A new motorsport adventure Pt3....Short Circuits on a Long Course Off-road Race…..

Read Pt2 Here

In my last installment I described, in what was probably excessive detail, the self-imposed ignominy of my first professional off-road race. That event turned the light on for me in regard to how serious this whole desert racing thing is and what the true level of investment is. Not only the financial investment from Steve & Tony who own and run the team, but the personal investment of blood, sweat, tears and time of every guy and gal who works on these buggies to get them ready for us to race. 

The process for preparing an Unlimited class Truck or Buggy (Trophy Truck / Class-1) doesn’t vary much. In most cases, after every race the vehicles are completely stripped down to their chassis. Every inch of tubing and every weld is inspected for damage and repaired if needed. All the suspension bits are magnafluxed or x-ray inspected to look for the beginnings of internal structural failure. Every ball joint, heim joint or other suspension pivot bearing is thrown away and replaced. The shocks, the massive King Racing or Fox Racing multi-bypass shocks and coilovers must be completely torn down and rebuilt. Engine, transmission and clutch? Rebuild them as well. All told a team racing at this level will spend no less than $15,000 and often upwards of $30,000-$50,000 just to prepare a Truck or Buggy for a race. That’s before tires, fuel, food & lodging for the team registrations & insurance etc…..

Add to that, the time that the guys and gals in the shop put in. The weekend days and late nights working on the Truck or Buggy, the days away from “regular jobs” to go to the races and it all adds up to one conclusion for me. This isn’t just Steve, Tony, Mickey and I going off into the desert to have a good time. This is a team sport, and there are a lot of people who have a lot of themselves invested in this thing and I’d better damned well start taking that seriously. And I did….

I mentioned previously that I’d gotten in better shape this year and after Caliente I doubled down on that effort. I put in roughly 300mi a month on the bike through the summer, mixed that with a bit of weight training and a bunch of work on the bleachers at a nearby High School football field. I spent hours upon hours searching YouTube for every bit of film I could find of the course and while I know that in no way can video prepare you for the physicality of desert racing, I wanted to at least know what type of terrain to expect and when. When August rolled around I was in pretty darned good shape for a 45 year old Silicon Valley desk jockey and as prepared as I could be at this stage in my experience for the longest off-road race in the United States.... 

The Best In The Desert Vegas to Reno.

The race began in the early 80’s as the “Frontier 500” ran by the late Walt Lott and the “High Desert Racing Association” and was taken over by former competitor Casey Folks’ “Best In The Desert” organization in 1996. The race uses a number of different routes depending on the year but usually starts in either Beatty or Alamo, NV (about an hour North of Vegas) and ends in Dayton, NV  (about 20min East of Carson City). The courses are usually 500-600 miles in length and the winners usually finish in roughly 9hrs give or take depending on overall course length. Teams qualify on the Wednesday, run through registration & tech on Thursday and the race starts on Friday morning and there are often competitors still filing into the finish after sunup on Saturday. 

For the 2015 running, we’d planned to have the buggy in Vegas in time for qualifying but issues with getting the new engine installed required that we skip qualifying and start from our draw position which wound up being pretty close to the front of those who didn’t participate in qualifying. The upside was that the team had a chance to do more testing in Parker, AZ on the way to Vegas than they would have if we’d been at the qualifying session. 

I cringed a bit when I found out where the host hotel was for the race….North Las Vegas…hoping that nobody in the area read and was offended by my account of my brief visit to North Las Vegas in the last installment my buddy John and I set off from Mountain View for the race. 

We didn’t encounter any stories of murder on this trip, and the only issue encountered was BofA shutting off my credit card because I bought gas in two states in one day….huh? We arrived at the hotel a day ahead of the team, had a good dinner and a few drinks and called it a night. 

The next day John and I drove down South of Vegas to observe the qualifying sessions near Primm, NV. You couldn’t see much of the qualifying loop from the spectator area but we did get a real sense of what kind of speed these Unlimited class trucks & buggies are capable of. More astonishing than that though was the size of the operations in support of the guys at the pointy end of the class.

