I finally get to write a current entry! :) I'm now sitting comfortably in a Days Inn about
250 miles into New Mexico. We'll get a good number of hours of sleep (though I'm losing about
one sending up the pictures and writing these entries!) as we don't need to be in Memphis
until 9am Thursday morning, and we've only got 1,000 miles more to go.

  The event today was lots of fun, and I finally got back into the car. Boy did I miss 
racing! :) Unfortunately, there are no pictures at PIR (Phoenix International Raceway)
on the web site yet, but a good friend named Reg Riemer (running in the beatiful and
incredibly fast Black Supra) took several "normal" 35mm pictures with one hell of a lens,
so they should come out really well (and will be the pictures we'll send to the magazines
that want to do articles on the car).

  The first session was a lot of fun, and definitely a learning experience. The lines were
not easy to find (nothing around the track in many places to tell you where you are), and were
often times a bit odd (going around 2/3, and then around the patched-area and onto the straight
before the hairpin). After the three hot laps I was feeling pretty confident about the track,
though I knew I was losing a TON of time along the back oval, having never run such a long
banked turn before. During the first session I was taking it at 3/4 throttle in 3rd gear,
shifting into 4th along the back straight. We finished 30th overall, within a second of the
next five competitors. It's definitely a close event!

  On the second session things went a lot better, and I made up a ton of time in the banked
turn. Unfortunately, I also lost some trying to make up too much time in turns 2/3 and the
hairpin, and I just couldn't take the turns at the speed I was before because the track was
so much more slippery. Fortunately, though, the time I made up in the banked turn saved my
laps, and I was now going into it a bit higher than before, going into 4th around 7,000rpm,
and keeping my foot planted firmly so I wouldn't lift despite how frightening it was coming
around and out of that turn at well over 100. I then tried to take turn 1 flat out, which
was now impossible due to the extra speed I had gained going around that banked turn. The
first time (and last!) I tried it, during my first hot lap, the car just kept on pushing too
hard and got squirrely (hi Doug Adams! *smile*), so it was definitely not the fastest way
around turn 1 (besides, it was way too scary going into a blind turn at ~120 knowing I was
going to end up sideways right after, and still had to get on a good line to make the next
few tough turns).

  I really enjoyed the track and think I finished quite well on the second session. I gained
a few good seconds on Dale's Neon that was running in front of me during that session, and given
another two laps, would definitely have passed him. The results will be posted Thursday when I
learn what they are at Memphis. Hopefully we'll be back in the 20's again, but nothing's ever
certain in this event. All that is certain is that it's a GREAT time and you get to drive many
different tracks that most people never get to see (such as the Michelin test track - the
drawing of the map looks like more like an autocross than a typical track event! :)

P.S. Eric Schleicher: I'm really sorry you weren't able to get in at Phoenix, it would have been
     nice to have met you. The reason you probably weren't allowed in is that there's no way
     to get into the pit area without going over the track, and we only stopped once for about
     20 minutes halfway through the day to let people in and out! This will no longer be a
     problem at any events, so please, anyone else, come on out and watch!

- Emmanuel