Get Fast’s 2008 News & Notes

Get Fast is still busier than ever as summer ‘08 starts to turn toward fall!

On Aug 19-20… we are helping some friends put on a private corporate track event. Jon, Zach, Colin, and some of our best instructors will be on hand to ensure a safe, fast, fun day.

On Aug 22-24… we are at Summit Point’s (hopefully repaved!) main circuit for the NASA-MA HPDE & roadracing weekend. James will handle T&S while Jon will instruct, do check rides, and help out as necessary.

On Aug 28-29… we will be at VIR’s full course to put on another great TrackDaze HPDE with the usual team.

On Aug 31… we have a NASA-MA autocross at Langley Speedway.

On Sep 7… we have the second annual NASA-sanctioned Evolution autocross school at VMP.

On Sep 10-14… it’s off to Mid-Ohio for NASA’s third annual national championships. James will be a co-chief of T&S while Jon will be a TT group leader and photographer.

On Sep 28… we have what will probably be the final NASA-MA autocross of the season at VMP.

Then the first part of October will be busy, but that’s a blog for another time…

We are happy to report that the recession and high gas prices haven’t slowed us down one bit. Actually this summer is the single busiest period we have ever experienced - not only in terms of the number of events we’re working, but also in terms of individual event quality.

On July 6… we did a NASA-MA autocross at VMP.

On July 14-15… Jon, James, Zach, Dave, and Colin Jevens went to Summit Point’s classic “main circuit” to put on a HPDE with our friends from TrackDaze.

On July 23-28… Jon took a truck full of cones and gear to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin with Chris E to work the third of four “MINI Takes the States 2008″ test drive autocrosses alongside Dale & Regina B and a crew of RA locals. During this time, James was at VIR with the rest of the gang working the NASA HPDE/time trial/roadracing weekend on the full course. On top of his usual duties as chief of Timing & Scoring, James *also* covered for Jon as this event’s TT Director, *and* James raced his new Spec3 #242! Meanwhile Frank instructed and handled the kart enduros. And while all this was going on, Zach was putting on a NASA-sanctioned Corvette-only two day school and autocross at VMP during “Mid Atlantic Vette Fest” with big help from our friends at Evolution Performance Driving School.

On Jul 31-Aug 4… Jon flew to LA to help Ryan Flaherty put on the fourth and final MINI event at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena (with help from Ryan’s trusted crew of NASA SoCal officials.) Meanwhile James was in charge of the NASA-MA “doublecross” (3-4 runs in each direction, combined score) at VMP on August 3.

On August 15-17… James and Frank headed to Lime Rock to work T&S for Grand-Am and the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup series, while Jon (with kind assistance from Colin, Zach, and a dozen great instructors) handled the novice group classroom & instruction for Redline during their pre-time-attack HPDE & practice day on Saturday the 16th.

Astute readers will notice that we have recently worked simultaneous events across the country. It’s definitely a sign that we’re still going strong!

So Get Fast was on the road for nearly 6000 miles through 17 (?) states in less than four weeks.

On May 29-Jun 2 we went to Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL with TrackDaze to put on their first HPDE in that region (neat facility and great people, but definitely an Alan Wilson course design.) We drove straight through, rented a trackside condo, put on the event (Jon worked control/grid/announcer/etc), then drove straight home… all in Eric’s beautiful new ‘08 Tundra with his gorgeous ‘78 Scirocco towed behind it. This ended up being 1600+ miles through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois - in under 92 hours total - all the while burning about $550 worth of gasoline.

Then we loaded up a brand-new crew cab Triton-powered F150 (April ‘08 production with literally 16 miles on it the day we left) for what was one of our most favorite “working road trip with fun on the side” adventures to date. Jon left town on Tuesday June 10th with Dawn D riding shotgun and pointed south for a few days of Florida relaxation, with a test drive autocross for “MINI Takes The States 2008″ at Homestead-Miami Speedway in between. This leg of the journey sent us through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and the entire state of Florida (at one point we were ~90 miles from Cuba.) We managed a crew of ~8 great staff members down there, mostly local NASA members and/or Homestead flaggers, and got to put several new turbo MINIs through their paces in the process. We were honored to work with the legendary Ron Nelson & Stu Hayner, from The Driving Connection. We also went to Key West and the Everglades (much like we did in late January except hotter this time), and ate sauteed alligator in Florida City. We blasted home from Coconut Grove in Miami on Monday, a 950-mile straight shot, then slept for 18 hours straight (or until the phone started ringing on Tuesday morning, whichever came first…)