Crews for the trucks belonging to Bryce Menzies, RPM Racing and Rob MacCachren numbered in the 30’s with all manner of haulers and support vehicles in tow, and this was just for qualifying. Each of the teams, ours included would have at a minimum 4 chase vehicles following along during the race and leap-frogging the race vehicle and each other on the paved highways then dashing a short distance into the desert for pit stops in remote spots in the desert.

The following day was technical inspection, contingency and the drivers meeting at the host hotel in North Las Vegas. Luckily, it began at noon…in Vegas…in August. So it was only about 115 outside. I’m pretty sure I drank ½ my body weight in water over the course of the day. Why they don’t do this after sundown was completely lost on me and damn near everyone else I spoke to.

For tech and contingency the teams unload their race vehicles and push them through a maze of vendor booths where race officials and manufacturer representatives verify the equipment on the vehicle for contingency payout after the race if you place well. If you run parts from company “x” and you do well, they pay you a bit. How much depends on how well you finish, your class, and the contingency pool offered by the manufacturer. Tech is fairly simple for an Unlimited class vehicle, essentially verification of the requisite safety equipment since there are so few actual rules for the class.

After this was complete we re-loaded the buggy onto the trailer and headed to the drivers meeting. There were just under 900 drivers and navigators representing over 230 teams in the room and we were all entertained by the affable Casey Folks and his collection of “Folks-isms” during the meeting. A number of competitors suggested a drinking game or BINGO card for next year.

The biggest drivers meeting I've ever seen...

Just a few of the different course markings we had to look forward to....

We did learn during the meeting that the Northern part of the state had been hit the previous week with some seriously heavy rains and that the course would be according to Casey “rougher than I’ve ever seen it” in the last 1/3 of the race and in the middle 1/3 there were places with over a foot of standing water and numerous dry lakebeds and dry creekbeds that were far from dry. So we had that to look forward to….

Final nut & bolt check in the hotel parking garage while an evening thunderstorm raged outside...

770hp of Small Block Ford...

Our plan for the race was to have Tony & Mickey (who have the most race miles under their belts) start the race in Beatty, they’d run the first 1/3 of the race and hand the buggy off to Steve and I at pit #5 a bit South of Tonopah. Steve and I would race the middle 1/3 at a conservative pace to not hurt the buggy and then hand it back to Tony & Mickey at pit #10 in Mina, NV. After that Tony & Mickey would run to the finish in Dayton.

This is actually happening isn't it?

On the morning of the race everyone but Steve & I got up quite early to get to the start. Tow rig with the buggy and all the fuel went to the start area. Four chase trucks each with 2-3 mechanics, fuel jugs, spare tires and various parts each went progressively further north to their respective first pit stops. Each would wait until the buggy passed or stopped for service/fuel, then dash out to the highway, meet the tow rig to top off their fuel jugs then haul ass ahead of the other three chase trucks to the next spot where they’d encounter the buggy. Each team had a specific set of pit stops that they’d be at.

The tow rig had to be there at least 2hrs before the start in order to find a spot to unload, get the buggy warmed up ad into the staging line in time. Steve and I left Vegas about 2hrs after the tow rig and planning to arrive at the start about 15min before the first racer departed.

Making our way from Vegas to Beatty provided some interesting sights along the highway. The first of which was Creech Air Force Base. If you aren’t familiar, it’s the central hub of the USAF drone program. Somewhere on that base is a kid, sitting in a room, flying a Predator Drone that is actually over Afghanistan. However you feel about the practice of remote warfare, the technology that supports it is pretty staggering and kinda fucking awesome. Here’s hoping one of those kids is sending a “message” to ISIS today.

