Off-season Update

09.26.2007

As we're all heading into the holiday season, I thought I would send out a quick update about what I've been up to and what plans I have moving forward. I'm still in the process of sorting things out for next year, but with some good options out there, I'm very optoimistic about the upcoming season!

I've been in California since the end of August because, as some may or may not know, shortly after the season ended I had a fairly minor road bike accident which unfortunately had fairly major consequences in that I broke my collarbone. Because of that, I've been spending a good portion of the last two and a half months recovering and trying to stay in shape. It wasn't my original intention to stay in California for so long, as it's not exactly a central location for auto racing, but since my doctors and physical therapy are here, its where I've stayed. According to my doctor, everything seemed to be looking pretty good as of about a month ago, so I jumped in a vintage F1 car (courtesy of Doug Mockett) for a test day at Infineon Raceway and logged some 180 miles in the day without a problem - I actually ended up setting my (and the car's) personal best time ever by a fair margin! It was great to get back in the seat, and to know that the injury had no lasting effects.

Also, in the spirit of trying to stay in the seat, I competed in an endurance karting race just last weekend with my former teammate Dane Cameron (now with Sierra Sierra for 2008) and Caleb Kenney (2007 Formula Russell Runner Up), a deal that we sort of threw together at the last minute without much preparation.... and like any endurance event, we paid the price! The grid was set based on when each team signed up (so we were at the tail end), and the race began with a Le Mans-style start. Dane took the first stint and worked his way up to third, handing the reins to me at the first stop. After managing to get into the lead through the pitstop, I immediately started having cooling issues with the motor that persisted through the race (first too hot, then much too cold), but still finished my stint out front. It was downhill from there, as we had a header break and after getting back into the top three had to change brake pads, leading to a respectable fifth overall. Even so, it was a fun weekend and it was great to get back into some kind of competition!

Other than that, I've been in the gym twice a day everyday, on the phone and sending emails to try to sort things out moving forward. Hopefully everyone has had a fantastic holiday season so far, and I wish to all that it only gets better with December now upon us!