RIP Paul Brown

I met Paul on several occasions during our respective racing careers and I can't go any further without saying the man was SUPER enthusiastic about Mustangs and competing in them! The first time I met Paul was at Barber Motorsports Park in 2009. Paul and I found ourselves competing against each other in the first Mustang Challenge race of the weekend, which happened to be only my second race weekend in a pro series and of course, Paul had quite an advantage over me with his years of experience. It's tough to think back and try to remember the results of that race, but I can say that I know that I biffed it and spun early in the race and didn't get the oppurtunity to battle with Paul, but I would have loved to, given the chance.

Unfortunately, I never got the chance to share the track with him again, as I moved into the Grand-Am series and Paul was a World Challenge kind of guy. From the sidelines, I watched him dominate World Challenge GTS in 2011, winning something like 5 races and capturing the championship. I was working with another World Challenge team at the 2011 Petit World Challenge weekend, and I found myself at the end of season banquet held at Chateau Elan at the close of the weekend. I sat, ate finger foods and drank wine with my team and watched as presenters rattled off their witty jokes and one-liners. I sat and watched as drivers, team owners and others went to the podium and accepted their awards graciously and made speeches. ...Then Paul came up to accept his award for the 2011 GTS Championship and it wasn't an ordinary acceptance speech. You know how every once in a while, you'll see someone go in front of a group of people and just let it out? Paul went up to that podium, and as near as I can remember, didn't get but two or three words out before you could see him choke up and start to hold back the tears. He didn't do a very good job of hiding it either. He stood up there in front of nearly every SCCA competitor, team owner, crew member, sponsor, and event organizer and expressed so much gratitude with so much sincerity as tears streamed down his face. He thanked everyone. He thanked his wife, his team, everbody. At the time, I wondered why he was so emotional, it almost seemed strange. "It's just a championship," I said to myself in my head, "I wouldn't be crying." Looking back on it, I realize it wasn't just a championship for Paul, it was a dream that had come to fruition and at that moment he was seeing it all come together before his eyes. He was accepting a trophy that wasn't just for winning a championship, he was accepting a trophy that stood for not just one season of racing, but a life time dream of being a champion.

I realize now, that in order to be a champion like Paul, you have to not only want to be champion, you have to want it more than anything else, you have to want it so much that stops becoming a 'want' and becomes your dream. I can say, without conviction, that Paul Brown truely made an impact on me in that moment and changed the way I thought about succeeding not only in racing, but in life.



RIP Paul

Zach Lutz To Return To Mitchum Motorsports for Continental Tire Sports Car Festival at Historic Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

(Atlanta, GA) -- Zach Lutz is poised to return to Mitchum Motorsports for the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Festival at Historic Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on September 8th, 2012. Lutz will be joined by a promising fresh face to the Grand-Am paddock Adam Isman in the Mitchum Motorsports #60 BMW 128i in the ST class.

Lutz, coming off of a successful event at Indy with Mitchum, is enthusiastic about this event. Lutz remarked: "Wow, this deal really came together at the last minute… Just last night I wasn't sure if Chris (team principal at Mitchum Motorsports) and I were going to be able to pull this thing off, but man… we all hustled and made something happen! I can't wait to get out to beautiful, sunny California with Adam and drive at such an awesome track as Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and go for a spot on the podium! Driving with Adam is going to be an absolute pleasure… he's a new face in the Grand-Am paddock and with his experience in the Canadian Touring Car series and his karting background, I really feel like we're going to have a shot at a great result. I've got to say thanks to Chris and Adam for making this whole deal come together!"

The Mitchum Motorsports BMW 128i has undergone significant development throughout the 2012 season and the whole squad feels like this will be a great track to showcase the abilities of the BMW. Chris Mitchum noted: "With the BMWs being a new program for 2012 we have made a lot of progress with development of the BMW this season. After facing a little adversity early in the year, we have now proven we have a competitive effort!"

The green flag for the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Festival Powered by Mazda flies on Saturday, September 8 @ 2:30pm (PT)/5:30pm (ET), with qualifying taking place at 10:55am (PT)/1:55pm (ET) on Saturday at the picturesque Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, CA. For more info and live timing & scoring, visit: www.GRAND-AM.com

The race will air on SPEEDtv September 16, 1:30PM ET.

Be sure to follow along on twitter with Zach at @zachlutz and Adam at @Iceman_032

Zach Lutz set to return to Compass 360 Racing for Kia 200

(Atlanta, GA) -- Zach Lutz set to return to Compass 360 Racing for the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Kia 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida on April 28, 2012.  Lutz will be driving with Bo Roach, another C360R veteran, in the #77 Honda Performance Development Civic Si.

