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!

Barber 200 Report

WE DID IT! We put the #75 Honda Civic Si on the podium!

Once again, a great example of the highs and lows of racing. When you come off of a weekend where you have an engine failure like we had at Homestead you almost want to walk away from the sport. But… When you come off of a weekend where you qualify P5 and finish P3, you can't wait until the next time you get on track. Fortunately, VIR is coming fast and we only have to wait a few more days.

Barber Motorsports Park is hands down the the nicest motorsports facility that I have ever had the pleasure of racing at. Every single aspect of the place is done right. George Barber, the man responsible for Barber Motorsports Park came up to us for an autograph during our meet and greet session and asked us, as drivers, what we thought could be done to improve the facility and safety of the track.

While the race weekend started off with a little trouble that kept us from going out for testing on Wednesday, we were able to get on track for practice on Thursday. Transmission trouble put us off the pace on Thursday quite a bit, but it was nothing the Compass360 crew couldn't handle. A few new parts, some transmission rebuilding and we were ready to go for qualifying on Friday. Luckily we had one more session of practice Friday morning before the qualifying session which put us back in the top of the time sheets once again. Qualifying was great, I went out and threw everything I had at the car and was able to get it into P5. Our qualifying session was over at 10:30 AM and we had to wait until 4:00PM on Saturday to race! Talk about anticipation!

Here's that qualifying lap:


Sticking with our plan of Ryan closing the race out, I hopped in the car for the first stint of the race. I settled in at P4 for the majority of the race and dealt with the cautions as they came, which was quite frequently. I tried to get in to a rhythm and save the car for the second stint in case Ryan were to have to battle with someone for position. Around an hour and 15 minutes in we had a perfectly timed full-course caution that allowed the field of ST cars to come in for fuel, tires and driver changes. I flew into the pits as fast as I could, hopped out, helped Ryan get in and jumped over the wall. This is when I started pacing. Back and forth for the next hour and 15 minutes. Karl, the team owner said I was about to have a kitten. Ryan went out in P3. He drove a great stint holding P3. We had nothing for the Cobalt and MX-5 ahead of us, they were just too fast. The race ended under caution after a big incident on the back side of the track and just like that… We had our first podium!

I was so excited that we had a podium finish, it's exactly what we needed to recover from the engine failure at Homestead-Miami. I'm proud to say that Ryan and I helped give Compass360 their best finish to date at Barber Motorsports Park! I could not be happier with our result, it's got me itching with anticipation to inch our way up that podium to the top spot at VIR!

I'll throw out the thanks, yet again, because they are so deserved to JC Concrete, the Compass360 crew, Karl Thomson, Ray Lee, Ryan Eversley and my Dad.

LUTZ AND EVERSLEY REACH THE PODIUM, THILENIUS AND ASCHENBACH FOURTH

(Leeds, AL) -- Compass360 Racing team-mates Zach Lutz and Ryan Eversley bounced back from disappointment at Miami in March with a strong result at the beautiful Barber Motorsports Park on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. The pair built on Lutz's fifth-place qualifying and stayed close to the leaders throughout the race, bringing the #75 JC Concrete Honda Civic Si home in third place, just ahead of the team's #74 Skunk2/Honda HPD car in fourth. The result marks the pair's best result in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.

"I'm so happy. It's just unbelievable," enthused Lutz. "The team gave us a great car and we had an amazing pit stop. (Technical Director) Ray called the strategy perfectly. After the blow-up in Florida, this is amazing and just what we needed. Now we're back in the championship hunt!"

Meanwhile, current championship leaders David Thilenius and Lawson Aschenbach managed to extend their lead by two points, to ten ahead of the #80 Bimmerworld BMW. "This is about the best we could hope for," explained Aschenbach. "We just didn't have the pace of the little Mazda today, and it seemed like the 75 was working a bit better at the end of the race, so we'll take fourth and hope to be back on the box at VIR."

