Another weekend at Mid-Ohio, another two wins. The facts are accurate, but as is often the case, the actual story is a bit more interesting as Sunday's win was by no more than a few feet.

Saturday's was easier.

I qualified on the class pole Saturday by a margin of 1.69 seconds over the 2nd place car. My third qualifying lap, at 1:39:15, was easily the fastest lap I've ever done in this car at Mid-Ohio. Previous best, a low 1:40.

I might have been able to get into the 1:38s as my second lap, a 1:39.5, had included one quick pass on the approach to the Carousel and there was still enough clear track ahead I could probably have got in another clean lap.

But when I saw the 1:39.15 come up on the lap timer, and knowing nobody but me had been under 1:41 in the morning warm-up, I thought, "that's good enough...if they can beat it they can have it," and slowed down to save the tires for the race.

Which, as races go, was pretty boring. I led flag-to-flag for the win with a final margin of about six seconds over second place and never really saw any of the guys in my class except way back in the mirror. They, however, as the post-race stories recounted, were having a hell of a battle for 2nd, 3rd and 4th while I was biding my time hanging with the mid-pack GTS3 guys (a faster class).

Sunday, though, was a little more interesting...

In Upper Arlington, Ohio, where I live, Independence Day is a big community event. I blogged about this three years ago when our street (the Devon Road Neighborhood) last entered the UA Fourth of July parade (and won Best in Show).

This year, we were back.

I won't go into all the details here as they are pretty much the same as in my post from 2005 in terms of who is allowed to be a part of the Devon Road Neighborhood (pretty much anybody) and our goals (fun and great memories for our kids), but this year we did a theme centered around Hippies. More specifically, the music from the Broadway musical Hair.

We always build two floats, one for the main show and one for the babies. The babies this year were carried in a VW bus made out of plywood and painted with LOVE, PEACE, HAPPINESS and lots of flowers.

The show float, carrying 8 of the neighborhood ladies in costume and doing dance routines, featured the White House. Why the White House? I dunno. It's a recognizable national symbol and, hey, it's Independence Day. Whatever.

Inside the VW were 25 or so of the smallest kids. It was packed. Surrounding the floats were other groups, each with their own routines. There were 20 or so mid-aged kids (8-12 or so) at the front with a dance routine, followed by another 20-30 mothers and young women (with a harder dance routine)

They, in turn, were followed by the floats (connected in tandem), followed by the Dads and oldest boys who all had hoola-hoops converted into Peace signs with which they did back-and-forth, walk-the-dog, and run-around-in-circles routines that would have made the Shriners proud.

In all, something like 120 neighborhood folks participated, everybody having a great time. Although we ultimately won the "Most Entertaining" prize, the wooden placque was unnecessary. After a week of building, painting, practicing dance routines and, yes, a fair share of neighborly comraderie, the real prize was the fun of getting ready.

Look out 2010...we'll be back!

Last weekend were the NASA Races at Putnam Park, a fast, fun track in Western Indiana. My friend Brad (orange car in the photo) and I were there along with most of the usual suspects.

The short version of a long story is Brad and I ended up first and second in both races (me first, him second) although as of this writing there is some question about whether his Sunday race will be disqualified because of a pass under yellow which some claim to have seen.

As it turns out, I had this happen to me on Saturday's race back in April, when a pass I don't remember making while racing with a guy from another class--meaning it had nothing to add to the outcome of my race--cost me one of my two wins from that weekend.

The most exciting part of the weekend was about halfway through Saturday's race when, running down the front straight at 100+mph with Brad a few car-lengths back, my hood delaminated, tore itself loose and went flying about 40 feet into the air--over Brad. Fortunately, it both (a) ended up off track and (b) was fiberglass and so a good deal lighter than a metal one. Quite a surprise though, and all the more so they didn't black flag me.

So, for the year, that's four-for-four (minus one DQ). A good start!

I dropped the Cayenne off at Midwestern Auto Group for some warranty work last night and Jeff, my Service Tech/buddy, says "so, would you rather have the Cayman or Cayman S as your loaner?"

Be still my beating heart.

In fairness, it's a trade-off. The "regular" Cayman has a stick, the S is a Tiptronic (this is, by the way, the kind of trade-off I like to have to deal with).

I tried the standard car on a previous visit and it was great, but could have used a little more power. Given the opportunity to choose, well of course I picked the S.

Even with the slushbox, it's a nice ride. The S has more of everything. More motor, of course, but more suspension, more tire, more brakes.

I am willing to go on record saying this is without a doubt the sweetest-handing street car I've ever driven. My old Boxster S was a great car (with a great added-on suspension) but this is so much more solid, so much more responsive. The down side is you can't put the top down but man oh man can you feel the extra stiffness the hard roof brings to the party.

Nice loaner.

But I sure wish it had a six-speed.

The sharp-eyed among my two readers may notice that the sidebar along the left side of this page now includes links to two sponsors.

Yea! We love sponsors!

A Part Above is a great source for used 944 (and other late-model water-cooled Porsche parts). I have worked with John Zemon, the owner for a while now and he is great to deal with, to the point he has even met me a few times halfway between Columbus and Cleveland to get a part handed-off when time was short.

If you're driving (or even better, racing) one of these older cars, I highly recommend you consider John as your source for just about any parts you need. He has a big warehouse now, filled with Stuff You Need and his prices and service are absolutely excellent.