Lutz remarked: "I couldn't be more excited to be hopping back in the C360R Honda Civic Si, I'm so grateful of Karl Thompson (Team Principal) and Ray Lee (Technical Director) for presenting me with this oppurtunity. C360R is one of the best teams out there and everyone puts in so much effort, it's really an honor to be a part of that kind of team. Having worked with Bo at a couple of events in the past, I feel like we're going to work really well together and hopefully you'll see us on the podium at the end of the weekend!"

No stranger to Homestead-Miami Speedway, Lutz is confident at how the #77 will perform: "It's a great track for the Honda Civic Si... C360R is no slouch when it comes to tuning these cars and they've really nailed it at Homestead-Miami. I imagine we'll come out of the box strong and continue with that momentum throughout the weekend. I've had some great runs at Homestead in the past, but mechanical issues have kept us from having a great finish... this weekend we're looking to change that!"

Ryan Eversley excitedly had this to say: "I'm really proud of Zach for putting this deal together and racing as a pro for his 3rd year in a row. He's a big part of C360R and I'm glad he's back!"

You can follow along with Zach on twitter at @zachlutz.

The race will air on SPEEDtv May 12 at 12:00PM ET.

Lime Rock, Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio, PHEW!

We've had a heck of a run the past few race weekends! I've been so busy with my racing endeavors and helping with other driver's endeavors that I've been slacking on my blogging… Sorry! I'll make it up to you guys and gals today with a package deal! THREE BLOGS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!

First of all, let me explain what I've been up to for the past few weeks. I was able to form a great relationship with another driver at our event at Barber not too long ago and it's grown into a pretty cool deal! Marv Weidner drove one of the Compass 360 Civics with us that weekend and I was able to help Marv get comfortable in the Civic and lower his lap times fairly consistently. Throughout the weekend Marv and I had several conversations about my past and my future goals in motorsports, as well as his past and future goals. From these conversations we were able to put together a great deal where Marv has been driving the Lutz Motorsports Industries/Compass360 Mustang in the Mustang Challenge series. We did some testing the weekend before his first Challenge race at Roebling Road in Savannah, Georgia and it went fantastic! Not only did Marv pick up his times to a very competitive level fairly quickly, but we had a blast working together. The whole team really got along great, which is super important in this scenario. Lime Rock, Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio have been great learning experiences for Marv and everyone was really pleased with his progress, including himself. I'm really looking forward to what the rest of the season will bring for Marv and where we end up next year!

This brings us to the Continental race at Lime Rock. They call it the "bull-ring" and I'd say that's a pretty accurate description. It's fast, short, wild and dangerous. The weekend was without a test day so our track time was limited, but I was able to pick up the track relatively quickly and put down some quick laps in the practice sessions. After a qualifying session cut short by a car oiling down the track we found ourselves in a P9 starting position. Not bad considering I was only able to throw down a few clean laps. Rain was on the forecast for race day and I was ok with that. We ended up starting the race in the drizzling rain which wasn't a problem for us! I capitalized on the fact that my competitors were going to be very cautious during the first turn and was able to pick up a few positions by diving in to turn 1. I moved from ninth to fourth by the first corner and worked on chasing down the few cars in front of me. The competition was stiff and we all settled in to line and kept pushing forward. The wet track was beginning to dry and the lap times were coming down. Ryan got in the car about halfway through the race and began pushing his way forward as well. A few great timed pit-stops had us running in the front of the pack at then end of the race. We were running second behind our sister car, the #74, when the #81 Bimmerworld car came on strong and passed both us and the #74 to take the win. Taking a podium at Lime Rock was a feat we weren't sure we were going to be able to do… but having made it felt pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Onward to Watkins Glen! Back to back weekends of racing brought us to the Glen quickly after Lime Rock. This time around we had lots of track time during the test day and although we had to deal with some issues with the brakes on our car we were able to sort it out and put some quick laps down in practice. Qualifying brought another challenge for us. A miscalculation in fuel levels had us going out on track with a very low fuel load that only allowed me to get in one and a half laps in before running out. DOH! I put down a 'decent' lap that had us in P4 and was coming around to go for a flyer that may have put us on the front row but ended shortly after the bus-stop with sputtering that eventually led to the car coming to a stop in turn 9. Fortunately the qualifying session was short and I didn't have to sit in the car for too long. The race had a few exciting turn-of-events for us which kept this one interesting. Starting close to front makes my job fairly easy as my main goal is to keep the car up front and clean for when Ryan steps in. David, in the #74 car, and I just took it to the front of the pack and held our positions until we got the call from Ray to come in for our pit stops. Once again Ryan did a fantastic job of keep the car in the front of the pack and being there right at the end. We were running in P4 with a few laps to go when the two cars in P2 and P3 made contact, allowing Ryan to put the car into P2 for the last lap of the race!