After that we passed a number of the most frightening things I’ve ever seen in Nevada…..low-end brothels……HELL NO WE DIDN’T STOP! Now, all I know about brothels is what I’ve seen on that show on Cinemax. That place seems at least reasonably tidy. These places though….wow. I’m talking a dirt road off the highway leading to a trailer in the desert….not even a double-wide…usually painted pink or red to keep things classy. Some pretty creative signage on a few of them though. Most featured the words “trucker friendly”….does that mean  there’s room at the end of the dirt road to turn a truck around or does it mean there’s a shower for the trucker in question to scrub off 3 days of highway swamp-ass before his dalliance? I don’t know….nor do I wish to. The best sign though is below....

I nearly barfed....

I shudder at what kind of souvenir one might take home from such a place….and at the amount of antibiotics one would need to get rid of it…..

I fought back the nausea and drove further North to the start…

We were unable to get anywhere near the start due to the traffic in the paddock area but even from the shoulder of the highway we could hear the howl of the first few Trophy Trucks and buggies departing the line.

Steve and I then made a dash to pit 1 to wait for Tony and Mickey to go by. In this first pit each of the Unlimited class racers that we were up against had a chase truck in wait. Most of the racers wouldn’t be stopping here as it was only about 30mi into the race. Quite a few though had already encountered trouble. One of the TSCO trophy trucks had blown an engine before even making it to pit #1, Steve Strobel tossed a drive belt off his engine and had to stop for a quick repair and frequent pole sitter Dale Dondel had an extended pit stop due to what sounded like an ignition related issue on his Roberts Racing Trophy Truck. There were a few other vehicles that broke down in the first 30 miles and after a while, Tony & Mickey came through, the buggy in perfect shape and having picked up about 5-7 positions on the course.

Pit #1 and all's well....

We were feeling pretty good as Steve and I hopped into the truck and made our way toward pit #5 where we’d be getting in. We got there, had a snack and laid out our race gear consisting of a back brace, head/neck restraint, helmet, fire suit, gloves and a catheter.

A what?

Yeah, one wears a catheter on your junk so you can relieve yourself during the race without pissing in the seat. Thankfully it’s not the type of catheter that they put up into your urethra if you are bed-ridden in the hospital. Instead it’s like a really thick condom with a 4’ long tube on the end. Instead of lube, like a normal condom this one has an adhesive on it so it sticks to your schmeckle and seals to your skin.

The tube runs down your leg, out the leg opening of your firesuit and empties through the floor of the buggy. I'm not going to include pictures, but if you're curious HERE 

Yep, it’s just as comfortable to wear as you might imagine. The real prize though is removing it.

Not glamorous.

About 20min after we arrived at pit #5 the buggy made it’s way to pit #2. They had a small oil pressure issue that was quickly rectified by adjusting the dry sump pump and they were on their way without losing much time at all and still having picked up a few more positions in the race.

About 15min later my cell phone went off with a text message from Mickey.

If your asking yourself, WTF is Mickey doing texting you from the buggy in the middle of the race you’d be asking yourself the same question as I was at the time.

Mickey had to use his phone to text me because the buggy was absolutely dead. No power. Electrical system completely dead. Nothing, nada, zilch. He and Tony were stranded on course roughly ½-way between pit #2 & #3 and about 5mi off of the nearest paved road. Had they been in a location were they could be easily towed to the next pit we might have been able to attempt repair and continue but their location was not conducive to that. The options were for them to fix the buggy where it sat and continue or accept a tow off the course and get a DNF. Due to the nature of the electrical failure, option 1 wasn’t an option. We were done.

The team made it’s way to the ranch road along the highway that the course marshals said the buggy would be towed to and waited. When they arrived we found out that Mickey had struck out on foot and walked back on the course over a mile each way (August, Nevada, 115 degrees, in a firesuit) to retrieve a battery from a Trophy Truck that had blown an engine on the off chance that a freshly charged battery might get the buggy restarted and limping on its way to the next pit or a spot to be towed there from…no dice.

223 Trucks & Buggies and 113 motorcycles & quads would start the race less than ½ would finish. So at least we had company……..

