[T.O.Dillinder]

WARNING THIS MAY BE A LITTLE BIT OF A READ.

My Grandfather use to race with the Thunder Valley Motorcycle Club in the 40's and 50's. The formats were primarily oval, hill climb, and trail.
My Father in the 60's drag raced at Union Grove (WI) and Byron (IL), and in the 70's he raced short track at Rockford (IL) Speedway. However My father would always make the yearly trip for the June Sprints at Road America.
Myself, I did karts in the 80's, AMA Motorcycles (Road Racing) and AutoX in the early 90's. Even earned a Comp Liscence that I ended up not using.
There is a whole list of people that have helped in some form or another along the way. I would have to say the biggeset and closest names that have been Dave Watson, Ray Irwin, and Gerre Payvis. As mentioned there have been others that have given support such as John Eberhardt, Bob Denton, Steve Butzen, Rick and Jill Peters, and Phil Daus.
I just wanted to thank these people for their assistance, advice, and friendship.
what I love about road racing is economics, seat time, and the variety of makes and models that are involved.
Economics:
If you were to fiqure what it cost for every minute you are in the seat, road racing comes out being cheaper than circle track and drag racing combined.
Seat time:
20 to 30 minute practice session, 20 to 30 minute qualifing session, and a 30 minute race each Friday and Saturday.
Your HPDE has 20 to 30 minute sessions, and that is usually three sesions per day for each group.
road racing provides tons of seat time.
Different makes and models:
No matter what kind of racing you do, we all have one common factor. They love of the automobile.
A road racing event is like a car show with the added benefit to see those cars perform.
Sorry for the length, but now you know a little about me.
So, what got you hooked?

This post has been edited by T.O.Dillinder: Nov 18 2007, 04:47 PM

[Brandon Hey]

Hmm very interesting thread, well lets see the first thing that started the spark was when me and my father built our 65 ac cobra. We met a man named Rick that helped us out along the way who had built a cobra and also built a 69 camaro with a lt1 and a t56 transmission. He took us out in his car and when around a off ramp at some outrageous high speed and I was hooked. I started autocrossing in my mustang sold that and got my firebird. Thats when I met Mike "Junior" Johnson and his wife and then Sam Strano and they have helped me out a lot. I actually heard about hpde's from a fellow autocrosser and decided to check it out and have been hooked ever since. Last season I started in hpde in my firebird and by the end of the season I was in hpde 3. Next season I will go for my competition license. Hopefully I will have the E30 done and ready to race in specE30.
-Brandon

This post has been edited by Brandon Hey: Dec 2 2007, 01:04 AM