Wheel Medic and their sister company The Round House is a Columbus-based company specializing in making and keeping your car looking great.

Wheel Medic is pretty much what the name sounds like: They can fix your bent, scratched, dented, or otherwise damaged aluminum wheels. I'm sorry to report I've needed to use their services numerous times over the past several years but am thrilled to let you know they've done an absolutely great job every time.

It wasn't many years ago you had to throw out damaged aluminum wheels...an expensive proposition. The things Bryce and his guys at Wheel Medic can do with damaged wheels is nothing short of amazing.

The Round House is the name under which these same folks sell new wheels, body kits and the like, and they'll do it for anything. Case in point: The last time I was there, the 2nd Audi R8 in Columbus was already up on the rack getting suspension, wheel and body upgrades.

Give them a call for all your wheel/bodywork needs.

Thanks to both A Part Above and Wheel Medic/Round House for joining my racing team. Welcome!

FINALLY, after a couple years of effort, I logged my first win since Back In The Day (1991) on Saturday, yesterday, at Mid-Ohio. To add icing to the cake, I won again in today's race, this one over my good friend--and fellow SMRT member--Brad Waite.

After a winter's work on weight reduction (mostly on the car, unfortunately, as the driver could use a little weight reduction of his own), and after a full season last year chasing new settings in my then-new suspension, my car is finally, at least for now, awesome.

Saturday's race was in the dry. I qualified on pole for our class by a touch over 2.3 seconds. For the record, that's a lot. We race in a mixed-class group so I started 5th for that race, behind 4 other cars from faster classes. At the beginning we (the faster-class guys and I) literally ran and hid from the rest of the field. I thought it was going to be a cake walk until, about 3 laps from the end, Jim Child and Carl Picelle were suddenly a little too close behind...and closing.

Ultimately I was able to hold them off and notch my first-ever win in this car (and, for that matter, this millennium), but it wasn't without a few moments of concern. But Sunday's race? Sundays race had the real concern.

I'm not completely ready for this weekend yet (of course...that would be too easy), but thanks to my friends Brad and Eric, I'm a lot closer.

As you can see, the car is painted and mostly re-assembled, which is good, and with their help we've managed to get it put back together enough I'm sure I can make it in time.

The paint job, not that anyone really cares, is excellent as long as you stay 20 feet or so away from it--just about right for a race-car, in other words. But, our reassembly work was not accomplished without a certain amount of amicable controversy...

The reassembly debate

During our somewhat frenzied wrenching on the car, we got into a which-is-better? debate. We race in a class organized around power-to-weight ratios. Weigh the car, put it on a dyno, do some division, either you're legal or you're not. In our case, we're shooting for no less than 14.5 pounds per horsepower.

What that means is if you have a 100hp engine, the combination of car and driver can weigh as little as 1,450 lbs. If you have 400hp, your car will need to weigh at least 5,800 lbs (or you'll have to move to a different class).

So, the question is, which should be faster on the track, more power or less weight?

Given otherwise equal cars and drivers with identical power-to-weight ratios, it seems to me the cars should be pretty much dead even on acceleration in the lower gears since that, after all, is what power-to-weight ratios are all about.

In the higher gears, like at the ends of the longest straights where aerodynamics come more into play, I expect the car with more power to have the edge as that's more about overcoming air friction than moving weight.

On the other hand, the lower weight should have an edge in braking and cornering because it has less weight to stop and turn. Personally, I would really like to think lower weight will result in an overall faster lap time but it became obvious last night we don't all agree on this.

So, I'm wondering if anybody knows the real answer (if there is one). Inquiring minds want to know.

Here we are, Friday April 4, and the first race of the season is just one week away...Drivers' Meeting at 7:30AM, first track session at 8:00 sharp, next Friday, April 11th. The only teensie-weensie little problem is, I'm not exactly ready for it yet.

The picture you see to the left was taken in my garage this morning, today, on my way to work. Don't mistake the gray for silver...it's primer. The car is supposed to be blue with lots of colorful graphics. And, with a little luck, it will be come next Friday.

But there are a few long days of work between here and there.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. I wasn't supposed to be running right to the edge on time and preparation. I was supposed to be done early, with plenty of time to sit back and plan out my first racing weekend.

But then the winter disappeared.

In fairness, I've done a lot of work on the car over the winter, some of it to recover from the unfortunate events at last year's NASA Championships (see the photo below for evidence of Incident #1...of 2), but most of the winter's work was done in an effort to get weight out of the car.

I've replaced all the glass with Lexan; gutted, stripped, and painted the interior; replaced several body parts with fiberglass; removed unneeded heavy things under the hood (air conditioning, anyone?); and so on. Really, the get-a-bunch-of-weight-out-of-it initiative has been pretty successful...the car is down about 250 lbs--which is a lot--and that ought to show up on the track in the form of lower lap times.

And, there has been plenty of mechanical work, too. The boys at Steinel's had it for a couple of weeks fixing all manner of broken and/or worn things and doing a few go-faster tweaks I'm hopeful about.

So, it's in really good shape for the racing season...except for the darned paint. Oh, and all the glass--well, Lexan--is out of it except the windshield. And, it still needs reassembled. And, the graphics still need to be both cut and installed. And, there are mirrors and trim and...well, you get the idea.

If you need me, I'll probably be in the garage.