Jesse Combs and Greg Liefooghe brought their #77 Coolgas/Exclusive Management Civic across the line in 14th, keeping that car in the top-five in points. Marv Weidner, making his series debut with the team, was in a good position to hand his #76 Honda to team-mate and fellow rookie Alex Kirby when he was tagged from behind by a lapped car. Thankfully unhurt, Weidner was nonetheless disappointed. "The guys were just great and helped me get up to speed quickly. The car was so much fun to drive and I know Alex would have done a great job. It's tough when someone who is a bunch of laps down wrecks your race, but I'll be back in an orange Honda soon!"

The team's returned to its Toronto base to repair and set the cars up for the next race on April 24th at Virginia International Raceway. "There's not a lot of time between these races, so I know we'll be busy repairing the damage and making some new improvements," reflected Team Principal Karl Thomson. "But as always, we'll be ready."

The Barber race will be broadcast on April 17th at 3:00pm on SPEED.

Photo: Curtis Creager. Reproduction rights granted.

Homestead-Miami Report

Well, it's been two weeks since the Continental Challenge race and the Mustang Challenge race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and I suppose I'll fill everyone in on what went down.

Racing has the highest of highs and the lowest of lows… that is without question and I think every driver, crew member, team owner and fans alike have felt this way at some point. This past event gave me a chance to feel both the highest and the lowest in one fell swoop.

We decided to run the Mustang Challenge car to support the Continental series and get some extra track time. This was my first time running the NASCAR 3 & 4 layout rather than the slightly different layout which Mustang Challenge utilized last year. This provided me with a great advantage as I was able to get gobs of track time which translated to excellent lap times in both the Mustang and the Civic.

I'll focus on the Continental side of things for a moment and then hop on over to the Mustang. Compass 360 always brings the best for us and this weekend was no different. Every practice session the car felt great and neither Ryan nor I had any trouble getting it in the top 3. I ended up qualifying outside pole (P2) next to Sarah Cattaneo in the Mini Cooper. Hey, I'll take an outside pole! I was pumped to be starting in the front row and wasn't going to hold anything back in trying to get to the front and set the pace for the ST field. I got a great call on the green dropping from our crew-chief Ray and was able to pull Cattaneo to turn 1 and hopped in the lead. I led the race for the first hour and 15 minutes picking up a 6-8 second lead twice, once before the first full course yellow and then once again following that. We had our second full course caution and decided it was time to bring the car in to the pitbox to do our tires, fuel and driver change. The pitstop went super great and Ryan pulled out on track right in the front of the pack. Unfortunately this is where things went sour… Ryan was ready to take the green flag when an engine failure caused us to have to park the car for the remainder of the race.

This is where the highest of highs meets the lowest of lows. Qualifying outside pole = High. Leading the race for 35 laps = High. Getting out of the car to the cheering of the crew hoping for a win = High. Having to park the car = Lowest of low. It's funny how all those highs don't add up to overpower the low. Even with the highs of doing well, our number one goal is to be in the front when the checkered flag falls and when this doesn't happen it really puts a damper on things. At this point all I can do is look forward to the next event at Barber Motorsports Park and hope we can repeat the excellence that was apparent during the majority of the Homestead weekend.

I'll chime in on the Mustang Challenge event briefly before wrapping up here. Running in both series had me super busy all weekend. I had almost zero time to sit back and relax… but what would a race weekend be if not hectic? The new reformulated 2010 BF Goodrich R1 tire is awesome with loads of grip, so it was fun to get out on track with the new tire and throw down some quick lap times. I ended up qualifying P7 which isn't quite what we were hoping but all hope wasn't lost. The car felt like it had some fuel pick up issues in NASCAR 3 & 4 during qualifying so afterwards John jumped in and put in a new fuel pump which cured the issue. It ended up being a great race and I diced with Dan Aweida for P3 quite a bit but ended up finishing P4. Gaining those spots earned us the BF Goodrich Take Control award for most positions gained which got us two free tires!

Even with the lows experienced, racing is something that I live and breath and I'm not going to let this weekend bring me down. We'll just keeps our heads up and keep pushing for that elusive win we're chasing! I'd like to thank the whole Compass 360 Racing team, Ryan, Dad, John, and Stephen for all the hard work they put in.

Fresh From Florida 200

I have to confess, writing about the Fresh From Florida 200 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race just won’t do it justice! It was what I would consider the highlight of my racing career without a doubt in my mind. Driving in a televised professional race at Daytona International Speedway is something that I never thought I would have the opportunity to do so trying to put into words the way that the weekend went may me a little difficult.

