With the recent activity on the site, more than a few of you have clued in on my new year’s resolution. In the spirit of keeping that resolution, and perhaps helping my sanity during the off-season, let’s keep this thing rolling and discuss the 2020 season, plans, goals, etc…
As I said in the reintroduction, I let my once pristine Lotus Elise sit in disrepair for 4+ years with a suspected head gasket failure. Now a simple repair has become much more involved. My intent here is to offer a summary of the repair and service steps I’ve completed thus far to catch things up. Maybe diving a little deeper with supporting posts in the future. Diagnosing the Failure 4...
I could write a book on the absurd amount of procrastination that went into letting my 06 Lotus Elise sit in disrepair for 4 years. It would be too kind to say I was busy when in reality, fixing a non racecar just hasn’t been a big priority. But as the years roll by, it’s started to become almost a point of embarrassment and a running joke amongst friends.
I’d be kidding myself if I didn’t recognize 2019 as one of the most stressful years of my life.
Most of my goals revolve around racing in some fashion and I’m always looking for new ways to push myself. And since I secured the 944spec Regional Championship back in August, I needed something new to focus on. I started by maintaining my intensity while the pressure was off. I’m very happy with the progress in this department. Going almost undefeated the last half of the season...
It’s been a while since I’ve been on a good rant. Lately I keep stumbling across news that the manual transmission is dying in the States. This has been an issue for a long, long time across many makes and models. And it has finally made it’s way to the last holdout in the full-size truck segment, the RAM 2500.
As much as I love racing, any time you race back to back weekends can be a little exhausting. And with the National Championships just behind me, the temptation was there to skip the NASA Midsouth event the following weekend. But to skip an event in my own backyard, no matter what else is going on, is something that I find hard to stomach.
That title is a mouthful. But after replacing my steering rack, tie rods and realigning the racecar after my previous venture at Mid-Ohio, I was once again on the ten hour trek to Ohio. This time to take a shot at a national title.
Mid-ohio, my first virgin track this year. Taking what I learned at Autobahn last year, I made sure to spend some time in iRacing turning laps before embarking on the 10 hour trek. The purpose of this trip was to learn the track and start building speed for the championships in one months time.
The events called the Clumsy Cow and last year I was a guinea pig of sorts and formulated an attack plan to good effect. I was pretty excited for another round at Autobahn Country Club with the NASA Great Lakes region. I’m not sure what type of voodoo was performed before my arrival but this year I’m calling it ‘The Cursed Cow.’
Winter in July is traditionally hosted by NASA Mid South at Barber Motorsports Park. But this year, due to scheduling and construction at Barber, it was held in my backyard at Memphis Motorsports Park. It was hot, humid and about what you would expect in the south during July.
This season I have become quite a bit more serious with my racing. In the pursuit to see how fast I can go, I made lots of changes to my race weekends. I get to the track the day before and have the paddock setup well before sun down. In bed no later than 10, no alcohol, eat healthy etc… And overall I can say that these changes along with several other things I’m doing different are...
Chris Simmons is a race car driver, instructor, business owner and all around gearhead. His passion for motorsport started in the drifting community and progressed into wheel to wheel racing of all kinds. When off track Chris can be found training and working on a myriad of projects. After a hiatus from writing, he is back to share his passion, knowledge and experience in regard to motorsports on and off the track.