This series is all about the experiences and what I’m learning in my introduction to professional off-road racing. I’ve been in involved in grassroots sports car racing for years and had my share of disappointments caused by mechanical failures large and small. The experience in this case for me is one of incredible build up and anticipation. Excitement at a level I’d not yet experienced about an adventure that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to take part in. That and incredible disappointment, but not for me. I felt horrible for those guys and gals who put so much, for so long into that buggy to get it ready for that race only to have it end so soon after it had started.  I’ve learned, that even in professional racing with professional, paid, full-time support staff one little thing, outside of your control can end your day just as easily as it can for some programmer auto-crossing his Miata on the weekends.

After we loaded the dead buggy on the trailer and the team left to head home to Phoenix John and I continued North heading home via Reno. We wound up staying in the same hotel as everyone else was and ran into Jason Voss’ team having their victory dinner, their third in a row for that race. It didn’t hurt as much as it inspired.

As I write this, it’s cold, rainy and the desert racing season seems as distant as Tonopah, NV is from Mountain View, CA but even still I’m feeling the urge to get back to it. To continue to experience, measure myself against the challenges, improve and chase our first victory.

A new motorsport adventure Pt 2, Of Bourbon + Bumps & Bile ….

Read Part 1 Here

I left the US Coast Guard fifteen years ago with nearly 3000 hours of helicopter flight time. In that period I had occasion to fly in some of the most beautifully perfect and horrifically miserable weather conditions imaginable. Not once in that period did I puke.

This was an oft-voiced statement in the months leading up to my first real race with “Patent-It! Racing”…..and at this point I’m betting you can see where this story is going but we’ll get to the self-deprecation in a bit. 

The Farce And Failure Of The DeltaWing

I’ve had a couple of guest posts on this blog and here is another. The background here begins with a years long discussion of the Deltawing Racing Program on a motorsports related message board that I frequent. The members of this board are a pretty tech-savvy lot and have highly tuned BS detection faculties. Over the years we’ve watched this program and marveled, not at it’s achievements but that it continues to exist despite an utter lack of them. Matt Miller explains further herein……

The Farce and Failure of the DeltaWing

A Guest Post By Matt Miller

The 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans included some amazing technology and competition among very different LMP1 prototypes.  It also included the first racing of the Nissan GTR-LM, a car designed by Ben Bowlby that is waaaay outside the box.  Against this backdrop, it’s a good time to re-examine another Bowlby design that also diverged severely from general practice: the DeltaWing.  To eliminate all suspense, I will say at the outset that this car is both a miserable failure and a farce.  Now, let’s see why.

IndyCar Roots

To understand the DeltaWing (DW), you have to understand the original intention of the car in 2010: it was supposed to be the next IndyCar.  It was intended to attract attention to that form of racing, which had been losing its fan base and which become a spec-racing series with an old-tech, open-wheel Dallara that was pretty boring.  Bowlby proposed a dramatic new car with only 300hp and which weighed far less than the Dallaras.  It was dramatic because of the shape: with a front track of only 24 inches, the car resembled a slimmed-down Space Shuttle in planform.

A New Motorsport Adventure…”You Want Me To Race What?”

I’ve been involved in amateur Endurance Racing for over ten years. In that time, as a crew-chief I have been a part of a class win and two podiums at the 25hrs of Thunderhill, two NASA Endurance Championships and a bunch of Endurance Series race wins. It’s something that I deeply enjoy. It satisfies my need to measure my performance against my past and against my competitors, identify areas for personal and team improvement and see measurable results of those improvements. 

I’ve long held the desire to participate in a top tier racing class and I thought that opportunity might come in the form of a chance to help out with a team headed to the 24hrs of Daytona or 12hrs of Sebring. Heck, I’ve even told a few acquaintances that hold professional racing licenses that if they ever get the chance to race at Daytona, Sebring or….be still my heart…LeMans, that I’d pay my own way to the event just for the chance to help in any small way. Though that opportunity has yet to materialize, I thought until recently that it would be my best opportunity to participate at the highest levels of motorsports.