For our final destination of the bloggage, we'll re-live the splendor that was Mid-Ohio. This was another good weekend for us, despite receiving a competition adjustment from Grand-Am. The powers that be decided we needed to get slowed down a little. We showed up for test day on Thursday and had a few good sessions before realizing there was an issue with the transmission. In went a new transmission for Fridays practice sessions and we were good to go! After a small practice session on Friday morning we were ready to qualify later that day. We had a bit of another rough qualifying session as I was only able to put the car in P9. The times were all very close and just a little bit more would have had us up front. All was ok with it though, I knew I would just fight my way to the front of the pack during the race and hand off a good car to Ryan. So… That's what I did. After a few laps of green flag racing on Saturday and I had the car in the top 5. This was all I needed to do so I held position and waited for the call to come in to do our pit stop. The call was made, I handed it over to Ryan and let him do his thing! After all the pit strategy was done Ryan was sitting right up front ready to start battling. Unfortunately, the #74 car had gotten taken out by another competitor and was having to fight back to the front so we didn't see another 2 car podium. What we did see was Ryan getting the car on the podium even with our competition adjustment! P3!!!

What a fantastic run we've been having! That was our fifth podium in a row. Ryan and I were talking the other day and we realized that no matter how the final three races go we will have been on the podium no less that 50% of the races this season! It's amazing! I can't thank everyone enough. Ryan, Ray, Karl, My Dad, all the C360R crew, Marv... you guys all make this happen!

VIR 200 Report

WE ARE WINNERS!!!

Virginia International Raceway is one of those "driver's tracks" as they say… A statement I will have to agree with. It takes some fortitude to be able to hold the throttle down through the uphill eases for just that little extra bit and throw the car down into the 'roller-coaster' to get quick lap times and stay up front. Having only been to one other event at VIR prior to this weekend I knew it was going to take some work to get quick. Luckily, it didn't take too much. Within a few practice sessions and some minor changes we had the car dialed in perfectly and laying down top 3 lap times. It is such a pleasure to drive a car that is sorted so well!

We were consistently quick in practice and definitely shooting for a front row starting position during qualifying. I had to deal with some initial traffic during the session but was able to put together a really clean lap that put us on the outside pole! That's two outside poles now… I'm searching for that pole now! The Minis really have qualifying down to an art, I'm beginning to think they just don't want me on pole!

Rain was in the forecast for race day. A look at the doppler radar and you'd have been a fool to say it wasn't going to rain, thus we began planning the race day around rain. We decided on a pit strategy that was going to require an earlier pit stop than usual to get it out of the way and then hope for rain to help us with fuel conservation. I had a few great battles with the RSR Mini and the Freedom Autosport MX-5 before eventually taking the lead and holding on to it for around 50 minutes or so before coming in for our first and final pit stop. Ryan hopped in the car and took the lead back from our sister car, #74, after a few laps and put his head down to set the pace and hold the lead for the next hour and a half. We kept looking at the doppler in the pits thinking and hoping that the rain was coming soon. It never came. We had Ryan go into fuel conservation mode, short shifting the car and driving very smoothly. Looking at our fuel tables had us all standing around wondering if we were going to make it. Since the rain never came, we were hoping for the next best thing, a caution. It never came. The timer was winding down and the checkered flag was quickly approaching when I heard a call come through that the #74 was stumbling and was going to have to come in for a quick splash and go. I started getting worried at this point wondering if we were going to make it. What shouldn't have happened did though… We made it to the checkered flag with zero fuel to spare! Ryan and I won!!!!

Standing at the top of the podium holding that trophy was the most exhilarating feeling I think I have ever felt. It will have to go down in my books as one of the most fun and rewarding tracks I've driven in my career. VIR will always have a little extra sentiment attached to it, given that it brought me my first professional racing career victory.

Of course without the help of JC Concrete, the Compass360 crew, Karl Thomson, Ray Lee, Ryan Eversley and my Dad none of this would have been possible. A big thanks goes out to these guys!