Progress

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

So far, 2011 hasn’t been the racing season that I had hoped for. Even though we’re really only about 1/2 way through it, seems like I’ve been in a drought in a lot of ways. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve raced 4 different classes this year with the same car and it’s been tuff. The other day I tried to relate the complexity of this task to a co-worker here at Coker tire where timed, multi-staged, vintage rally car racing reigns supreme. I told him it would be the equivalent of trying to race a rally event with a different set of rules, competitors and crew members every day for the duration of the event. Suffice it to say, it’s been difficult to get a rhythm going. The real struggle has been to maintain a positive attitude and not get lost in the constant re-shuffling. Why all the jumping around you ask? 5.30 Class racing just hasn’t been as available this season, not without a lot of travel anyways, and in order to be a contender in the 5.0 class, I’ll need another stage of nitrous, and a couple of suspension upgrades, which I’d like to add in the off season. So, we’ve been trying to the best we can with what we’ve got by slowing down and running 6.0.

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