars are better than one! well that could be debated but we are about to find out. robertshaw racing entered into a purchase agreement back in october last year, to acquire a PRO FORMULA MAZDA race car with all the bells and whistles to compete in the STAR MAZDA PRO RACING SERIES www.starmazda.com. go to the site, check out the video of the opening lap from the Sebring race from last year, that will give you a good idea of just how fast these cars are. we are trying to get into the series, whether we do or not is yet to be seen but regardless we now have a two car race team, the formula continental as posted on the web site and the soon to be posted pro formula mazda.

the mazda is a 2006 model year with current 2010 specifications. it’s a carbon race car complete with no lift shift, traction control, fuel management system to name just a few of the car features. the car is much faster and quicker than the continental car but it needs a ton of work. you see the car was represented to be in “race ready condition” but it definately was not, in fact i was shocked to see the state the car was in when it was delivered to us at the montana border. this was such a hassle just getting the car to the border we said screw it, take the car, get it back to calgary and sort it out with the vendor. well  i have to tell you, the vendor, mike hacquard from langley / whiterock bc has been a real stand up guy, a real champion in so far as the state the car was delivered versus what he thought he was selling. i look forward to reporting a favourable outcome when the dust settles.

in other news you may remember we had an advertiser who developed luekemia and i am happy to report that thankfully it looks like he is in remission following a gruelling treatment regime , our thoughts, prayers and good wishes will continue for him and his family.

so that’s about all i can reveal for now but rest assured we have alot more things to share with you once we finalise all the details.

as usual, we cannot thank all of our advertisers enough for the support you have given us over the past 2 years. i hope to continue to serve you and your business’ well in 2010 and beyond. thank you, thank you so much, we couldn’t do this without you.

an additional bonus for the 2010 season is that all advertisers on the car now, who renew for the 2010 season will be given additional signage on the second car at no extra cost so really it does appear that 2 cars are better than one! we are in discussions with a few new advertiser’s currently and i look forward to announcing their participation soon and the complete advertiser line up for 2010.

we are also launching a new program this year and if you go to the site navigation bar you will see the addition of the “ARRIVE AND DRIVE RACING EXPERIENCE” and when we aren’t promoting your business, testing or racing, the  fc car will be rented out to qualified drivers so a busy season coming our way for sure.

more very positive news is in the works and i can’t wait to share it with you but a few more loose ends need to be tied up before we announce.

blairica

http://www.mmpiwest.com/temp3/bc/bc_091014_construction.htm

yes you read correctly, we have formed a relationship with MMPI in an attempt to bring a little different twist and some additional fun to the BUILDEX trade show circuit. we are starting our newly formed relationship in calgary november 3 / 4 at the roundup center. the next stops will be edmonton and vancouver in spring 2010.

we have been working with paul maryschak of MMPI in vancouver and i have to say, this guy knows the trade show and conference business. really easy to work with and dedicated. i spoke with him last week and man was this guy sick….but still in the office…… i see a raise coming his way!

we hope to add some additional sizzle to the show with the car on display, all our advertisers flags up and flagging, streaming race video and even sound!

we also have a cool draw that will take place!

oh noooo, not another draw? yes my friends another draw but you have to have more than blood running through the veins to win this one!

insert drum roll……….here’s how it works…….

we ask conference guy / conference girl a question about the race car and offer up 5 answers of which, you guessed it, only 1 is correct….ooohhh we are a tricky bunch, then we review all the ballots and (we choose the one that has been stuck to the bottom with gum, kidding, just kidding) the correct answer ballots of the quiz get tossed in a drum, shake shake shake, pull out a ballot and credit card bob’s your uncle, we got a winner!, and for that very smart and lucky individual a $200 dinner cert at il sogno http://www.ilsogno.org/ in bridgeland, not bad, not bad. (oh, by the way the cert is brought to you courtesy of MMPI, Il sogno and XPS CONTRACTING, Calgary http://www.xpsconstruction.com/). you can get a good dinner for 2 for $200! and wait….there’s more, we’re also going to do the picture in the race car and email them off to those who dare to do the dream thing! that’s always cool, not many get really close to a real race car let alone get their picture taken in one!

