Buckle Up at Daytona

by Tammy

I'm Daytona bound this week! Time for some last-minute research for Kate's book 3, Avoidable Contact (look! it's on Amazon!), and time for a first-look at the Tudor United Sports Car Championship.

Time also for another Team Kate giveaway, now including book-cover belt buckles. Just tweet a photo of yourself and someone in a Team Kate shirt (most likely, me) and "Buckle up, Team Kate" to @tkaehler and @katereilly28, and you'll win two items from the Team Kate prize list, PLUS a belt buckle of your choice.


Prizes:

• Team Kate book bag
• Team Kate shirt 
• Signed copy of Dead Man’s Switch
• Belt buckle featuring Dead Man's Switch or Braking Points cover

How to Find Me
I'll be at the track Thursday through Saturday about noon, and then I'm heading home—I know, I'm flaking on the race itself. But I'll watch what I can from home and get my fingers back to the keyboard. After all, my research is about talking to people and verifying car and track details ... which can't be done when everyone's absorbed in the race.

I'll be checking Facebook and Twitter, so hit me up for my location. I'd love to chat with friends and fans!

Planning the Racing Year

by Tammy

When the leaves are off the trees (except here in Southern California). When the last racing champion has finally been crowned. When there's nothing on television on Sundays but football ... you know what time it is, right?

Time to plan what races you'll get to in 2014!

So let's talk. We've got NASCAR, IndyCar, and the new United Sports Car Championship. Oh, and don't forget the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The givens for me in 2014 are Long Beach and Le Mans. I'm considering at least a pre-race trip (is that a travesty?) to the 24 Hours of Daytona to double-check some last details for the next book and lay eyes on the new C7.R, so I'll add that one in.

Then there's talk about a trip to Indy to hook up with some of my new racing besties, Glass Hammer Racing ... and that's more likely to be the IndyCar road race, given the proximity of the 500 to Le Mans.

Then I start getting tempted by all kinds of other options ... Laguna Seca's just up the road (USCC May4) . We have family in the Detroit area (USCC May 30-31—wait, too close to Le Mans). Petit is always an E-ticket ride (USCC October 4). NASCAR's out here March 23 (nope, I'll be in Monterey at a mystery convention). IndyCar's out here August 30 (doable).

And that's not even considering Houston or Austin (family, friends, and a great mystery bookstore in the state) for any number of types of racing. That's not considering F1 at all. But I don't think it's the year for either the Indy500 or F1. Maybe 2015.

Because the big one is going to be Le Mans. June 14-15. Wahoo!

So here's my schedule so far:

• January 24-26, Daytona 24 (USCC
• April 11-13, Long Beach (USCC/IndyCar)
• ?May 10, Indianapolis? (IndyCar)
• June 14-15, Le Mans

And the rest, TBD. So tell me, what am I missing? Where are you going in 2014?

The End of an Era

by Tammy

The American Le Mans Series is over. Fifteen years of competition and friendships, perhaps now scattered to the winds. I say that with wistfulness more than negativity, because I get that things change, and I believe that change and evolution are good things. But it was hard to leave the friends I'd made at the end of the night, wondering if I'd ever see them again anywhere but on social media.

It was in the Series that the outlook was uncertain (and that the new series seems more like a buy-out than a merger). In the paddock, Petit was also simply another race to be run and struggled through and won. And 2014 promises nothing but new, exciting challenges, starting with the (former) ALMS teams taking part in the 24 Hours of Daytona, come January.

Pinning down my favorite memory from my experience with the ALMS was pretty hard, until I thought all the way back to the beginning. Sebring, 2004. Team media guy (and now good friend) Shane Mahoney took me from the pits, over pit wall and across pit lane to stand at the wall of the track. During the race. At night. Unforgettable!

And what I'm most excited about for the future is seeing the new Corvette C7.R out on track, whaling on the new GTLM competition. And as a really cool side note, I got to meet Harlan Charles in the paddock at Petit on Saturday. He's the product manager for the new C7 Stingray, and he's a reader. Fingers crossed he's going to like the book I gave him!

What's your favorite ALMS memory? What are you looking forward to in 2014?

Team Kate at Petit

by Tammy

Watch out, Atlanta, here we come! Next weekend is the final race of the ALMS season, and the final race of the American Le Mans Series. What a weird thing to write.

The ALMS has been my racing security blanket—the series I really understood and had friends in. Now I'm afraid that my friends will be too big and too good for me, having merged with a NASCAR operation and all. As if I'm stuck in junior high and they've graduated to high school.

Of course, the end of one era means the start of another that holds a lot of promise. It's going to be really fascinating to see what the United Sports Car Championship turns into.


But first, one last Petit Le Mans for the ALMS! And I'm going to be there with other "crew" ... which means prizes!

Prize details are posted on my other blog, but the basics are this: find me or another Team Kate crew member, and take a photo with us, then tweet it or post to Facebook, and you'll win a prize. Take a photo with us and a female racecar driver? Win a better prize. You get the idea.

Will we see you there?!