One of my good friends and fellow NASA driver instructor Dave Brown and I have raced together with NASA for years. Check out the following link where Dave has a little fun helping Mitsubishi with a program called “EPIPHANY PROJECT”. Customers who have recently purchased Mitsubishi Eclipse get to take the car for a test drive around a “test track” while Dave rides along in the passenger’s seat. The drivers think Dave is simply a Mitsubishi Rep and after their “Putt-Putt” ride around a closed course Dave asks them if they would like to swap seats and let him show them a few of the features they probably aren’t aware of. What they are not aware of is Dave has been racing since the beginning of time not to mention that he is a 2 time U.S. Touring Champ as well as owner of DB Motorsports. Thanks to the in-car camera we are blessed with the unforgettable reactions on their faces while Dave calmly gives the car what for. As you watch each of the 8 driver’s video you get to hear them talk about how well they think the car can work but needless to say after they take the ride with Dave they are left speechless. Great job Dave!

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I know this will get a bunch of people all fired up but to be completely honest I have never really bought into the theory of global warming. Does this mean I don’t think we should be trying to be less dependent on oil? Not at all. Does it mean I don’t believe we should be working overtime to develop a more economical means of transportation and one that pollutes less? Of course not.

Granted I am only in my fifties, but even though I grew up on a ranch along the southwestern coast of Oregon where it seems to rain most of the year when compared to other states, having a good understanding of weather patterns was simply a part of life. It was not uncommon for me as a boy to hear old-timers talk of droughts as well as stories that took the opposite approach like, “I remember the year when it rained for 6 weeks straight.” and so on. Over the last 40 years I can remember major weather changes and yes even ones that affected the ice packs, the rise of the tides on our beaches, adverse effects on crops, timber and even wildlife. While some years were worse than others and with all the talk of global warming I am always alarmed how so many could forget about events that have happened as recently as the last 100 years that were far worse than anything than those who defend the theory of global warming would have you believe. For example, during the 30’s Americans and Canadians suffered what was known as “The Dust Bowl.” One of my favorite writers was John Steinbeck who wrote “The Grapes Of Wrath”. While Steinbeck’s work was just a story based on some facts, in fact the Great Dust Bowl was a reality based on many facts, a reality that drove many from their homes and destroyed lifes and furthermore affected the lives of countless others as a result.
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As exciting as racing in this years La Carrera Panamericana was I just can’t help but want to get back behind Lucky’s wheel for more… A LOT more. But before I go any further, please don’t get me wrong, the effect of having competed in the La Carrera is far from over.

One of the single biggest accomplishments for a car builder is to see his or her project not only perform well but in fact having done it against the very best competitors and having done it at a do or die level and that is exactly how I drove Lucky. Backing up several years ago I remember it was near the end of the year and I was in a very good spot to take the overall points lead for the national seasons championships with only two races left in the season. Right when I thought nothing could go wrong… That’s right… everything went wrong as my car took me head-on into a concrete retaining wall while doing over 125 miles per hour. The good news was I walked away unscathed. The bad news was there was not a single piece of the car that resembled a race car and there was only three and half weeks until the next event in the series. Back in those days I did not have the usual 8 or nine back-up cars that we typically keep on hand for such reasons these days. That meant I had very little time to build and test a car that had already taken me years to accomplish and as everyone knows even the best built car will have “bugs” that usually will only be found while thrashing the car. In an endurance series finding gremlins or any other type of problem can result in a less than satisfactory result and usually any car needs to be “dialed in” regardless of how well built it is.

On the following Monday after the crash I found myself along side my team of dedicated men building a replacement car that had ONLY a roll cage and not a single other part whatsoever in it. I mean NOTHING! With only 3 days before the next race I found myself buckled in the car sitting on Infineon (Sears Point) International Raceway on a test day waiting for the green flag to drop. If you asked me if I thought there would be something that needed attention I would have told you it wouldn’t be if but more like how many. I will never forget that day as I began tearing up the track and going faster and faster all the time asking myself, “When in the hell is something going to happen?” As amazing as it was, the “when” never happened. Not only did I go on to win that years seasons championships but that car kept on going until it had 4 more seasons championships and a lot more and not once did a single component ever break or give me a problem.

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