Normally, I wouldn’t write a “year in review” post if there was no year to review, but Things Have Happened.
Looking back at 2023
After dawdling for several months over the decision to “hang up my racing boots,” I finally committed to putting the Mustang up for sale in February, selling it locally to some Lucky Dog racers in mid-July. Now I just need to sell the trailer and the truck, right? Then I’m done with the racing thing? Right? Well…
Having taken all that time to think about it, I concluded I wasn’t quite ready to be done with racing if I could smooth out some of the issues/concerns I’d had over the past several seasons. This likely meant:
- A car that held some sort of appeal to me beyond its suitability for racing (more “me”);
- A car that was going to be smaller and/or lighter to work better with the trailer;
- A class that had decent numbers on a regular basis;
- A class that wasn’t going to require a ton of vehicle development on my part;
- and, given that I’m probably fewer than 5 years away from giving up racing for real, ideally something that was going to hold a fair bit of resale value.
In short, a smallish BMW running in a popular “spec” class. Yep, after YEARS of thrashing around the idea, I was finally pulling the trigger on SpecE46. 😀
So, a little over a week after the Mustang went on a trailer, I purchased a SpecE46 from Georgia (a few miles from Road Atlanta, as it happens).
Looking forward to 2024
After the last few seasons, “hopeful” or “cautiously optimistic” could be used to describe how I’m feeling about this coming season. Based on two short sessions at a lapping day, I’m already way more comfortable than I ever was in the Mustang. (Many years of experience in the street version of the E46 3-Series, plus it’s basically the same size as my current Bimmer). Based on data from the day, and as compared with data from one of the faster local SE46 guys, I’m only off my expected pace in a few areas that I might even resolve during my first week-end.
There are a few “getting to know you” things on the car as it sits, plus a couple potential issues I’ll hopefully be able to work around without missing any races, but I’ve got a 15-race season lined up that I’d really like to experience as fully and as non-frustratingly as possible. We’ll see how that works out. 🙂