Day 1: Dynamically Jeopardized

Dynamics, as it applies to cars, is an oft-used term to describe a car's ability to coordinate braking, steering, and accelerating into something that allows the driver to effectively go fast. Now some cars like the Corvettes and Mustangs of the world can put up impressive numbers, but dynamically are considered quite poor. Oversteer is a simple dab of the gas pedal away, steering tends to be distant and making one go fast around a track is a battle in stamping out fear. On the other end of the spectrum are cars like the Porsche Boxster which some many see as a bit effeminate, but inspire such confidence that mediocre drivers in a "girl's car" can typically keep up with the heavy-footed/ham-fisted in ox cart axled Mustangs with double the horsepower.

So just as with cars, our team dynamic is one of finely tuned balance. Sebastian is temperamental, Ric is comedic, and I am either cringing or laughing as dictated by which is talking at any given time. As you might imagine it is difficult to spend this amount of time with anyone outside of our spouses, but it seems our three-person dynamic works quite nicely. The pre-event discussions had Ric and Seb doing the vast majority of transfer driving while I comfortably slumbered away. Unfortunately, Sebastian has been absent to this point as he was on business in parts unknown as Ric and I (mostly Ric actually) drove from our homes in Evergreen to South Bend this morning.

The plan has been for Sebastian to fly to South Bend and we'd all take off from here tomorrow, but as we've all experienced, a flight cancellation kept him grounded and scrambling for an alternate plan. As Murphy's Law would have it, all flights to any airports nearby were booked and had Sebastian contemplating abandoning the event before it even started. The dynamics of our team were in jeopardy. Long story short(ish), Sebastian sloughed off his frustration and found a way to meet us at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia on Sunday.

Disaster averted and whether our team really drives like a Porsche or hobbles along like an ox cart will be borne out in the next eight days. Tomorrow has us kicking off the event with the wet skid pad where I'll be attempting to beat my miserable attempts of the past; moving along to Grissom Air Force base in the afternoon for an autocross event and finally driving nearly 600 miles to West Virginia to Summit Point.

Cheers til tomorrow.