Current Stories
PermaLinkSunday race video03:54:54 PM
Written By : Scott Good

My video camera didn't work for Sunday's race (described below), but Jim Child, who eventually won the race, got his posted last night. My little loop-the-loop starts at 25:15, FWIW. Enjoy...

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PermaLinkSaturday race video10:54:10 PM
Written By : Scott Good

Unfortunately, I don't have video from my Sunday race (described below), but here are the highlights of Saturday. I had a terrible start but the BMWs that come by are from a faster class. The red Porsche is Mike, the white and orange one Brad, and it took me a while to work my way back to the front.


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PermaLinkA win, a second, and another track record
Written By : Scott Good

Last weekend I raced with NASA at Putnam Park, a 1.8-mile 10-turn track in the rolling hills of Indiana, about 30 miles West of Indianapolis. Conditions were dodgy Saturday morning following several overnight inches of rain. Although showers came and went several times during the morning, somehow the track managed to be dry every time we went out.

944WingFront.jpgSaturday I qualified on the GTS2 pole (8 cars in class) and won pretty easily with a 17 second margin over second place. That, after losing several positions on the start when the car in front of me was a little slow to the throttle at the green flag (video coming soon). Sunday I ended up second but that fact is not as interesting as how it came to be.

I had tweaked my wing before qualifying Sunday to take out a bit of downforce to see if that improved my turn-in in the faster corners. It turned out I went a bit too far and now the car was a little too loose so I couldn't really lean on it for a fast lap. Ironically, it was also tending to push in the slower turns as it had on Saturday so pretty much everything was going the wrong way. I ended up qualifying second in class behind Jim Child (black 968), the 2007 GTS2 National Champ.

Starting in a mixed class with my wing re-adjusted and two more clicks of rebound in the front shocks, I was ready for action. Jim started 4th overall while I was 5th, a row behind and on the inside. I got a great start and pulled even with Jim on the run down to turn one. Neither of us was willing to give way in the braking zone so we went through turn one door-to-door, then through turns 2, then 3 the same way--neither of us giving the other a chance to move ahead.

Finally, going into the left-hander turn 4, I was able to come around the outside and force my way to the front. Jim and Mike Ward (in a red 968) and I ran nose-to-tail-to-nose-to-tail behind the 2nd place GTS3 qualifier, a next-class-up BMW M3 that was going just a teench slower than us but too fast to actually get around. The four of us stayed like that for several laps until the M3 made the wrong choice while trying to pass a back-marker and Jim, Mike and I freight-trained him, sending him from 3rd to 6th in the space of about 50 yards.

Clear of the Beemer we picked up the pace a bit and I was able to put a modest gap between Jim and myself while he, in turn, gapped Mike (who was eventually passed again by the BMW). Just as I was starting to feel comfortable with my lead I got caught in lapped traffic and Jim closed right back up on my bumper to the point I had to make a couple of really deep runs into turn 1, the fastest turn at the end of the main straight, to keep him behind.

Eventually, after several hard laps, I was able to open up another 5-or-so second gap and things were going pretty much according to plan.

Until I hit the oil.


Read More . . .
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PermaLinkFinally, a little video01:18:02 PM
Written By : Scott Good

FINALLY, I have a little video from my car to offer to the Net. This, after spending untold hours studying the videos of the guys I race with. I actually HAVE some footage from last year but the quality is so bad (very shaky) that, well, you don't want to see it.

You may not want to see this either, but here is it nonetheless.


The footage here is from the start of the race on Easter, a couple weeks ago. YES, I KNOW the title page says 2008. It's 2009, I just can't proofread. And, YES, I KNOW I somehow managed to edit out a small part of it midway through the race. Chalk both up to learning how to edit videos (or at least trying to learn how).

I skipped qualifying on Easter to hunt eggs with my kids, so I had to start near the back of my class. Except for the blue BMW (which is in the next-faster class), all the cars you'll see here are my competitors. At the end of this clip I pass my friend Brad (white and orange car) for the lead.

Before passing him, I had a little "moment" at about 5:40 into the video which was a lot bigger deal in person than it looks like here (I thought I was going to spin it).

Enjoy!


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PermaLinkA winter's work validated11:33:36 PM
Written By : Scott Good

Over the course of this past winter, I took the time off to do some tweaks on my race car. I've not mentioned it here because, quite honestly, it was a secret. I was experimenting and, if it worked, I wanted to have the edge, at least for a while.

Well, last weekend was the first race of the season and I can tell you now that my winter's work did not go unrewarded. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, I need to set the stage.

You may have noticed, in the photo here, the teeny-tiny little wing on the back of my car. OK, not so teeny-tiny. That's new. Thanks to my friend Charlie Burke and his boys for helping me build it in his amazing wood shop.

Yeah. Wood.

The frame is oak. The skin is aluminum, but it's riveted into the oak. Old school, baby.

I've talked to a lot of guys who "know" about what you can and can't do with race cars like mine and--without exception--they all agree that these cars don't have enough power to be able to use a wing effectively. Every one.

The problem is, I've also read a few too many books on race car aerodynamics and they all say wings make you faster without equivocation. So, after months of deliberation, I trusted the books.

The books were right.


Read More . . .
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PermaLinkAudi R8 Hillclimb10:47:08 AM
Written By : Scott Good

OK, so the bad news is this guy is clearly losing time in the tight turns.


The good news is, I don't think it matters very much. OMG.

Thanks, Jerry Carter, for finding it.


