OWDE at NHMS

[jeffa711]

I would like to thank all those how fought to make the Open Wheel Driving Experience happen this past weekend. It was a great event! I hope this become an annual event now that I will be race next year in Formula vee"s . my wife is looking forward to trying her hand at it! I would love to see some picture as my wife only had a camera phone. A very special thanks to Walter Popiak for letting me use his car. Nick Galuardi for all his help finding a car to purchase and everything in between. Tom Pape for the use and now the deal on a firesuit. Steve and Andy pastore for the help keeping walters car running this weekend. Paul faford for our class time. Craig Swinehart for the pace laps. and for all those who's name's I can not remember. and those who lent out there car for 9 others to climb in the seat!! Thank you!!

[Steve Davis]

Jeff,
Great to hear that positive comment from one of the participants. I hope your future experience with Vees will be even MORE positive .

Don't hesitate to ask for help.. either here or at the track.

[njg005]

Jeff
I'm glad you enjoyed it (as if we couldn't tell by the grin on your face). I'm unsure who enjoyed it more, the people driving or the current racers. It was a great event and I would like to thank everyone for making it happen (both organizers and participants). I'm sure we can make this happen annually. I look forward to seeing you on track in your own car!

[tgaluardi]

This is what SCCA racing is all about. A fun weekend, with help from friends when you need it. We just happen to have a great group of Vee drivers here in the Northeast. Thank you to all that made a fabulous weekend: drivers, volunteers, car donors, equipment donors, and the "new" drivers. It was a fun weekend!:

[Dave33]

Here are a few pictures from Saturday morning. I know I didn't get everyone sorry.

http://s38.photobucket.com/user/hunt...slideshow/OWDE

Dave

[Mark Filip]

We are all very happy with the results of the OWDE it was a huge success!

I want to congratulate all the drivers that participated in the event, you all drove great! It was awesome to see so many smiles when you all came in after the on track sessions.

Hope we can make this happen again.

Also there was a massive effort to swap a engine just to get a OWDE driver in a car. Thanks Guy Bellingham! That was pretty awesome!

[jpetillo]

Dave, the pictures were great - thanks for uploading them.

John

[G.B.]

Thank you, Mark.

That photo of my backside is not the greatest, but it reminded me how hot that engine was. I wished I was wearing gloves!

[jpetillo]

I’d like to say that I’m impressed with the whole NEFV.org FV group in the NER that supported this weekend’s OWDE. For OWDE, we had a classroom session, a drive around session in instructors’ cars, then the two on-track sessions, all in the same day when the FV racers also had a qualifier and a race.

Guy convincing and then helping Tom Pape and his son Preston to do that engine swap in his car in the morning so Tom’s son could drive the car in the OWDE was, as Mark said, pretty awesome. (Tom’s engine had blown in the session 2, and the car was back in service that morning by session 8.) Mike Sampson didn’t race on Saturday like the rest of us, but delivered his car to the event so that Bryan Rogers could drive it in the OWDE - that was too cool. Preston put in some great laps and made dad proud.

Like Nick suggested above, I’m not sure who had the bigger smiles - the drivers or us car owners. Don’t get me wrong, each one of us had our moments of wondering if this was, ahem, a good idea or not to donate our cars. But in the end it all went well and we are thrilled to have done it.

I’d like to thank Paul Faford (FV racer and NER open wheel rep) for heading this effort, Dick Patullo (area director and OWDE coordinator), JB Swan (club racing chairman) and Bob Introne (OWDE chief steward) for believing in the NER FV / NEFV.org group and making this happen. And again, to all the car owners for the free use of their cars, and finally to the OWDE drivers who did a fantastic job of keeping the cars safe while putting in some impressive laps.

John

[tpapem]

It never ceases to amaze me how willing everyone is to lend a helping hand. A big thank you to everyone who lent a hand, a tool, or a word of encouragement. A special shout out to Guy Bellingham who made the whole thing possible for Preston to participate. He hasn't stopped talking about it and now I will either need to step out of the car next year, probably no great loss, or purchase another car and a bigger trailer! Race weekend with lodging, fuel and food, $600.00 - Blown motor, can't wait to get that bill! - seeing your son turning laps in your racecar, priceless!

[njg005]

More pictures from the Open Wheel Driving Experience....

https://plus.google.com/photos/11603...169?banner=pwa

[atlanticracer12]

Hey Everyone, it was SUCH a privilege to be a part of this last weekend! I've gotten to know Paul and Mark a little bit from coming to watch a few races, and have been saving for a FV for about 2 years now. Pretty much the best email that I've ever received was a message from Paul saying, "Hey Bryan, wanna come drive a Formula Vee at NHMS? I think we have a car for you." WOW. What a group of guys. Mike Sampson was an awesome teacher and a gracious host....I'll never repay him for letting me drive his race car. So so cool. I brought a few friends to the track who have never been to an organized race. They kept saying, "I can't believe you get to do this, this is so cool". Thank you to everyone that put this on, from the veterans giving us track tours, Paul/Nick/Mark taking the time to talk and work with us, and to the stewards/corner workers/other racers for letting us take up their track time. I can't wait to get out there with you guys full time!

Here's a couple GoPro's vids from the last session, if anyone is interested. Disclaimer: First time on NHMS, first time in a Vee, and most importantly...someone else's car :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqDDqv6W1gM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZrgWzvu_Q4

Bryan