So now that I know where I am heading in the short term – PDX style, I located an event close to home. There are many options through both the SCCA and NASA.

And here at home, there are two representative SCCA regions within North Carolina - The North Carolina Region (NCR) which serves the eastern part of the state and the Central Carolina Region (CCR) which covers the western part – that you can participate in.

It was late August and I located a September PDE event put on by the CCR at Carolina Motorsports Park (www.carolinamotorsportspark.com)

It is next week – Friday, September 15 – Sunday, September 17). Tech Friday night, classroom instruction followed by two 20 minute session on Saturday with the same schedule on Sunday.

My dad is flying down from Virginia to crew for me. Meanwhile, I have been scurrying about in preparation ensuring that my car was ready and able to pass tech.

I only work on my car during the weekends and normally for only half the day at best then. I value my time with family and do not want my hobby to interrupt my time with them. Given the public nature of this community, I don’t discuss them much, but my time with them is more important than anything else that I do.

However, my wife is a giving person and takes on the burden of caring for the kids while I bury myself in grease and parts J

Projects of late have included replacing the brake rotors (I went from standard to the cross drilled version which dissipate heat and water better) and pads to cure the shimmy that came from a warped right front rotor. I also have bled the braking system, reconnected the windshield wipers (a tech requirement), have changed the fluids and prepped my newly acquired trailer.

Progress continues and now, in the remaining days, I will knock a few smaller items, prepare items for packing and clean the car. I read somewhere that a clean race car is a happy one. If anything, it fits with my desire to be as professional and buttoned up as possible.

"When you're racing - it's life. Anything that comes before or after is just waiting" ~ Steve McQueen in LeMans, 1971

So, I did an autocross and though not that successful it was fun and a good chance to “open” up the car and see how smooth it was in both handling and at high revs.

As McQueen says everything else in between has been waiting, and in my case preparing. I have been mapping out and planning my next steps. While researching other performance driving opportunities I stumbled across a new program that the SCCA has introduced. It is called the Performance Driving Experience (PDE).

The SCCA web site (www.scca.org) explains it this way.

“PDX events are about you, the driver. Plenty of seat time, plenty of individual instruction and a ton of driving exercises make up a PDX; all of which is designed to educate you and make you more confident behind the wheel, both on the track and on the street.Participants receive a solid blend of driving instruction, ranging from the classroom to in-car training to “follow me” drills. A wide range of topics are discussed and shown at a PDX, including: following a “racing line”, passing zones, speed limits and other general driving techniques. Of course, each driver receives feedback from his or her instructor at the end of each lesson. PDX events are non-competition based, but three other levels of the Time Trials program provide competition, but it’s important that the skills taught at a PDX are learned beforehand so you as a driver can enjoy the latter levels of the program the way they were intended.

When you feel you’re ready for something a bit challenging, Club Trials is where you want to be.Club Trials continue the instruction you received in the PDX, but adds advanced driving techniques, competition rules and introduces the elements of a timed event. Your street car is still perfectly acceptable, but you might start to see a few race-prepared vehicles too!With Club Trials, you now get to feel what it’s like to be on the track and go against the clock no matter what you’re running that weekend. There are two more levels to the Time Trials program, designed for even more racing action! Time Trials, Track Trials and Hill Climbs.”

The bottom line for me is that I think I have found my bread and butter for the next couple of years. For a number of reasons there is still a lot for me to do to get on track with other cars and this will be a great opportunity for me to utilize the car that I have and gain some valuable on trace experience.