Needed a boost… The one thing in the work cafeteria that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

It’s Monday and I’m already tired and facing a mountain of work ahead. Finish unpacking from last weekend. Fix and prep the SM for Gingerman. Also finish prepping the 3 for Gingerman. ALSO Try to replace more truck steering linkage and get aligned for Gingerman. Wednesday job interview! HALP

Hardest race weekend of the year, and today alone was on another level. Literally scraped by to move from 3rd to 1st in this morning’s race, but couldn’t hang on in the drying conditions. Finished P2 with fresh scars on the car. Bodywork will have to wait until this winter to address.

Yep, mind is made up. I’m changing diff oil tonight. Gotta go get some, but I’m hoping that helps the car’s persistent handling deficiency. Certainly can’t hurt!

Really good close racing. Started P2, finished P3. We were nose to tail through the first half of the race before I made the first mistake. Frustrated with the car. Feeling like it’s missing oomf out of corners. My own mistakes cost me big, can’t capitalize on others’ errors.

Half an hour before the first race of the weekend, and I’m full of the pre-race restlessness. I hope I never don’t have this feeling before a race.

lol last night’s forecast didn’t quite get it right: Was there rain? yes. Did it call for sideways rain, lightning and thunder for a few hours? Lol nope No one sustained any damage that I can see, and the sunrise this morning is nice. Time for wet tires for warmup…

Hotter than anticipated day at Autobahn Country Club has got me feeling pretty wiped out. The rain that’s rolling through right now is pretty soothing while hunkered down in the trailer.

Half day at work to spend the afternoon at the vet instead. This little is guy getting his heart checked out again for any changes.

I need someone experienced in setting up and operating Motorsport radios to help me. Did enough to have comms for the upcoming endurance race, so that should make life much easier. I have a basic config done, but I know I’ve barely scratched the surface.

Putting’ the purple down…

Tummy Status: Full Time to get busy with the rest of the day!

It’s been a decent week at work. Did a couple informational interviews & applied for a new position within the company. The constant ‘everything is on fire’ feeling in my current role has been too much for a while. Decided that waiting it out is no longer the only option I want to consider.

Good grief, what a mentally exhausting day.

Another stressful day coming to and end soon. Another day where I long for a getaway car to run from the stresses of everyday life.

Sucks to truly be unable to help a friend in shit situation. He has a Ford Focus with the auto DCT transmission. Ford says it’s too old to cover with any program. Expects him to pay full price for a new clutch; more than the car is worth. He’s way upside-down with what he owes on it, just stuck.

Starting today off right by stepping in cat vomit barefoot. 😫

Washed these crusty OEM 3 wheels. A world better than before. Now I’ve got a dirty bucket of wash water and a dirty car, might as well prep another clean bucket and take care of it too…

Sometimes, motorsports gets it. SCCA Solo Nats competitor is protested on Day 1 in a ladies class for being trans. Protest committee rules aggrieved party should get fucked into the sun. Day 2 the rest of class shows support for the protested party on way to her first run. She would go on to win.

Had a really productive day working on the Mazda 3 endurance car. Have a couple things left to iron out, but we knocked out 80% of the list when I thought we’d only get about halfway done. Can’t slow down though, just means more time to go over it and be sure it’s ready for the debut race.

I honestly dreaded having to replace the drag link on the truck because of how rusty it was, but it’s been a really easy job.

The 5 released tracks are basically going on repeat until the whole album releases.

Watching qualifying times coming in from the NASA championships at Ozarks. Massive spreads in lap times in a lot of classes. After my last visit there, I strongly felt that it’s a ‘nut up or shut up’ track. You have to so absolutely confident in the car, or you’ll overslow for nearly every corner

Ready for the weekend to start aaaaaany moment now…

The ChampCar numbers have arrived!

Back on my setup bullshit today. Zeroing out rear toe, dropped front ride height and adjusted front toe to compensate. The car is so close to being great, hoping this latest set of adjustments does it! Just needs an oil change, then it’s all set for Autobahn in a few weeks.

Leclerc tells his team he's seen a fox on track 👀 He's not wrong! 🦊 #F1 #DutchGP

Today is a ‘leave work early because half the office is already taking the day off’ kind of day.

Free time on a Tuesday evening? Going to see The Bad Guys 2!

Uuuuuuggggghhhh.... my onboard camera's storage was full midway through race 1 and all of race 2 😭

Well, started and finished 2nd in the last race this weekend. Largely uneventful, just pushing 100% the entire time to keep the leader in check. Hoped traffic would provide an opportunity, but it did not. Overall really solid weekend 🥇🥈🥈

Us 3 at the top are nose to tail and side by side so much, it’s an absolute blast. We got a little too rowdy in Race 2 this morning. Us three were side-by-side and nose-to-tail so much, drafting past each other. We got carried away going into China Beach one time is all…

Ayooooooo

Wooooow what a day! Screwed up qualifying, went out on the wrong set of tires, started the race in P4. For the race, hung out in 4th for a lap, went 3-wide down the backstretch to move straight to 2nd. Caught the leader a few laps later and took the lead. Kept it until the end, 0.6 s ahead of 2nd!

Hell yeah, feeling good this morning. Fastest in morning warmup! Can I turn it into my first Pole of the season?

Learned about steering rack preload this evening, had no idea it was even a thing. Learned how to adjust it on the racecar, made the adjustment, will try it out it warmup tomorrow. Time for sleep now.

Watching the TREC race, taking notes for when we do the 7-hour race at Gingerman in October…

Practice day is all done, car feels great! But… only after running some data laps in the blue car also pictured did I re-identify front feedback is lacking. Need to take a hard look at the front alignment soon, but it’ll wait until after this weekend. Car has pace to fight for wins, it’s go time!

We got a Ninja Slushi, and we made boozy slushies tonight, and I tell you WHAT. *facedesk*

Hopefully I can look back on today and remember it as the day I had my first customer. Just re-corner balanced a fellow friend & competitor’s car since he had ballast added. My payment? The 9 gallons of 93 octane gas we drained from his car.

Ever since work started using a storage lot close to home for finished product, I never fail to get stuck behind a slow ass semi hauling one away every morning. 😫

now that we live in a blighted and hellish world without any fucking ridge racer games we all need to apologize to kaz hirai

Hate having to rely on a local tire shop to mount & flip race tires for me since it costs so much, but running out of time to do it myself. Oh well, at least I was in and out of there this morning in 5 minutes.

God work today is just driving me into the ground…

Brakes done. Now for something a little different…

Brake time!

Corporate work culture and social shame have conditioned you into thinking rest is laziness unless earned. Rest is self care. Plain and simple.

If you see this, quote with a title screen that is iconic to you. (I had a hard time deciding on one, but felt my PS2 launch title choice needed mentioning)

Caught our younger boy laying in the rainbow light for #internationalcatday

I sure do enjoy spending all day doing Workplace Safety Training modules… 😪