Driving under the tunnel in to the track and seeing the utter “huge-ness” of the place almost leaves you breathless. Having done the test days earlier in the month I wasn’t too worried about having to get used to the car or learn the track so I could focus on my race-craft and fine tuning the car with Ryan. Two rounds of practice on Thursday before qualifying gave us a good amount of seat time but unfortunately some issues with the brakes in the second round had us a little worried about qualifying. We took the car back to the paddock and after checking the issue out the Compass360 crew fixed everything and gave me a great car to qualify with. Qualifying went well, giving us a P7 starting spot for the race on Friday.

So here comes the big day, my first Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race. I'll admit, I was a little nervous but it was nothing I couldn't channel to bring some focus in the car. We had a short little practice session in the morning where Ryan and I both went out for short stints just to bring the car up to speed, shake it out and make sure everything is ready for the big race. Just prior to the race we had a Rolex style fan-walk where all the fans got to walk around the cars in the pit lane and get autographs, meet drivers and otherwise just interact with the competitors. It was a really good time being able to hand out hero cards, give autographs and get our pictures taken... Something I could definitely get used to!

Alright, here we go... the race! Starting in P7 gave me a good view of the front of the pack going in to turn 1 giving me plenty of time to react if something were to happen in front of me, although our start was fairly clean with no major incidents. We did have a few caution laps right off the bat due to some of the GS cars making contact, going off track and otherwise making the track unsafe for green flag racing. After we make it through the first 15 minutes or so we had some relatively clean laps for a while and I worked my way up from P7 to dice for the lead for a few laps before ultimately settling in P5 to continue the rest of my stint out. After about an hour and fifteen minutes we had another full course caution which seemed like the best time for Compass360 to pit their cars. We did our pitstop and unfortunately due to an early thrown green Ryan ended up on track in P16 or P17 and had to work his way back up to the front. He did a great job working with traffic and using cautions to his advantage to put the car back up into P5 where we ultimately ended up finishing.

Overall, Compass360 had a great weekend with the #74 finishing in P1, the #77 finishing P4 and our #75 finishing P5! I’d like to say thanks to JC Concrete, the whole Compass360 crew, my Dad, Ryan Eversley, all the Grand-Am fans and everyone who has helped out and supported me!

Don't forget to check out the broadcast of the race on SPEEDtv on February 13 at 7:00PM ET!

JC Concrete partners with Compass360 Racing

(Lawrenceville, GA) -- Compass360 Racing (C360R) today released details of the team's marketing partnership with J.C. Concrete for the 2010 season. The program includes multi-tiered promotion within the paddock and to fans.

"I'm so pleased to welcome J.C. Concrete to the Compass360 family," noted Team Principal Karl Thomson. "We believe -- and I know they agree --  that the Grand-Am paddock is a great place to develop new contacts, friendships and cultivate new business."

 J.C. Concrete (http://jcconcreteonline.com) specializes in delivering high-quality builds to multi-family residential and commercial projects in the southeastern United States. A family-owned business started thirty years ago, they are as comfortable building retaining and foundation walls for a massive 400-unit apartment complex of townhomes as they are pouring the post-tension slabs for a new restaurant.

"We're thrilled to be part of the Grand-Am community with a Championship team," enthused J.C.'s Senior Project Manager, Justin Stauffer. "We are really looking forward to taking advantage of the great opportunities presented by the series to grow our business."

J.C. Concrete will be one of the primary sponsors on the team's #75 Honda Civic Si, and will be taking advantage of at-track activation and hospitality for business partners and prospects.

Remarked Thomson, "There is a surprising synergy between J.C. Concrete's core competencies and other companies who partner with Grand-Am teams. This marks the first year in a multi-year program with J.C., and we're excited to introduce a new firm to the Grand-Am community."

GRAND-AM's Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge starts its year this week with Test Days at Daytona, Florida. The series' first race is on January 29th, as part of the Roar Before the 24 in support of the Rolex 24 Hours of Dayona, and will be televised, tape-delayed on SPEED TV.