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PermaLinkA real live American Formula 1 team!08:57:57 AM
Written By : Scott Good

Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson have announced that they will USF1 to launch US-based F1 team! start (immediately) a US-based Formula 1 team with the objective of racing beginning in 2010. This is really interesting news for those of us who love F1.

There haven't been many US Formula 1 teams. Dan Gurney did it, as did Roger Penske, but both those efforts (I believe) were US-owned, England-based. This one is going to be right here in the US. Is that a first? Might be.

Peter was on Dave Despain's Wind Tunnel talk show last night and had a lot to say about it but kept a few things under his hat in deference to tomorrow's announcement on Speed (February 24 at noon, EST).

They will be headquartered in Charlotte which makes more sense than you might think. While the World Championship used to be primarily Europe-centric, today races are pretty much everywhere...Austrailia, Malaysia, China, Bahrain, Spain, Monaco, Turkey, England, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Japan, Brazil and Abu Dhabi. Not being located in Europe is a lot less of a handicap than it used to be.

Being in Charlotte, thanks to NASCAR, USF1 will be literally in the heart of the US racing industry, with access to state of the art wind tunnels, composites fabrication, etc. Interestingly, Windsor said that the bulk of the technology in F1 for many years now has been American but that the teams did not say that very loudly.

I think this is terrific and wish them the best of luck. Until then, though, I'm still a Lewis Hamilton fan.


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PermaLinkNotes 8.5 rocks!04:07:35 PM
Written By : Scott Good

I loaded the Gold version of Notes 8.5 today and let me say, it is great. ND85Workspace.jpg I've played around with the Betas, of course, including the new Mac client, but my day-in day-out client of late has been 8.0.2 and I'm here to let you know 8.5 is significantly faster.

Significantly.

And this, running on XP inside a VM session on a Macintosh. I may not be able to stand the speed of the native Mac client (though I'm willing to try).

It's like when you first get a new computer and everything that used to be slow is now fast again. I'm still in the look-how-fast-it-does-that euphoria.

If you've been using one of the early ND8 versions and are complaining about speed, take a look at 8.5. For me, at least, it is waaaaay better.

Nice job, Lotus, and...thanks!


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The BlogRoll
Speaking engagements, etc.
January 20-24, 2008
Lotusphere 2008 (Orlando, FL)
  • AJAX and JSON for IBM Lotus Domino Applications (JumpStart session)


  • Moving IBM Lotus Notes applications to the web (with Henry Newberry)


  • Implementing AJAX and JSON in Domino Applications (hands-on, with Henry Newberry)


  • A look under the hood at a world-class IBM Lotus Domino Web application (with Henry Newberry)
April 11-13, 2008
Mid-Ohio race course (New Lexington, Ohio) May 15-16, 2008
Mid-Ohio race course (New Lexington, Ohio) May 17-18, 2008
Putnam Park race course (Mount Meridian, IN) June 7-8, 2008
Grattan Park race course (maybe) (Mount Meridian, IN) July 11-13, 2008
Mid-Ohio race course (New Lexington, Ohio) August 15-17, 2008
Mid-Ohio race course (New Lexington, Ohio) September 13-16, 2007
Mid-Ohio race course (New Lexington, Ohio)
  • Racing for the NASA GTS2 National Championship
October 11-12, 2008
Putnam Park race course (Mount Meridian, IN)
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What I do for a living


I am the President of Teamwork Solutions a long-time Lotus, now IBM, Premier Partner.

With offices in Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, we specialize in custom application development for IBM Lotus Notes, Domino, and related technologies. Our software product, ProcessIt! (see below), is quite possibly the world's best, most powerful and easiest-to-use workflow tool for Notes and the web.

Our clients are some of the world's largest corporations along with others that aren't so big.

We do excellent work, quickly, and often on a fixed-fee basis. We'd love to talk to you about your next project.




I am a Contributing Author to Lotus Advisor Magazine, with more than 40 articles under my belt.

I've written how-to series (serieses?) on LotusScript, JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and now, AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), as well as a bit on miscellaneous web development topics.


TheView.jpg

I also write for The View as of the July/August issue where I showed how to take an ugly Notes applications and make it beautiful with just a few minutes' (careful) work.



I am the chief architect and one of two primary developers for what many consider the best all-around workflow tool for Notes/Domino, anywhere, regardless of price.

It's called ProcessIt!, and you can read all about it at www.notesworkflow.com but the bottom line is this: ProcessIt! is fast and easy to learn, extremely powerful, and can be used by mortals. Even--dare I say it?--common users.

You can spend a lot more on a workflow tool but you won't be able to do a lot more for all the extra money.

Don't believe me? Download and try it for free for 60 days.



GTSLogoSm.gif
Copyright Porsche and NASA...not me!

I race a Porsche 944 S2 in National Auto Sport Assocation events and am the 2008 National Champion in NASA's GTS2 class.

Blame this event, a few years ago, for starting that particular money drain all over again.

In support of my habit, I am the NASA Great Lakes Region's GTS (German Touring Series) Director.

I'm also a Nationally-Certified Instructor for the Porsche Club of America and am in charge of classroom sessions for the Mid-Ohio region when we are doing high performance driving events.

In a prior racing life, I was the Midwestern Regional Formula Atlantic Champion and, in 1991, the Ohio Vally Region of SCCA's Regional Driver of the Year (but that, alas, went away when my credit cards let go of the rope!).




I'm writing a book...or at least trying to.

It's murder mystery in which, not too surprisingly, the main character runs a small software company and races cars for fun. Oh yeah, and lives near where I do.

Just where do they come up with these crazy ideas?

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