Barely 48 hours later we were back on the road to Boston MA to put on another MINI test drive autocross - in the almost-still-brand-new but quite filthy truck, with different crew except for Jon (this time we took Chris E & Brett C along and met Dale & Regina B up there, with assistance from some very friendly local SCCA/BMWCCA folks and more professional fun with Ron Nelson/Stu Hayner.) This leg sent us back through Virginia and Maryland, then through Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and of course Massachusetts. The site was UMass on the water in Dorchester and it was gorgeous. We went to F1 Boston to get some karting in but the line was too long to suit our schedule. We also got to catch up with our friend Tim Suddard, owner/publisher of Grassroots Motorsports magazine, at a tavern near the event site. Hard to believe his son Tommy is almost driving these days!

Total for the first two legs of our MTTS ‘08 test drive autocross adventures, including all the side exploring and soforth: just over 4000 miles and roughly $1100 worth of gasoline. It really stinks to have to pay $4+ a gallon these days (especially at ~14mpg), but how else can we make these things happen? The amount of gear we have to carry is significant at times. In both cases we had 300 cones in the bed, which can’t easily (or cheaply) be shipped or rented.

Unfortunately in the process Jon had to miss NASA-MA’s biggest event of the year, aka Hyperfest @ Summit Point, because he was in Boston. James, however, not only went and worked T&S for that event among other things, but his ‘93 325is Spec3 racecar #242 made its official race debut! Pics: http://www.get-fast.net/e36

Jon hated missing Hyperfest but had a grand adventure regardless…

Our scheduling explained…

We try not to stack too many events too close together. Back when we were just getting started we would take as much work as we could get, but in the decade since, we have learned that quality is much more important than quantity. So we turn opportunities down if we think they will impact existing programs or relationships in any significant way. The only downside is that sometimes we’re in town for weeks at a time, which eventually makes us quite restless. We are road people!

We also try not to stack busy “road months” in sequence. It’s commonplace for Get Fast to have a really busy month of travel followed by a not so busy one, so we have time in the office to play catch-up. Of course the reality is that our “office” can be nothing more than a cellphone and a laptop with an aircard, and an inverter to power it all from a parked car. Also that sometimes we have no control over available event dates/sites, so the “month on / month off” plan doesn’t always work. But we try to space them out whenever possible.

Therefore April only involved two events while we tackled some longer term projects behind the scenes: an autocross for NASA-MA at VMP on the 6th, and Grand-Am at VIR on the 24th-27th (pics http://www.get-fast.net/gallery/ga408vir .) The VIR weekend was a good time because we went as guests of Volkswagen. They spared no expense with the launch of their new Jetta TDI Cup series and their new relationship with VIR.

But May was busy. During the first week Jon had a fun road trip with our buddy Richard Mitchum… instructing for two days @ Summit Point’s Jefferson Circuit for Racing Adventures (i.e. arrive-and-drive Cobra/Corvette schools), then blasting down to CMP in South Carolina to work the NASA-MA weekend and TT the rental Cobalt, then blasting *back* up to SP to instruct for Racing Adventures again the following Monday. Luckily Richard found some acceptable road tunes on Jon’s iPod…

Then it was a week and a half back in the office before handling control, classroom, chief instructing, grid, and announcing at TrackDaze’s mid-May HPDE on Summit Point’s extremely fun Shenandoah Circuit. The team really came together on this one. It was a great event as usual, with lots of track time for everyone involved. The following weekend was the first NASA-MA autocross of the season at Langley Speedway, which is a great place for those who aren’t scared of walls.

Then the summer adventures officially began around the end of May. More in our next installment…

The new season has officially arrived!

