[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

[V6RSR]

Meeting Mark Donahue as a very young child on my minibike at Riverside raceway watching the CanAm races. I read about him more in a book my dad and brothers had of him and how he was a "driving enigieer". I became intrigued on the design elements of cars before I was ever 10 years old. His death taught me respect of the sport and gave me knowledge that even legends can die and know your limits. I grew up always wanting to wrench on my own things, my minibike, my bycycle, the lawnmower I had to push every week. I learned not to trust anyone else touching my stuff that I was only comfortable if I myself tightend that bolt. Nowadays that is OH so true, When I am doing 65 on the fwy, or 165 on a track, I like to know "I" was the one that last touched all the nuts and bolts and everything was inspected. My biggest fear in driving has never been driver error, its mechanical failure- Thats where the big names in racing world have mostly died- I try to keep my fate as safe as possible rather than relying on other enginneers and crew.

To this day, class racing is boring to me. I like unlimited racing. But that cost bucks. SO... What I like most and only is building a car and taking it to the track- running it, who cares about what other cars just like it do, I do not run for trophies......What thrills me is to bring that same car back the next time I run it and better that cars lap times. Thats done through engineering and setup. I do not have to be a big of HP anymore. I like to take an underdog type car and beat something that it is "not suppose to beat". After all, I do not care how fast you are for your class, if there is 3 groups running at the same time and you are leading the slow group, nobody is watching you, they are mostly watching the fastest car on the track at that time. Everybody expects the big HP car to be fast and your skills get written off as " anyone can win if they drove that 800hp car"..etc.. I like to have the car everyone walks over to at the end of the day and scratch their head looking for the mysterious parts- those are my likes and challanges- thats where I love racing, challanging myself each time I take a new car to the track. I shake down that car to be the best it can be, then I am done with it and then detune the dampers enough to be just comfortable enough for daily use (Shocks have come a long waysince I was a kid). A few years go by, I get the bug again to do something else, I redo this.. build that...change such and such for whatever reason...The track play starts again.

As for what I am doing in racing cars. I am so damn bored with what I have been able to build so far in life that I want to raise the bar biftime in my next build. That will cost money and most of all take massive engineering skills to pull off. Ibought a project a few years back and am waiting in life til I have the machinery and funds to build a retirement so to speak car of my dreams. I am going to build a platform under my vintage '67 Cooper S RHD that I want to rival the cornering abilites of open wheel cars and the acceleation and braking G's to suit. It is going to be areo engineered to stick tot he ground with a 1400lb vehicle max weight, 400Hp mtor goal and a remachined Jag style rearend with inboard discs and lever suspension setups. I want a 5:1 unsprung weight ratio and a very low CG.
I want to then take thois car out and have fun with it grunting and trying to keep myself concious in my golden years of driving this little thing out with some unlimited vintage cars rather than stuck with the fun looking but boring Mini's, Bugeyes, and Sprites. I want something that you just think, Man, I gotta drive that.

And thats why I do not race anymore even though I am still contantly around it. I do the occational jump in the car for a few shakedown laps for others, buts for me? Whats the glory of traveling about to win lets say ESP class in autox at the national when their were other cars that day that ran far quicker lap times in other classes. I want to be as fast as I can in MY car and My budget- without rules- thats where I stand in life. I guess I got into racing way too young and it just gets boring without unlimited pocketbooks.