Until recently…..

Sure, the car is quick but I think we need more downforce....

To Hell And Back...For A $2 Part

Prototype Development Group and the 2013 edition of the 25hrs of Thunderhill.

Every good story has a distinct beginning, middle and end. The story of Prototype Development Group and their 2013 campaign is no different.

The beginning….

After a good, but not great showing at the 2012 Edition of the 25hrs of Thunderhill, team PDG owners Yvonne & Richard Migliori committed to a full racing schedule for 2013. Operating on the theory that iron sharpens iron, the focus was on competition and lots of it to gain more experience for the team and drivers and a deeper knowledge of the strengths and limitations of the Factory Five Racing GTM and of their competitors cars. To that end, Team PDG entered 5 endurance races in the ES class and 10 sprint races in Super Unlimited. 
  
The results? In the endurance races team PDG collected podium finishes in 100% of the races including a spectacular overall win at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah and their 2nd NASA WERC series championship.  In sprint races team PDG collected podium finishes in 90% of the races and again, won the series championship. 

An utterly dominant collection of podium finishes in 14 out of 15 races entered and 1^st place in 10 out of 15.

Richard Sherman and what that outburst says about you.....

I've always been a Stanford fan, and a fan of Richard Sherman, despite the fact that he now plays for a rival of the 49ers. Richard Sherman is a phenomenal athlete and whether Michael Crabtree wants to say so or not, he IS the best defensive back in football and arguably, the most impactful defensive player this year. He is a well educated man (Stanford graduate in 2010 and currently working on a Masters Degree) and one can assume, given where he's from that he was raised exceptionally well to have achieved that.

Last night Sherman, broke the internet after losing his mind in a post game interview with Erin Andrews thus exposing a fascinating dichotomy in what sort of behavior we view as acceptable. There seems to be little gray area in regard to opinion on this. Many, myself included, believe he acted inappropriately. Others still, seem to be making excuses for him based on the emotion of the moment. Two such pundits are David Flemming and Joe Posnanski, both of which I have tremendous respect for.

25hrs Of Thunderhill 2012 Photos

This post is so late....like six months late. But here goes anyway......

In December of 2012 I once again had the good fortune to participate in the 25hrs Of Thunderhill in Willows, CA. This time I was invited to crew for Prototype Development Group and their home built Factory Five GTM-R. The team is owned/managed by Richard and Yvonne Migliori and if there is a kinder, more big hearted, more salt-of-the-earth couple on Earth, I've not yet met them. They both work for the public school system in Stockton California, Richard as a Vocational Studies teacher (his previous career was as a General Contractor) and Yvonne as the Director of Nutrition Services.

The GTM-R was built and is raced in honor of their late friend Dan Lawson who had purchased the car but was killed in a racing accident and was never able to complete it. In the six years the car has been finished it has continued to evolve, improve and become increasingly competitive at the 25hr race. Outside of the 25hr it has been very succsesful in the Western Endurance Racing Series with 58 podium finishes in 66 races.

Below are my favorite photos from the 2012 race and a bit of information here and there. As you'll see, the variety of cars in this race is pretty mind boggling. Everything from factory racers such as the 997 and TT-R, one-off prototypes like the GTM-R and RCR Eagle, purpose built tube-frame cars like the Panoz GT, club level racers such as Miata's and E-30 BMW's, and the occasional vintage car as well.

Pre-Race, the Prototype Development Group GTM-R

A Rookie At Spring Training

I have a number of friends who make annual pilgrimages to Arizona for Spring Training baseball. It’s something I’ve talked about doing for years but due to being busy at work, personal commitments and often excess procrastination I just never got around to making the arrangements. Before I knew it, Spring Training would be over and the Regular Baseball season had begun. This years Christmas present from my darling wife was a week-long trip to Arizona for Spring Training.  No more excuses, time to order a beer from your seat and PLAY BALL!

So, I thought I’d do a little piece on my trip from the perspective of the neophyte and share my experiences and hopefully inform others who, like myself, might be embarking on their first trip.