First we put on an insanely windy NASA-MA autocross at VMP on Feb 10. Pics: http://www.get-fast.net/gallery/021008vmp

A week and a half later it was off to VIR for the annual late February NASA-MA pilgrimage. This event was bigger than ever - more than 500 cars combined! Specifically we continued to test & tune the NASA Spec3 prototype racecar, did some check rides, helped with the instructor clinic, handled roadracing T&S, put on two kart enduros (one of which was postponed due to weather) and a skidpad test & tune day, and put on a Circuitschool & Circuitcross on Patriot Course. Pics: http://www.get-fast.net/gallery/feb08vir

Shortly thereafter it was time to help TrackDaze put on their early March HPDE & Pro Test Days on VIR’s full course as well. This was a great event. APR brought their entire Koni Challenge team so we got to spend a bunch of time around the legendary Randy Pobst. VW also brought the Jetta TDI Cup prototype out for some testing. Meanwhile, our buddy and resident baller Chris Kimmelshue drove and/or rode in pretty much every car he could find the keys to, including a supercharged Ariel Atom. Pics: http://www.get-fast.net/gallery/td308vir

Shortly thereafter, Jon officially became the National Autocross Director for NASA. The press release is here:

http://www.nasaproracing.com/news/2008/nasa-announces-autocross-progr.html

Then at the end of March we went back to VIR’s full course with NASA-MA for another huge 500+ car event. Our duties at this one were similar to our February duties, except for the inclusion of more work (handling the TT group and helping our friends from Tidewater Sports Car Club have fun on Patriot Course.) We were so busy we didn’t have time to take pics!

So the year is clicking right along for Get Fast, more details soon…

We are off and running despite the chilly temperatures!

James’ first assignment as the new co-chief of Timing & Scoring for Grand-Am was to report to Daytona for the Test Days on January 4-6. Of course he would need a co-driver and photographer for this kind of adventure, so Jon came along. Pics are here: http://www.get-fast.net/gallery/08gatd

A couple of weeks later we did the “End (and Beginning) of Season Celebration” for NASA’s Mid Atlantic autocrossers. This involved a whole bunch of racing at G-Force Karts in Richmond, then a trip to BW3’s for food and BEvERageS. Good times!

Then it was back on the road. James and Frank drove to Daytona to work the 24hr sports car race for Grand-Am on the 24th-27th. Meanwhile Jon flew into Jacksonville and rented a car. The race weekend was a great time despite the usual lack of sleep! Pics are here: http://www.get-fast.net/gallery/08rolex24.

Jon then went south for the ALMS Winter Test Days at Sebring (pics: http://www.get-fast.net/gallery/08almstd ), to visit his parents in Naples, and to spin down to Key West via the Everglades for some pre-season relaxation (pics:http://www.get-fast.net/gallery/08florida ).

By the first weekend in February everyone was home safe, looking forward to the impending season, and missing the lovely Florida weather!

2007 was the biggest and best season we’ve had yet!

Some highlights, in no particular order, were:

-attending a whole bunch of NASA Mid-Atlantic and Southeast track weekends

-putting on roughly two dozen time trials, autocrosses, circuitcrosses, and kart enduros for NASA Mid-Atlantic

-handling Timing & Scoring for all NASA Mid-Atlantic roadracing, time trial, circuitcross, and autocross events

-helping our friend Chris Cobetto maintain, develop, and test/tune the prototype BMW racecar for an upcoming spec roadracing class (like Spec E30 but for E36 chassis cars, more info soon)

-working the 24 Hours of Daytona in late January

-procuring James Packer’s “new” 93 325is which will soon become a racecar ( http://www.get-fast.net/e36 ) in mid-July

-putting together Grassroots Motorsports Magazine’s first annual Ultimate Track Car Challenge at VIR in late July

-working the second annual NASA Championships at Mid-Ohio in mid-September

-handling all the classroom and instruction for Redline’s pre-time-attack HPDE at Summit-Shenandoah in late September

-putting on the first ever NASA-sanctioned Evolution Performance Driving School at VMP in October

-getting our picture in the November issue of GRM ( http://www.get-fast.net/images/grm_nov_07.jpg )

-being on an episode of “Redline TV” that aired on Speed Channel for several months ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw4ft_NffLU )

-helping TrackDaze continue to develop their great HPDE program

-James becoming the new co-chief of Timing & Scoring for Grand American Road Racing

-doing a whole bunch of high performance driving ourselves, and winning a few trophies in the process

So far, 2008 looks bigger and better… stay tuned for details!

We hope you enjoy our little corner of cyberspace!

-email info (at) get-fast.net
-call 804 545 3949
-visit http://www.get-fast.net and submit the online form

To reach Jon Felton, President:
http://www.get-fast.net/jon.html

To reach James Packer, Vice President:
http://www.get-fast.net/james.html

To reach Zach Mickle: coming soon

To reach Frank Pinckney: coming soon

To reach the rest of the team: coming soon