seriously, this is a great opportunity and i am happy to have you all with me. the guys at MMPI have been great to work with. above, near the top, is a link to the most recent show update that MMPI created, that went to thousands of recipients in the construction world, supply to the construction industry, purchasers of  construction services, new products in the industry and on it goes. please visit the link and explore their site. i’m sure you will find it informative. another cool thing about the BUILDEX trade show is the broad base of topics, products and construction related services that are presented, seriously go to their site and have a look. I am sure if you have yet to attend one of their shows you may want to re think it! tons of great information, displays of new product, changes in the industry, contract law, design trends, architectural advances and don’t forget a race car! now you have to go don’t ya?

usually we spend this time of year tearing apart the race car, replacing parts, confirming current advertisers, getting additional advertisers, getting ready for the next season and this year is no different but as you can see we have a little additional activity and i cant wait for us to be there so come on down, have a chat, get a picture of you in the car and enter the draw! who knows you just may be the “lucky” who gets to enjoy the fine dinning offered up by MMPI, Il Sogno and ROBERTSHAW RACING!

see you at the show!

PINTOS ROCK!

Blairica

this is really kooky. first we were not even trying for this series championship as we were hoping to see other competitors in different racing series on the west coast, secondly, even though we scored the most points in the series, because we didn’t travel to one of the out of town races on the wcma calender we are NOT eligible for the overall title. we used the races locally for testing and practice. we raced in calgary 3 race weekends (most competitors accumulated points over 5 race weekends in the series) and won all 6 races (2 point races per weekend) that we started and the really cool thing here is the last race weekend, we started all weekend  from the back of the pack and won all 4 races. wait……is that the phone…….could it be Roger Penske calling? no…….. it was flavio briatorre darn it! LOL. I told him he had the wrong number!

i would like to congratulate the overall champion (even though we had more points than him, 44, just had to get that in), miles mcewing with 43 points and 2nd place congratulations to stephen ross with 40 points and in third place and his rookie year, bruce jones with 16 points. and now also is the time to say that all the guys in OW in the WCMA, this year, in my opinion, really improved their driving and car preparation, kudos to all of you guys! very well done boys.

I cannot forget the race volunteers, corner workers and officials in Mission BC, Calgary, Edmonton and Gimli, who without you we don’t race. KUDOS to all and thank you.

in closing as i reflect back, we had a pretty good season, we set track records again when we were at new tracks, we got our car running very very well and i as an individual really grew this year (now i am 5’5″ , almost stephen ross size), kidding, kidding. but seriously i did learn some lessons from my crew and a better way of over coming obstacles and challenges when adversity strikes so a special thanks to you guys as well. who knew you could learn from the young! ”you guys” are, ashton, jes, myles, jesse 3 times and hostage (aka haus, aka jacob).

and finally, for all of you who advertise and support us, a HUGE and i mean a HUGE kudos! kiss hug (only for the women), handshake and high 5 to you men. OK, credit card bob gets a kiss but only 1 and on the cheek. who’s mass macho now???

Blairica

well this post has a bitter sweet slant to it. the bitter is we recently found out that one of our advertisers has developed leukemia! not only is this tough to take but only the year previous our advertisers spouse was diagnosed with cancer. after a 16 month battle the spouse has gone into remission and they were enjoying the news of that for about 2 months then the other spouse was informed that they have leukemia.

the sweet, fast forward about 3 months and our advertiser is so far progressing well with the stem cell transplant and looks like (fingers crossed) that they will be OK following the gruelling treatment. looks like, so not out of the woods just yet.

being our advertiser is in the USA, the costs associated with this treatment are ……well I am sure you can imagine, very, very high. sadly, our advertisers benefit plan is covering most but certainly not all cost so, ROBERTSHAW RACING has made a donation of $500 dollars, to the cause if you will, on behalf of the race team and all our advertisers.

i know it is not much but it is something and  I know that the family is very appreciative of this gesture so good on all of you! again, we are so grateful to have all your support and even though budgets are very tight we felt compelled to help out.

knowing you all (advertisers) as i do, i know when you lay your head down on your pillow and give this just a little thought, i can see you smiling, you all have so much impact on the team and our life in general, we want you to know that we hope to make you proud in every way, the business community, family and on the track. thanks again, we are very very fortunate to have you all associated with us!

i am keeping the name of the family advertiser confidential for their privacy and if you would like to know please contact me in private and I will be happy to share with you who it is. if there is a good thing here it is they are doing better (the patient and fam), making a few jokes and have not lost the desire to wake up! so from ROBERTSHAW RACING and all our advertisers, Godspeed to you JG and to your fam.

Blairica