The preliminary entry list is out for the San Francisco Regional season opener at the end of the month, and doesn’t look like the economy has been TOO hard on the program.  193 entries on the list for the opener isn’t too bad at all.

Some bad news though:

- 95% chance that although I’m already entered, I will have to skip this race.  I’ve been diagnosed with an eye disorder called “CSR.”  Basically, there’s a leak in the back of my left eye which is causing a spot of distorted vision.  This problem usually clears up as suddenly as it appears in a matter of a few months, but it hasn’t gone away yet.  It really wouldn’t affect my driving, but until it heals, I’ve been directed to avoid both stress and adrenaline.  It’s pretty tough to argue that racing cars is a low-adrenaline activity.  I will probably try to make it up to Infineon on Sunday to say hi and to take in the vibe.

- ITR looks good and healthy for 2009, just as healthy as in the past.  However, it’s not because of a lack of change.  James Heth, who for the last two years helped me launch this class in the San Francisco Region, has decided to throw a supercharger and a wing on his Honda S2000 and race it in ITE instead.  I’m really sad about that because the class is finally starting to grow, but I can see where he’s coming from.  It’s not much fun to have to carry around 300lbs of ballast to meet the speed envelope of a class.  Still, I think it would be harder to compete to be at the front of ITE than it would be in ITR.  It would DEFINITELY be more expensive.

Replacing James as an ITR regular will be Mike Uhlinger, who is most of the way done with building up a 1996 Honda Prelude VTEC.  At roughly the same horsepower as my BMW but MUCH less weight, it will be great to see if the BMW advantages (like RWD and good torque) compare well against the lightweight Honda high-revving rocket.  Rumor has it that once Mike gets his Prelude on the track, his wife Lenna’s IT project will begin and we’ll have TWO new ITR cars out there this season.  James just might want to come back!

If anyone knows of any drivers thinking that ITR would be a fun class, please put them in touch with me!  This class needs to be evangelized.  It’s season 3, numbers are generally up around the country, but 2 or 3 drivers in our region just isn’t enough for me.

So, even though this has been the longest off-season ever, barring some sort of bizarre event, my first race won’t be until round 2 at Laguna Seca in late April.

What changes have been made to the car?  Nothing much: just some maintenance items, primarily.  I did at a fiberglass front spoiler.  With luck it’ll reduce drag at high speeds and we’ll get another MPH or two on the fast straights.  No idea if it’ll do anything other than look dorky.  I still have a couple of items to finish up, mostly cosmetic — like doing something about that new white front spoiler, and replacing the windsheild decals after the new windshield went in.

Anyway, hope to see some of you out at Infineon even if I won’t be driving, and of course, can’t wait to see you ON THE TRACK at Laguna.

Josh

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 8:39 pm and is filed under SCCA, Schedule, Updates.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.