A quick-ish lap, a couple passes… fun times. Could still do it faster though. The car is prepared by Ed Railton and sponsored by Premier Auto Service. Cam is a Contour HD, shot in 720p.

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16 year old Josh Bilicki’s second time in a race car, and first time driving at Road America. Qualified 26th, but by the time the race ended he worked his way up to 17th out of a total of 31 cars. Thanks to Wild Graphics in Waukesha Wisconsin

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Check out some of my fastest laps here: www.youtube.com Hardship during my 3rd SCCA race weekend! A stretched connecting rod in the engine during practice meant the car needed to be taken back to Premier Auto Service by owner Ed Railton, who then worked through the night in order to rebuild the engine and make it ready to race. That meant I missed qualifying and had to start in the back for Regional #5. There were about 60 cars in the race. I’m not sure how many I passed. My coach, Ric McCormick, was on the radio spotting for me. Then the 08 car missed a shift. My car has street exhaust so it’s quieter than most of the other cars. When the 08 missed his shift I thought it was mine. I looked down, saw that things were fine, and when I looked up I was on a collision course with the 08. I jinked to the outside, because the right side was filled with cars (the 08 and the 10). The 08 didn’t see me, and when he looked up from correcting his gearbox, he saw the 10 to his inside. He must have reacted by steering to the outside slightly, which was enough to punt both him and I to the outside. The first hit was very light, and it only put some tire donuts on the door. But as we spun and I came to a rest, his car hit mine in the right rear, which bent a couple suspension components. The car didn’t track straight after that and could not corner very well, so I had to retire. Fortunately the fix was fairly simple (compared to rebuilding an engine) and I was ready for qualifying in the …

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Check out some of my fastest laps here: www.youtube.com Hardship during my 3rd SCCA race weekend! A stretched connecting rod in the engine during practice meant the car needed to be taken back to Premier Auto Service by owner Ed Railton, who then worked through the night in order to rebuild the engine and make it ready to race. That meant I missed qualifying and had to start in the back for Regional #5. There were about 60 cars in the race. I’m not sure how many I passed. My coach, Ric McCormick, was on the radio spotting for me. Then the 08 car missed a shift. My car has street exhaust so it’s quieter than most of the other cars. When the 08 missed his shift I thought it was mine. I looked down, saw that things were fine, and when I looked up I was on a collision course with the 08. I jinked to the outside, because the right side was filled with cars (the 08 and the 10). The 08 didn’t see me, and when he looked up from correcting his gearbox, he saw the 10 to his inside. He must have reacted by steering to the outside slightly, which was enough to punt both him and I to the outside. The first hit was very light, and it only put some tire donuts on the door. But as we spun and I came to a rest, his car hit mine in the right rear, which bent a couple suspension components. The car didn’t track straight after that and could not corner very well, so I had to retire. Fortunately the fix was fairly simple (compared to rebuilding an engine) and I was ready for qualifying in the …

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16 year old Josh Bilicki’s 2nd time in a race car, and first time driving a car at Road America. Started 16th overall, and 5th in class, worked his way up to 2nd in class, then the alternator broke so the car started sputtering and he couldn’t finish the race. Thanks to Wild Graphics out of Waukesha WI!

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16 year old Josh Bilicki running Spec Miata for the 2011 fall sprints. He qaulified 1st (his first pole postition ever), fell back to second, then third and was chasing down the 3rd place car when the rear end got away from him and he spun into the grass. Josh recovered and finished 4th in Spec Miata, and 5th overall.

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Check out my footwork on this circuit: www.youtube.com 3 laps of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in a Spec Miata, prepared by Ed Railton and Premier Auto Service. The 3rd lap is the fastest I’ve driven the Miata yet, a 1:48.48 according to the timing transponder (the onboard timer is usually a couple tenths off). The time was good enough for 13th overall, in a field of 60 cars. Ric McCormick was in my ear, on the radio for the whole thing. He helped me with setting my pace and managing traffic. It paid off hugely. In the 2nd lap the red car passes me and gets a bit sideways. Both our laps are blown. He was faster so I let him go. Having a rabbit to chase helped.

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Took our Bad Penny project Camaro out to the Porche Club of America’s (PCA) autocross at the El Toro track.. the course was well over a mile long and we were hitting nearly 90 mph in sections. Bill Chin’s Camaro had an oil issue so I let him drive the ‘68 some so the car got a real workout. Doug from Global West has been helping tune the new suspension and we found that the car needs a bigger front swaybar to control push. Still, the car did great, ran hard all day and will be even better next time. Thanks to the PCA for putting on a killer event and to Doug and Bill for the help!

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My footwork in the Spec Miata race car at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The car is prepared by Ed Railton and Premier Auto Service. This footage was taken at the end of a long test day, during which I seriously burned off my tires. As a result it was hard to get a 1:51 lap time, which is about 2-3 seconds slower than it should have been. I did mid-1:48s when I got fresher rubber. In the video I’m feathering the throttle more than usual. You’ll notice the shift from 2nd to 3rd is slower. The 3rd gear synchro is weak in first generation Miatas, and if you shift too fast it hurts the gear. You’ll also notice copious left-foot braking in turns 3 and 10. I start the video during braking for turn 11. I was surprised I could find a spot for the Contour down there, but it’s got a lot of mounting options and it was pretty simple to get a good angle. Some quick settings changes on the lap top and it was good to go. I like watching the dirt in the footwell shooting back and forth. With nearly 1.5 G, it’s like upending a bucket.

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My ‘89 Acura Integra rolled over to 230000 miles exactly when I pulled up into the staging area right before my first pass. My thoughts? “My car has 230 thousand miles on it now. Let’s go beat on it.” You can’t say that about many brands other then Honda, and I’m a DSM guy. [For the rare few that don't know, Honda owns Acura]. [I am dead serious, the car really did hit 230k then, total coincidence. Brings new meaning to the statement "Real life is stranger then fiction."] *ahem* Right, details. This is a video of my laps/runs/passes at: SCCA Autocross event in Verona, Virginia on 03-22-2009. For those not familiar: Sports Car Club of America [SCCA]: www.scca.com This event is in SCCA’s “Blue Ridge Region” [BRR]: www.brr-scca.org I was in ST [Stock Touring] class. With the timeframe we had, everyone actually got 5 passes apiece – a generous number for this type of thing [at the Nationals, I'm told you only get 2 or 3] There was a LOT of pebbles and gravel on the track that day, and a LOT of people were having a hard time with it. The was a nice, large, convenient patch halfway around the wide, sweeping U-turn at the end of the big straightaway, the first time you get to the far end of the big section of the parking lot. You’ll notice that twice my tail came out there, and I saw the same thing happen to several other people. Other then that, it was a fun course. The Cold Air Intake that was on the car when I bought it [which is also the only performance mod] unfortunately …

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