Grandma's Hands

In 1971 the legendary singer/songwriter Bill Withers released the song “Grandmas Hands”.

I was listening to the song over the weekend and a whole raft of memories of my Grandmother came rushing back. I wrote last year that I hadn’t yet figured out how to process her death and I still don’t think I have. But there have been small steps in that direction and they’ve come from a place I didn’t expect. Sports.

My Grandmother, Elanor Turretto, was an athlete as a young lady. She loved the game of tennis and played in High School and through her 20’s. I remember that she never missed watching Wimbledon, The US Open and thought the French Open was silly and that it was held in too high a regard given that the clay court was so different from the surface that players usually trained and played on.

She loved team sports too especially the 49ers and Giants.

I was in 1^st or 2^nd grade when I was surprised one morning at school by the appearance of my Grandmother at my classroom door. I don’t recall how she’d gotten them, probably from her boss at Tarlow’s Furriers in Santa Clara, but she had a pair of tickets for a “Businessman’s Special” at Candlestick. She was taking me to my first Baseball Game and it was to be a secret. It’s a secret we shared without anyone ever finding out until…well…now. So if either of my parents happen to read this, now you know.  

I remember every detail of the first game I ever listened to on the radio as chronicled ( HERE ) but I can't recall a single thing about this game. I have no idea who the opposing team was, who pitched or even if the Giants won. All I remember is how special it felt to be getting away with something by playing hookey with Grandma. I remember Grandma’s hands on the wheel of her 1968 Camaro (which I now own). I remember Grandma’s hands handing me my first ballpark hotdog. I remember Grandma’s hands zipping up my jacket against the chill at the park. I remember Grandmas’s hands holding mine as we dodged cars in the lot at Candlestick.

She was sitting in her wingback chair and I was sitting on the floor leaning against her knees in on a Sunday afternoon in 1982. With my entire family in the room, only she and I were paying attention to Vin Scully and Hank Stram calling a playoff game between the 49ers and Cowboys. Joe Montana rolled right, pump-faked and then slung the ball high and deep into the end zone and I remember, more than anything else the feeling of anticipation and anxiety being transmitted to me through Grandmas hands grasping my shoulders.

I was running off the field with the rest of the team after a game and I remember Grandma’s hands grabbing the sleeve of my jersey to congratulate me and the joy on her face when she’d watched me score my first touchdown in High School.

I remember Grandma’s hands touching mine as she told me how proud she was of me when I joined the Military.

I remember Grandma's hands touching my wife Kathy's the first time they met.

I remember Grandma’s hands in mine as she asked me to take care of Grandpa and did her best to comfort me just minutes before she passed away.

Simplifying Caliber Choices For The New Hunter

I don't do guest posts here often enough, I need to do a better job of seeking out contributions from people I respect on topics that interest me. Look for that more in the future....

The following is a guest post from Phil Maynard. Phil has helped me a number of times over the years to simplify some of the intricacies and see through much of the mythology with regard to shooting sports. Phil's handloads have taken game all over the US. He specializes in developing loads and calibrating optical drop correction systems for medium to long-range hunting. He is a data-mining geek with more spreadsheets than firearms. By weight.

At Phil's request I am stating that this piece is available for free use, reposting or printing with attribution to Phil Maynard of Montrose, PA.

                                                         Too Many Choices

There have been an incredible number of heated, passionate debates concerning the details of firearm selection for hunting. Caliber and sighting systems dominate, but every little feature has been analyzed ad-nauseam, often with such ferocity that one group will defend a feature or round as God's gift to mankind, while the other side denigrates it at completely, hopelessly inadequate for the task at hand.

How can such debates continue to rage?

The 49ers Harbaugh Transition....As viewed through the prisim of hindsight.

I was going to wait until the end of the 2012 49ers season to write this, but I've come to the realization that the record at the end of this year doesn't much matter to the conclusion of this piece so here it is......

