Competition School

National Auto Sport Association (NASA) is the sanctioning body for the Spec E30 race series. They held a two day competition school as part of their Hotlanta Challenge. The first day consisted of classroom sessions and on track exercises. Other Spec E30 racers taking the school included Chuck Taylor and Laura Patton. The second day consisted of participating in the lightning sprint race sessions. The Lightning race group included Spec E30, 944 cup, Spec Miata, and Honda Challenge cars. Sunday's practice and qualifying sessions were exciting as I saw more spins and offs that my entire driving school career.

During Sunday's race there was a total of eleven Spec E30 and due to a mix-up I was gridded for the standing start in third place behind Robert Patton (the southeast Spec E30 ambassador) and Carter Hunt. I was supposed to be gridded at the back with the rest of the comp school graduates. The car classes were not separated out so during the race I mixed it up with a number of Spec Miatas and after watching Robert and Carter walk away through traffic lost a position to Damion Moses. That was my first race craft lesson... defend your position. I finished fourth in class and outside of the bump draft from the Miata between 10a and 10b didn't have any incidents.