Hello and welcome to my site.
I thought that I'd give you a little insight into myself and why I decided to put this website together. Over the past couple of years I have had the opportunity to help my best friend as a tech inspector for the Thunder Roadsters. They started running at our local track and my friend having a legends car, being a mechanic and having been around racing for years and got roped into the job, so I thought that I'd give him a hand. It didn't take long to get to appreciate there simplicity and yet how fast and fun they appeared to be. Since the first time that I saw them I thought they looked like they would be a blast to drive. In the summer of 2007 I got my first taste. In my dealings with all the great drivers and owners at track as a tech person, I got to know the owners of the local Thunder Roadster dealer. They were going to be going out of town for an exhibition race in Oregon and were looking to make a good showing. They were taking all the cars at their disposal to put on a good show. I was lucky enough to be available to drive a car that they have for $ale. It was love at first drive... Unfortunately I broke a cam during the main event which severely shortened my fun but it was still the most fun I've had in years. Since then, I have gotten a couple more chances to drive for them. We went to Altamont Raceway Park in Tracy California for yet another exhibition race. We were able to bring a field of 14 cars, and this time my luck proved to be a lot better. I won the trophy dash and the main event and that made for a much better weekend than the one in Oregon. In November one of the owners of Thunder R Supply offered me a ride in his own car since he wouldn't be able to make it to the World Finals race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. The car that I had been driving was taken over by the other owner who was involved in an accident at the race at Altamont and his car wouldn't be ready for Infineon. I was hoping to get a chance to race at Infineon again, it had been almost 20 years since the last time I had raced there, and looked forward to a chance to see if I still remembered how.
There was an open practice day on the day before the World Finals at Infineon and we made it down for some pre-race practice and a day of fun. It all came back to me, just how much I loved this track. My times were consistent with the rest of the Roadsters that were running that day, so I was feeling pretty good about myself along with having a lot of fun. Friday was practice, qualifying and heat races. I was holding my own for practice times and ended up with fast time during qualifying. That put me in the back row for the start of the fast heat with 15 cars. There was a crash on the first lap in turn 3 that took out 4 or 5 cars and moved me up quickly. I was able to make my way through the field and got around the leader just before the white flag. I was able to hold onto the lead for the win, being challenged hard by Jordan Yost on the last corner. That made for a great first day of racing but the main event was to be on Saturday. The morning came and the weather which had been holding off decided to bring us some rain. The track officials were able to squeeze in a morning practice session during the rain, and that gave me my first taste of driving these cars in that kind of conditions. Boy was that a learning experience. I had never raced wheel to wheel in conditions that were that bad. The track was like racing on ice, and the visibility was almost impossible if you got behind someone. It was good to at least I got a taste of how bad it was going to be before going out for a 30 car feature event. I was fortunate, having set fast time and winning my heat race to be setting on the pole, so visibility wouldn't be a problem but I didn't want to be the one that everyone ran over if I was to spin in the first corner. The start was a clean one with everyone giving each other room to race and making it possible to see. Robert Lamb qualifying 2nd fast and starting next to me jumped into the lead for the race into the first corner. This was going to be a long race just trying to find traction and keep the car on the track. I was able to hold onto 4th place for 5 laps until I found a big puddle going into turn 10 and hydroplaned off the track spinning into the tire barrier. That ended my day but I was able to limp back to the pits to watch everyone else finish the race. All in all I still had a great day and have to say thanks again to my friends at Thunder R Supply for giving me the opportunity to experience just how much fun these cars really are to drive.
