I'm sure you've seen some of the hype about President Obama's BlackBerry and have probably heard the various noises being made (mostly by people who have no idea what they're talking about) discussing how unsecure it is and why, therefore, it's a risk to our National Security.

My friend John Wargo, who knows a lot about BlackBerry devices (he worked for RIM for a while, has just written what I think will prove to be the definitive book on BlackBerry application development, and is one of the best BlackBerry developers in the country) took the time a few days ago to explain why all the hype is just so much hooey.

If you have a few minutes, you may want to read John's post, The President's BlackBerry. Interesting stuff.

Here is video from my last race of the year. For reasons I can't quite explain, I decided both to put the camera inside the car for a change and to add captions. Anyway, enjoy...

The camera car is a Porsche 944 S2 starting from the class pole. The orange-and-white 944 ("Brad") and a black BMW coming from the back of the field ("Sean") make for an interesting race.

This weekend saw the end of my 2009 racing season. We closed with a pair of races Saturday at Putnam Park, half an hour west of Indianapolis. I ended up with another two wins but had to actually work for them for a change.

Lest my head sound even more inflated than it actually is, let me explain that statement...

I made a lot of changes to make my car faster last winter, the most important of which were aerodynamic. In particular, the big wing on the back. The cumulative result made my car nearly unbeatable by guys who hadn't done the same thing, which is to say pretty much all of the front-runners in the group I race with.

However, a couple of those racers have been looking to put an end to this situation, specificially Brad Waite and Sean Tillinghast. Brad and I have raced together for several years and usually share garages and hotel rooms. He recently added a wing and splitter to his car and his lap times show the effect. This weekend he ran within about half a second of my times which kept us in close contact.

In yesterday's second race, Brad got a terrific jump on me on the start and I spent half the race or more thinking I might not be able to get past him. Ultimately, he had a momentary fuel pickup problem which lasted just long enough for me to nip past (through the grass!), but he is now officially fast (video soon...).

Sean has moved down to GTS2 (my class) from GTS3 last year where he was one of two drivers always fighting for the win. He's been working out the kinks in a new car and this weekend he came ready to play. Sean and I had several great battles over the course of the weekend and even though I ended up winning, I think the easy wins are over. He actually set the fastest race time of the weekend, getting the lap record I was hoping for. It's going to be a battle from here on out, which I couldn't be happier about.

For the record, out of 11 starts my 2009 season ends with 9 wins, 1 second, one DNF (did not finish), half a dozen new lap records, and the Regional GTS2 Championship.