The next time you're in a mind-numbing all-day seminar and somebody mentions the term "creative problem-solving" or "thinking outside the box," this is what they are talking about.

Thanks to my Dad (the pilot), who found it...

UPDATE: See the comments below. This may not be real footage (but, damn, it's a good story).

Whew.

What was otherwise an interesting but not spectacular race changed course dramatically when, with four laps remaining, it started to rain. Lewis, who had to finish at least 5th to win the Championship, dropped to 6th position with two laps remaining. It wasn't until about two turns from the end that he made the pass which got him back to 5th.

It was a nail-biter and a very exciting (and surprising) finish.

Way to go, Lewis!

Thanks to my nephew Ned who, somehow, found this.

We recently learned that Teamwork Solutions has made it onto the Business First Fast 50 list of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in Central Ohio.

Beginning in late 1992 as a three- but soon to be two-man shop with literally no money (the number zero comes to mind), and working out of a German Village basement that was so, um, height compromised some of our visitors had to stand with their heads between the joists, it is very satisfying to make it onto this list.

While we know we made the top 50, they won't tell anyone where they are on the list until Thursday's awards luncheon. I'm betting on mid-pack (but I'm good with that!).

Thanks to everyone at Teamwork, all our clients, and our professional friends who made it possible. Here's to many more good years for all of us!

Jim Child (2007 NASA Nat'l Champ) is back in form and he and I had two days of close hard racing. Saturday he beat me to the checkered flag by half a second but not without having to work his butt off to do it (if I may say so myself).

Sunday I beat him by about the same margin, but not without being in the grass four (count 'em, FOUR) times.

At the start, I got bum-rushed. I started 3rd overall, first in class, but before we got to the first turn I had already been passed by my friend and (fellow Skid Marks Racing Team member) Brad, by Jim and by a GTS3 BMW (next faster class) who'd started behind me but had a ton of acceleration.

So much for getting a good start.

Brad was again in the car he'd had to rent for the National Championships but this time it was with a better chassis setup, the motor running right and his trick gearbox, and he was flat flying. The four of us ran nose-to-tail for several laps (the BMW in the lead, then Brad, then Jim, then me) until the three of us freight-trained the BMW coming out of Dead Bear, a tightly-banked 180-degree climbing left-hander.

The BMW was much faster down the straights but couldn't keep up with us in the turns. By the time we got to the front straight, two turns later, he was too far back for acceleration alone to make up the ground we'd pulled out in the two turns previous.

Brad, Jim and I were running particularly close together because (I think) Jim was a little faster than Brad, and I was a teench faster than Jim, but nobody had enough of an advantage to actually get a pass done.

About 15 minutes into the race, Brad's motor (or the turbo or something) let go and Jim and I found ourselves in an absolutely impenetrable white cloud. I now understand why the military uses oil smoke as a smoke-screen. You can't see ANYTHING including, in this case, the front of my own car. In trying to slow down (and guess where to go), I hit Jim in the rear (result: a fixable dent on his bumper, some fiberglass work/replacement for me). I have never seen anything as dense as this smoke. I literally couldn't see Jim's car until it was bouncing on front edge of my hood.

Jim and I both bailed into the grass on the left of the track (that's one on the count of in-grass outings, if you're keeping track) until we got to where we could kinda see and then eased back onto the track just as the damned BMW came back past us both.

Thanks to my nephew, Ned, for finding it.

I don't speak Italian, but I'm pretty sure I know what she's saying as he sits there serenely behind the wheel. Of course, even I, with no language skills, can pretty clearly get the gist of "por favore" and "MAMA MIA!".

Thanks to Volker Weber, who found it first.

The NASA National Championships are over and, following races in the rain (Friday), bright sunshine (Saturday), and under threatening skies with 60+ mph winds (Sunday), I am now officially the 2008 National Champion for GTS2 (yea!).

The weekend was not without its share of drama, however.

Friday, the first of three days of racing for the Championship, was rainy. Really rainy. My friend Brad, who was running in both GTS2 and 944 SuperCup started on the pole for the SuperCup race only to have the wet track bite him.

During an aggressive 2-3 shift on the start, his car suddenly turned sideways and straight into the wall at 60+ mph. As you can see from the photo below it was, for all intents and purposes, totalled, hitting three of four corners and bending the tub before it came to rest.

A problem for a lesser soul.

But Brad, by mid-afternoon Saturday, had located, negotiated, rented, picked-up and begun to prepare a replacement car to use for the remainder of the weekend. He and the guys from Steinel's did Yeoman's duty getting it ready.

Normally raced in GTS3, a faster class, the car had to be de-tuned by more than 40 horsepower, the transaxle changed to get back to stock gearing, and the suspension completely changed over to Brad's preferred ride-height (much lower), spring rates (much stiffer), alignment settings (much more camber), etc., to get it ready to race.

The net result was Brad took a car in which he had less than an hour of seat time and finished second overall in SuperCup after threatening for the lead. All things considered, a remarkable result in the face of adversity.

Fortunately, things were going a little better at my end of the garage.