With regard to the sports teams I follow, I’m a pretty pessimistic fella’. Growing up in the 70’s & 80’s as a fan of the San Francisco Giants will do that to you. Following the 49ers has as well provided long periods of bitter disappointment. They were largely hapless from 1973 to 1980 in the infancy of my fandom and again from 1998 to 2010 we endured another extended period of fecklessness with the exception of the 2001 & 2002 early playoff losses.

It was from this place of pessimism and bitterness that I wrote this piece ( CLICK HERE ) a couple of years ago. In that piece I made three core points about the transition into the “Harbaugh Era”.

1. Jed York promised a broad search for the best GM he could find.
2. That College coaches transitioning to the NFL have a poor track record and that Harbaugh had relatively little head coaching experience.
3. That York & Baalke handled the negotiation with Harbaugh in a somewhat sloppy manner.

No. I won't make a prediction for the World Series.

There is a widely held truism that "You Can't Predict Ball" and few teams have provided more evidence in support of that axiom than the San Francisco Giants over the last few years. In taking a look back at the 2010 season we recall that in the spring, the odds-on favorite to win the NL-West was the Colorado Rockies. Well, as it turned out they finished nine games back in third and it took a Jonathan Sanchez late inning double off of Mat Latos in game 162 to ink the Giants as Champions of the NL-West.

The Giants, The Athletics & BIG-Money-Ball

Much to the consternation of Bay Area Baseball fans, be they fans of the Giants or Athletics, the issue of the Athletics and their stadium woes remains unresolved. Bug Selig, after forming his "Blue Ribbon Committee" in 2009 has accomplished nothing other than to prop up the Blue Ribbon manufacturing industry. At issue now, as it always has been, is the matter of territorial rights to the Silicon Valley. The Giants have them, the Athletics want them. How the Giants came to be in their possession is no longer particularly relevant. This is big-boy business not a Co-Op and the Giants aren't about to give them up.

Today, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports posted a report (Read It Here) that restates what I asserted above and what we already knew;

The Giants owners have shown no willingness to this point to sell at any price their territorial right to the Silicon Valley area, which includes San Jose.....

One Lap Of America; Good People Doing Good Things With Fast Cars

On Saturday May 5^th the 2012 Tire Rack One Lap of America kicks off in South Bend, Indiana and over the course of the following eight days this automotive marathon will cover approximately 3,500 miles and include 21 competition stops at race tracks across the country.  James Shipka & Co-driver Carl Casanova will be joining nearly 90 other teams from around the world in what will be James' third time participating in this one-of-a-kind event.  Once again the OneLapCamaro will be the oldest entry in the race and this year they’re heading out as the two time defending Vintage America Class Champions so the pressure is on.

California Canoe / Kayak Paddling Guidebooks

California is a simply spectacular place for anyone interested in paddlesports. Short of the multi-day paddle-portage-paddle style tripping done in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, Algonquin and Quetico there really isn't a form of paddling one can't participate in here. The lack of this traditional style "tripping" is a matter of topography. Most CA lakes are man made, dammed rivers. As such they reside in deep, rough terrain river canyons which makes the prospect of portaging to the next lake in a chain difficult if not impossible. There are very few locations in CA that support this type of tripping and none that I can think of that encompass more than a single days worth of travel. That aside, there is much to be found for the CA paddler; We have Hawaiian Style Outrigger Canoe Racing clubs in the Bay Area & So-Cal, Sea & Surf kayaking and touring, tons of spectacular whitewater opportunities in the Sierras, Cascades and Siskiyou ranges and scores inland & alpine of lakes that are perfect for the flatwater canoeist or kayaker. Depending on how much time you have available and  how far away from it all you want to get there is literally, something for everyone and a place for nearly every type of desired experience.

