One of my more intimidating events I’ve ever attended, this was the first year of the SCCA Festival of Speed.

Every Midwestern real-race-car-driver and their family seemed to have shown up for this - but the organizers purposely slipped in some open track time for race enthusiasts while staggering 20 minute races for every SCCA class. I have a feeling this was more a marketing ploy of “look, you too can play with the big kids, if you have the money, power, and talent! But until then, dream big and get seat time.”

It was also a great example of why I enjoy playing in the ‘Novice’ class – I have something like 20 to 30 track days under my belt at Gingerman alone, but self-promotion to Intermediate is a tricky thing. Intermediate is usually 25% people who actually belong there, and the other 75% is evenly split amongst Novices who self-promoted too early, and Advanced who just don’t have the confidence or desire to play with their peers. Shoutout to AutoInterests for actively having a system to graduate ranks. Sometimes it’s just so much more fun to drive through a bunch of people who don’t fully know what they’re doing yet.

Still was freakin’ hot out – you know it’s hot out when the organizers, usually very strict about wearing pants instead of shorts, shrug it off and say “in a fire, the pants wouldn’t really save you anyway”.

And I was only able to make it to this after doing emergency repairs at a friend of mine’s garage after my O2 sensor popped out of my header. Torque specs. Use ‘em.

A pop filter finally got installed and as such the audio in my recorded sessions is much more bearable.

YouTube: Session 1, GOPRO RECORDING
YouTube: Session 2, GOPRO RECORDING
YouTube: Session 3, GOPRO RECORDING
Google Photos Album