In addition to driving an IT car, I’m also a member of the IT Advisory Committee, the committee that advises the CRB on all things related to the Improved Touring rules.

One of the things that the ITAC has been wrestling with over the past couple of years is how to account for engine torque.  We all know that big V8s (some of which were just classed into ITR last month) are torque monsters, and that other cars are “gutless,” like the high-revving 4-cylinders in the Honda S2000 and Acura Integra Type R, and fast-spinning rotaries like the Mazda RX-8.  Here is a quick look at some ITR cars and their published specs (including my own car):

When these cars were added to ITR, the ITAC added/subtracted some weight to some of them to try to make up for the torque effect.  But the fact is that the amount of weight added/subtracted was, as one ITAC member likes to put it, a POOMA (“pulled out of my ass.”)  And we hate that.  We want the weight-assignment process to be repeatable and consistent, and POOMA doesn’t really help with that.

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Towards the latter half of last season, I noticed in the San Francisco Region’s Board of Directors meeting minutes that there was a lot of conversation about adding a Spec Boxster class to race group 3 (often called “big bore”) which has had dwindling participation over the last couple of years.

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This weekend was probably my only Thunderhill race of the season. I wanted to make it good!

I’ll bottom line it for you: weather was hot & smoky, earned my first ever overall pole, led the race flag-to-flag, made a couple of new friends in the paddock, and was still home by 1:30pm on Sunday. But keep reading for the details!

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Another fantastic race in SCCA SFR Group 5. This switch to group 5 was actually a very good thing for me. The competition is tighter (even if it’s with cars in other classes) and I feel like it’s raising my game by quite a bit. Group 5 is about the same size as group 1 (50+ cars this weekend), but the difference is that there are more cars at a very similar performance level, and we’re at the front of the group instead of mid-pack.

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For many years, the SCCA National Club Racing program has had an award known as “The Triple Crown”. Basically, if you win your divisional points series, and win your class at the annual race at Road America known as “The June Sprints”, and win your class at the National Championship race (“The Runoffs”), then you win the Triple Crown. It’s obviously quite difficult to win one, considerably harder than even winning a National Championship.

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Wow, what an awesome weekend at Infineon!

At first I got a little nervous when I saw that Mike Courtney was on the entry list in ITR. He hasn’t been out for a couple of years, but he was very quick in his ITS BMW 325i, which is now in ITR with more power and less weight. But I wasn’t going to dwell on that — someone faster than me is exactly what I need to get me to really push harder. I was also really looking forward to being in group 5. Even though they are in theoretically slower cars, it seemed likely that I would have a great race with the two fastest ITS guys (Steve Borlik in a 2nd-gen RX7, and Doug Makishima in an E30 BMW), and also with the fastest ITA driver, Donna Gilio in an Integra. Someday when I really finish building my car, I’ll be faster than all of these people, but for now … it’s a great race!

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The preliminary entry list for the upcoming SCCA race was published this week, and I’m very pleased to see 3 ITR competitors for the season opener!  In addition to the two regulars from 2007, a big welcome goes to Michael Courtney in an E36 BMW 325.  Bring ‘em on, I’d love to see more!