Chris.Derecola

A (long) weekend of quite a few firsts.

• First time flying alone
• First time racing in Canada
• First time driving Mosport
• First time walking a city alone
• First time sleeping on a stranger’s couch

This post is meant to be mostly about Mosport, which I’d never driven before. I’d like to say I had a great race and I won all sorts of cash and prizes, but it was actually one of my worst showings to date. In most cases I was relatively far back in the field and I even skipped a few wet sessions and cut the final race short in favor of packing everything up in a timely fashion. This isn’t generally how one wins races, but there were several factors that lead to this.

The strange thing about going all the way up to Canada to race was despite a field of 30 944′s, there were only four that would earn points in my chapter. Given so many of the usual racers weren’t going to get points and it being a three point weekend, my primary focus was to start all races and bring the car back in one piece. Since my initial times put me firmly in third, all I had to do was take each green flag to get relatively high points for the chapter championship.

Probably more influential was that Mosport was not only an entirely new track to me, but it’s a track that takes some serious balls to race right. I legitimately scared myself a few times, more so than I have in a long time, and there was more desire not to put my car into a wall (which I saw happen multiple times) than go fast. This is a fairly fuddy-duddy way to run a race, but I was having fun just driving so it didn’t bother me much.

Does this mean I’ve lost a bit of the fire I once had for racing? Probably… but I decided a few years ago to use racing as an opportunity to spend time with my dad and not a way to put pressure on myself or make myself miserable. There’s a younger racer who is in the position I was in ~5 years ago and while I believe he loves it, there are times when he is so serious it seems like he isn’t having a good time. When I talked to him about lightening up and having a bit more fun, his response was something to the effect of “It’s easy for you to have fun, you don’t have to worry about winning.” At first I was insulted, but then the comment actually made me happy. He is quite right, I don’t have to worry about winning. (Some life commentary in there, obviously.)

That’s not to say I didn’t have any good racing. I most definitely did. There were several guys I was competitive with and spent a good bit of my weekend swapping positions and driving two wide through countless turns. This was all great fun and helluva way to spend a weekend. All the beer, food and great hospitality shown by the French Canadians who’d driven down from Quebec to run with us didn’t hurt either. Yeah, I said it and I’ll say it again…great hospitality shown by the French Canadians.

Regarding the actual track - I love it. It is an absolutely blast to drive and may very well by my favorite track. I highly recommend it.

After all that, I made use of the opportunity to spend 24 hours in Toronto. I didn’t do much other than walk around the city aimlessly and hang out with my CouchSurfing host, but that was enough to know I really, really like Toronto. Honorable mentions include the amazing hospitality of my host (who left keys for me to get into his place, even though we’d never met), getting five more strangers for my project and some of the most perfect June weather I’d ever experienced. I am very much looking forward to going back with Melissa and maybe even living there one day.

This past weekend was the first round in the 2011 season for the North Chapter of 944 Cup. The races were at New Jersey Motorsport Park’s Lightning Circuit, which I’ve never driven before. My results were fairly average, with a 4th and a 5th, but it was nonetheless interesting because I learned a lot about my attitudes towards racing. For this reason, this post is gonna be less of a recap and more about some things I’ve taken away from the weekend.

New tracks are fun.

At first I thought it was just the track designers at NJMP who deserved thanks, because I really like driving it. Then I got home and realized I hadn’t been on anything other than VIR or Summit Point since May 2007. I still think the track is designed well, but anything new after racing the same two tracks for four years is probably gonna be cool. I get two more tracks I’ve never raced and another I’ve only done once this year, so I’m looking forward to it.

Not caring about results is pretty great.

In one race, I not only started last, I got out on track so late I was 1/2 to 3/4 of a lap down by the time the green flag dropped. I spent the first 2-3 laps racing alone but because it was raining, managed to catch people up and get through a good bit of the field. In the other race, my car had a faulty DME that put me way down on power and made me two seconds a lap slower than I was on Saturday. I wasn’t competitive, at all, but I still managed to get some good racing in.

In the olden days, I would be miserable if either one of these things happened… let alone both. These days, I take pleasure in the things I do well and am able to say “maybe next time” before moving on. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care about winning, because it’s the one thing that truly haunts me, but winning is hard work and to date I’ve been unwilling to make the commitment.

I’ve been racing a long ass time.

This weekend I participated in my 100th and 101st race. During that time I’ve participated in 97 944 Cup points races and had a grand total of 140 days on track. My 100th Cup points race will come this June at Mosport in Canada… which is pretty cool if you ask me. I will also celebrate the 10th anniversary of my first race (a PCA Club Race) this October.

Our parents will not be around forever.

My parents are in their early 60s; the age I first remember my grandparents being. Considering a) I have no surviving grandparents, b) medical issues/ailments are becoming more numerous/obvious and c) a friend’s Mom is battling cancer, I’ve really started to grasp the idea that our time together is finite. It’s because of this that I’m more willing to do things that aren’t necessary about the what, but instead the who. Imagine that.

P.S. – Happy 5th Birthday Kirsten!

The interesting thing about this event is not that it was my first National Championship in three years, but that I had some of the most fun I’ve ever had despite finishing 9th and 10th. I used to take the whole thing so damn seriously that whenever I didn’t do as well as I thought I should, I was miserable. I realized this past weekend that I did not care enough to actually work towards winning, so I shouldn’t just expect to do well. I decided I was going to focus on enjoying myself and wherever I finished is where I finished. That attitude, combined with some VERY wide open track ( because we had our own run group), made for a great time.