Racing Year in Review

by Tammy

Simon and I are taking a blog hiatus for the end of the year (going dark for 2 weeks over the holidays), and when I return, it will be January 6, 2014. Leaving aside that I'm not prepared for the new year, at that point, we'll be less than two weeks to the 24 Hours of Daytona, the first race of the year and the first race of the TUSCC (the Tudor United Sports Car Championship). Big stuff.

So it's time to reflect on what I thought was significant about 2013. Chime in with your thoughts and anything I've missed....

• Daytona 24: I was embedded in a race team, and it was fabulous.
• Daytona 500: Danica on pole, which set a bar too high for her to meet the rest of the year. By the stats, I think she did well for a rookie, but of course, the Danica lovers or haters will believe what they believe, no matter what. We'll see if she improves in 2014.
• Long Beach Grand Prix: the introduction of Team Kate! And the start of the long good-bye to the American Le Mans Series (the merchandise trailer was absent from this race, for instance).
• Indy 500: Kanaan wins!
• Le Mans: the death of Allan Simonsen (which, as I noted in a blog post, eerily reflected a plot idea I'd hatched just the night before), the triumph of Audi. Leena Gade as a rock star.
• Baltimore GP: what a bus-wreck of accidents.
• IndyCar: A more contentious year between drivers and Race Control? The oval races were mostly uninteresting? Dario retires.
• Petit Le Mans: farewell to the ALMS. Hello to the Corvette Stingray. A great time had by all.
• Formula 1: a total snoozefest. I'm not sure I watched more than 10 laps of a single race.
• NASCAR: Jimmie wins 6. Danica receives hate mail. Smoke breaks a leg. 

What did I miss? What do you remember as being the most significant racing events of 2013? Overall a thumbs-up or thumbs-down?

Hey, while you're ending the year and prepping for 2014, make sure you're following me on Facebook and Twitter (@tkaehler and @katereilly28)!

The Business of Racing

by Tammy

I've said it before, but it's proved again at every race I attend: the business of racing happens at the races.

Sure, people make deals and connections in the off season or the down weeks. But the real activity happens in the paddock on a race weekend. I'm always surprised by how many people I reconnect with, meet for the first time, or ask questions of. But even above and beyond conversations, it's sometimes important just to be seen in the paddock.

That's why racers looking for rides and sponsors show up in the paddock on a weekend they're not racing, in a series they're not racing for (but probably want to be). That's why suppliers show up in the paddock to talk to teams about what their product can do for them.

That's why I walk around the paddock, reinserting my face into the memory banks of the racing world. Reminding people I exist. Saying hello to the people I've met in the past and only occasionally brush up against in social media the rest of the year. (Like Beaux Barfield, above.) And giving away a few copies of my book to some of my subject matter experts, including Joe Foster of Dempsey Racing and Pattie Mayer, safety car driver (with me, below).

And occasionally, I sneak a few minutes with a friend who gives me a vital piece of information for a future book or a great story of real-life shenanigans in the racing world. I won't spill those beans, because they're likely to end up in a future book, with names changed to protect the innocent (by which I mean my informants). But it's true ... truth is stranger than fiction!

Alas, now that the circus racing world has left town, I'm not sure when I'll get to another race this year. Perhaps not until Petit Le Mans. I'll be watching on TV, but it won't be the same. What about you all? What's the next race you'll get to?

The Ride of My Life

by Tammy

Thanks to a very good friend (lookin' at you, Shane Mahoney), I got to go to Media Day for the Grand Prix of Long Beach last Tuesday. First I talked my way into the soon-to-be IndyCar paddock area, then there I found a dozen or so race trailers and cars and a few dozen people. Cars were drifters, some Pirelli World Challenge GT Porsches (from TruSpeed Porsche at right), and a bunch of Scion TCs that the celebrities race in the, you guessed it, Celebrity Race next Saturday.

The people milling about were race teams, celebrities, race organizers, and media. And a handful of people like me: hangers-on, there for the free ride.

OK, that's not entirely true. I'd asked Shane if I could go see what all the fuss and show was about in the interests of research for my own racecar driver, Kate Reilly. That's when Shane said the magic words, "Sure, and we'll put you in a racecar for a ride."

I was there early.

Remember, everyone? Unlike Simon, I've never raced cars. I research, I imagine, and I write. Fortunately, it seems I'm good enough at all of those to give people insight into the mind of a driver. But as for the idea of me driving? I'm ... well, "a chicken shit" wouldn't be too far off.

On the other hand, any car in the hands of a professional? (Or skilled amateur, I'm not picky.) I will take any ride I can get. And love it.

I was all suited up and ready to go for the 10:45 session, when the checkered flag fell as I was waiting (I was to have been the third person at that time). Shane promised me a ride in the 1:15 session, so I grabbed some lunch and loitered, which I realize is no hardship for me. As a writer (and mostly an only child, let's be honest), I do just fine living in my own head for hours and days at a time. So I enjoyed sitting in the shade on a mid-70-degree day and watching what was going on.

I met some great people, too, in some of the journalists that were there for rides and information, including Kayte Deioma, a Long Beach photographer and writer who admitted she just can't stay away from the GPLB.

But my favorite person for the day (sorry, Shane) was driver Tomy Drissi, whose #47 Three Stooges Porsche (really) I got to ride in. (Thanks to Kayte for the photo of me and Tomy.)

I was a little nervous, I'll be honest. I've gotten lots of hot laps in street cars around racecourses, driven by some excellent people (including a lap around the LB circuit with ALMS and Radio Le Mans announcer John Hindhough, and yes, he did some narration of that lap for me!). And I was a passenger in the Panoz racecar built for my racing school, in the hands of Grand-Am champion Andrew Davis.

But this was my first honest-to-God, this-car-will-be-racing-next-week racecar to do more than sit and imagine in. I hear someone saying, "Could the reality possibly live up to all that hype?"

Yes. Yessssssssssssss. It was awesome.

Tomy took the precaution of telling me he'd give me a thumbs up sometime during our two laps to make sure I wanted him to keep going. When he did so, I couldn't get my thumb up in return fast enough. I almost thumbs-uped him from the first corner all the way through our laps, because I was having so much fun.

What was good for my research was a first-hand look at the concentration and focus a driver needs to maintain, because he (or she) is keeping a car at its limits at every moment.

What was good for my bragging rights was that we just touched 150 m.p.h. before braking for Turn 1 on the second lap. (Yes, that fast, even though he wasn't going 100%.)

So I owe huge thanks to TruSpeed, Shane, and Tomy for reminding me of the exhilaration and adventure that is racing. This is why I hunch over my keyboard day after day: to share the wonder and fun with the rest of the world.