nerdsracing.com | Welcome to the North East Recreational Driving Schedule

Everyone has the ability within their mind to make connections from one thing to another. Going back to PSY101, Pavlov showed that he could condition a dog to salivate at the ring of a bell in anticipation of food. On a more advanced level we as humans make connections that aren’t quite as clear-cut, for instance when watching a movie you may pick up on foreshadowing.

Set scene: Babysitter in the house on the phone with her boyfriend. Music starts to resonate in a minor key. Next, the lights go out in the entire house and the phone goes “dead”. The music’s intensity raises, staccato shrieks are added to the sound track and the camera’s view approaches the back of the babysitter’s head. What happens next? Your mind makes up the rest… or perhaps like Pavlov’s dog you salivate.

The connections I make sometimes seem quite odd, and I maybe connect things in ways that doesn’t necessarily fit once all the data is examined. - Or Perhaps I just like to salivate.

The last couple of days have been quite a whirlwind. Amongst a rather busy social life and house chores, and of course work, Sunday I went to my first Philly Region event at the Nazareth lot, and Tuesday I went to my first Poughkeepsie Sports Car Club event at Pocono Raceway’s North Course.

I came up with a scheme for the Philly event. I contacted Grace Huntzinger about, Gayle, my wife, co-drive with her. This would give Gayle a chance to drive a car that was faster then my CRX and avoid the direct competition with me. Gayle is ultra-competitive, and doesn’t like to loose to me. Besides, I wanted to warm her up to the Type-R, thus eliminating the low torque V-tec experience she had with the “Del-Slow”. I would benefit from learning the limits of the tires (Falken, Azenis) in preparation for an Evolution School at the end of August.

On Tuesday at Pocono Raceway, I talked with Mark VanDeCarr about South Jersey Region piggybacking onto PSCC’s next track day event. The connection: The local SCCA regions do not host track day events, and PSCC did not have many participants and even less available instructors. I figured some SCCA folks could instruct and some folks from the region/tri-region could be invited to the event. Even though Mr. VanDeCarr expressed his sincere interested, part of me saw a bit of fear in his eyes… Set scene: (See above) Really my goal would be to make available quality seat time for interested local folks, not to turn his event into a horror picture.

Because I drool at the prospect of unifying various car organizations, I attempt to make connections. Not necessarily in meeting people, but in putting people together so they/we can help each other. Gayle may not have beaten me at Philly autocross @ Nazareth, but she did do rather well on a complex course. I also think this was a success because I lowered my competitiveness, concentrating more on the fun aspect. If they were lucky, PSCC may have broken even with money taken in from their Pocono event and if I’m lucky together PSCC with local region support can host a better event together.

I’d hate to think that Gayle would stop autocrossing because she doesn’t like to lose, and I’d also hate to think that smaller organizations like PSCC stop running track days, because of lack of interest. Sometimes my schemes are ill received and sometimes my thoughts are decent. Either way I connect things, either way I can come across as a big, scary, salivating dog, and either way my intentions are really all about keeping the sport alive and publicized.

To more NERD Notes

__________________________________________________________________

Favorite Links:

________________________

South Jersey SCCA

AUTOX4U.COM

Honda-Tech.com

ImprovedTouring.com

WheelWeights.net

________________________

UncleFesterMotorsports

SixFootTiger R/C Racing