About Me
It all started so innocently when I bought my first dream car – a 1997 BMW E36 M3 sedan – in 2005 and joined the BMWCCA. After attending a few meetings I remember people talking about going to “the track” or doing “HPDEs” but had no idea what they were referring to. Did they mean autocross? I did that briefly in college but wasn’t too keen on it. Eventually I learned that High Performance Driving Events were done at real race tracks and decided to try one in my spanky new car. One weekend at VIR (on Grand East no less) and it was all over – I was hooked for life.
Over the next several years I participated in HPDEs with a variety of groups (and a variety of cars, BMW M3 -> Mazdaspeed3 -> BMW E30 -> Acura NSX -> Miata) including THSCC, Tarheel BMWCCA, and Trackdaze, and worked my way up from rookie driver to instructor. 
In 2009 I participated in the 24 Hours of Lemons and got my first taste of real wheel to wheel racing and liked it – a lot. And it wasn’t just me, shortly after the first Lemons race two of my teammates traded in their track cars for Spec E30 cars and made serious noises about going racing. After passing the BMWCCA comp school in July and getting my rookie license I followed suit and sold the NSX to make way for a Spec E30 car of my own.
Now I’m preparing for my inaugural 2010 racing season which will include races with NASA Southeast, NASA Mid Atlantic, and BMWCCA Club Racing at tracks such as Mid Ohio, Nelson Ledges, Summit Point, Virginia International Raceway, Carolina Motorsports Park, Roebling Road, and Road Atlanta. It’s going to be a busy year, follow along and see how it goes!
jtower | 
January 8, 2010 02:37
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