What an amazing weekend of racing at Charlotte! I would first like to say thank you to Long Road Racing for providing me a top shelf car!

I had an exceptional time racing with Todd Lamb and Steve Bertok in the Saturday SARRC race! Todd and I didn’t qualify so well so we had to come through the field. Once we got to the front, Todd, Steve, and myself traded the lead several times until Steve made a small mistake around the 3/4 mark and it was just between Todd and I. I got lucky with a last lap drafting pass to pull off the win! Todd and I had several laughs about some of the moves that we each made. Todd, you are a first class wheelman and it’s been a while since we had a gun fight, let’s do it again soon!

I would like to say a BIG congratulations to my wing man, Jason Owenby, for his convincing Saturday night Carolina Cup Pro Series win under the lights. Also a BIG congratulations to my other wing man, Dillon Machavern for his Sunday Carolina Cup Pro Series win! You showed great composure and talent for such a young man! Congratulations to Nash Lawson on clinching a hard fought and well deserved Championship! Congratulations to Keith Andrews for his Sunday SARRC win as I am sure there are many more to come!

Lee York and Brain Price, competing in MAARS, were flying all weekend! Lee had his Meathead/Race Engineering 1.6 hooked up! This young man has a very bright future!

I would like to say thank you to all of my sponsors: Long Road Racing, Race Engineering, Panic Motorsports, Racing Analytics, Maxima Oils, Team 7 Motorsports, Carbotech Brakes, Impact Racing, and Chestnut Creek Stables! Cant’ wait to see you all at the race track soon!!

Another fabulous weekend of racing! This weekend, I traveled to Carolina Motorsports Park and it was hot with temps expected to be in the 90s! Luckily I won the SARRC race, my teammate, Steve Bertok, finished 2nd, and my other teammate, Dillon Machavern, placed 4th. Dillon then went back out for the Carolina Cup Pro Series race and won! Good way for Dillon to celebrate his 17th birthday! Becca, of Panic Motorsports, put on a birthday bash for Dillon and lots of people came over for a great cookout! Once again, Happy 17th Birthday Dillon! (Remember Dillon’s name, we’re going to be seeing him on TV soon!)

My Grand Am teammate and co-driver, Tyler Cooke, and his family came to spend the day with us and as always we had an awesome time hanging out with them! Dave and Jennifer Snider, from Team 7 Motorsports, came by and it was like old-home-week! Once again, I was re-united with Glenn Murphy who finished 4th in the CCPS race!

A BIG thank you to the Long Road Racing organization for giving us such an awesome car! As with every car the Long’s touch, it’s gorgeous to look at, well-sorted, and SUPER fast! I am so proud to have such a long-standing relationship with such a fine organization. Thank you to Team 7 Motorsports, Racing Analytics, Maxima Oils, Carbotech Brakes, Impact Racing, and Chestnut Creek Stables!

FOUR days of racing and it was fantastic! Wednesday I flew to New Jersey to participate in the Grand Am races at New Jersey Motorsports Park. As most of you know by now, I am driving the #27 Freedom Autosports MX-5 Miata in the Sport Touring Class. Thursday was a test day and it was a steep learning curve! I had never been to New Jersey Motorsports Park, nor had I been in a Sport Touring car. My co-driver, Tyler Cooke, and super wheelman/coach, Tom Long, shared their video and data which made things much easier! I always had an idea of how good of a driver and coach Tom Long was, but I had no idea he was THIS good! WOW!! It was very surprising how different the Grand Am MX-5 car is from a Spec Miata. They share the same brand name but that is about it! Saturday was qualifying and Sunday was race day. Unfortunately we did not finish due to electrical problems. I am relatively sure we would have had a solid top ten finish if we would have been able to finish.

My co-driver, Tyler, showed amazing maturity for a 17 year old. He was very accommodating, helpful, enthusiastic, and VERY fast! This kid is the real deal, I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to be working with Tyler. The entire Long Road Racing crew did a fabulous job the entire weekend! It’s amazing how professional they were! Just keeping 3 cars on the track, keeping everyone fed, and going in the right direction is a task in and of itself! Not only were they able to do that, but they kept all 3 cars capable of winning the race all while still having time for a laugh!

I flew to Raleigh and drove to Danville, Virginia Saturday night for the SARRC/MAARS challenge. There, Long Road Racing Spec Miata team had my #7 car ready to race. While I was in New Jersey on Saturday, Jason Owenby acted as my substitute and won the race! The combination of his feedback and the set up from Shea Hughes and Clay Dillashaw of Racing Analytics had my car on rails! Sunday’s qualifying had placed me in 7th, but I managed to get it to the front and pull off a win!

It took a lot of people and a lot of orchestration to make this happen and I would like to personally thank everyone involved: The Grand Am crew, the Spec Miata crew, everyone at Long Road Racing, and the Freedom Autosports organization!

It really is nice to have another win and I couldn’t have done it without Robert Huffman, the entire Racing Analytics Team, and Team 7 Motorsports! When our car came off of the trailer on Friday morning our car was just awful, it wouldn’t turn one way and only wanted to turn the other way…I’m not sure I could have gotten last place with it that bad. Racing Analytics stepped in with their entire team bringing in their scales and more alignment equipment than I knew existed! Shea Hughes and his team at Racing Analytics literally made changes to my car EVERY session throughout the entire weekend! The car was really good for Saturday’s win, but it was absolutely on rails for Sunday’s win! It was definitely the best handling race car I have ever driven! I would highly recommend Shea and Racing Anaylytics for your future set up needs!

The most interesting thing about the whole scenario is that they put their racing desires aside to help me, a fellow competitor. Talk about sportsmanship and total selfless dedication!

Also thanks to Robert Huffman (my dedicated crew chief) and to my sponsors, Carbotech Brakes and Maxima Racing Oil for all of their support! Last, but certainly not least, thanks to David and Jennifer Snider of Team 7 Motorsports for the fabulous car they built me! Not to mention rescuing Katherine and I when our motor coach broke down, they drove 5 hours on a moment’s notice to come get us and drive us 5 hours back home!

What a great weekend at VIR! We saw lots of new cars and saw some new faces. I really enjoyed hanging out with Dillon Machavern all weekend, it’s so refreshing to see such a bright, new face and watch his talent blossom! There’s no doubt that with the experience his father, Dave, brings and Dillon’s talent, that this young man has a very bright future in auto racing! Katherine and I enjoyed hanging out with Dillon’s mother, Patrice, watching the ECR play-by-play. Steve and Dillon worked their way from last to third, WAY TO GO! 2 more laps and I’m sure they would have won.

It was awesome to see my friend, Steve Bertok, get yet another win! Big thanks to Becca and Jonathon with Panic Motorsports for all of the help and thanks to MaryKate for entertaining us with baseball all weekend! A big thanks to Dave for dinner on Friday night, we had a blast hanging out with Tommy Riggins and the crew. I also really enjoyed hanging out with Glenn Murphy Saturday night; wish you didn’t live so far away brother! It was great to spend time catching up with you! Glenn, Katherine, and myself spent the night hanging out and drinking beer with Karen, Mike and Wendy Collins from the Meathead family in the motor coach. What a great bunch! We are looking forward to doing some MARRS races this year!

We also enjoyed spending some quality time with my long time friend, Tom Long from Long Road Racing and had a great dinner catching up on old times. Looking forward to what the future may hold!!!