So how does one locate a destination suitable to the experience they seek? You can only glean so much info from staring at a satellite image on Google maps and even the web will leave you wanting for information on the more remote destinations as I found when researching Lake McCloud in my previous post. The largest online resource is www.paddling.net. It's ok, but the user interface is at best clunky and there isn't much in the way of CA content. There is a small Nor-Cal specific web-forum called www.norcalcanoeing.com but it's just getting started. I'm a member there and we are trying to build the database of destination information but it's going to take time and more participating members to turn it into a good resource. Paddling is an ancient art, and it seems the dissemination of information regarding paddling is best or at least most commonly done by a similarly "old school" means. Books. The intent of this post is to briefly review a few of best.

There are four different resources that I find myself referring to when researching a future trip.

• Paddling Northern California - By Charlie Pike

• Up The Lake With A Paddle (Vol 1-4) - By William Van Der Ven

• Paddling The California Highlands - By John Coale

• Kayaking California's Flat Waters - By Janice L. Green

Man Can Cook #17: Jump Out Da Gym Jambalaya.

Admittedly, March Madness isn't among my favorite sporting events. NCAA basketball has lost it's shine in my eyes since so many of the players leave early to the NBA and because there is just so much of it on TV during the regular season, I'm approaching saturation point by the time March rolls around and the coverage goes to 11. That said, I know most folks don't feel the same way and are totally wrapped up in it so I thought I'd toss out a good, quick recipe to help you out in the event you are having a bunch of folks over on a weeknight to watch a few games.

This Jambalaya recipe is pretty quick and easy. The prep only takes a few minutes and it's on the table in about 45min flat. I'll include a couple of options in case you'd like to spruce it up when you've got more time.

Narcissistic Philanthropy…Or “For The Troops” when someone is looking.

I’ve resisted the urge to write about this for well over a year but I was encouraged to do so by a couple of friends so here goes.

My wife's father spent the last 5 years of his life at the Palo Alto VA hospital. The malady isn't important, but what is important is the "Armchair Patriots" in his life that abandoned him and his family in his dying years. Because of that, my wife, her circle of friends and myself like to put on a Christmas party for some of the patients at the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital. Nothing big, we aren't changing the world up there by any means but it means a lot to the guys who are up there who don't have support systems. 

Palo Alto Veterans Hospital

We put on a Christmas party each year for the 4 different mental health wards. These guys are truly "the forgotten". When Channel 7 News wants to do a Veterans Day story on combat Veterans they go to the prosthetic labs where they can get great images of some poor kid with a limb or two that has been blown off. Makes for better television than a guy who watched a buddy get something blown off and now, due to PTSD can't cope with society. Or a guy who's brain is no longer functioning normally due to exposure to chemical-warfare agents, least of all, the guys with chemical dependence problems due to being addicted to pain medications, or other "self-medicating" agents when their pain meds were denied.

Old Iron At The Autocross

Autocross is the most accessible and inclusive form of motorsport. You can participate in it using literally any street legal vehicle imaginable. Do you own a brand new Porsche GT2? You’re just as welcome as a guy with a 15 year old Toyota. The best part is that the classing is such that you’ll be “racing” against cars of similar capability. In comparison to other motorsports it’s ridiculously safe as well. You aren’t likely to damage the car other than wearing out your tires a little quicker and the odds of crashing into anything other than an orange traffic cone are really low.

I happen to have an affinity for older cars and there are a couple of local autocross organizations who’ve made specific accommodations to encourage older cars participation. In some cases they are vintage autocross specific cars that were built ages ago and have been retained and maintained in period correct trim. In other cases, folks have taken older cars and modernized them with high tech drivetrains, suspensions, brakes and tire/wheel packages. Below are a few examples of each. If you know the owners or histories of some of these cars please comment at the bottom of this post.

The 49ers - A Mid Season Checkup....

Who are these guys and what have they done with the 49ers? After nearly a decade of institutional ineptitude and on-field impotence the 49ers have finally, if grudgingly gotten the attention of Bay Area fans and the national sports media.

Earlier this year I posted a piece to this blog ( HERE ) wherein I criticized the 49ers organization for the process it employed in attempting to turn the tide of organizational buffoonery. In that piece I made the following points: