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| Happy New Year 2020! Robert, Julie, and Brian Wish You the Best From the Circuit of the Americas F1 Race. |
With the holidays here once again, let's pause one moment and recap some highlights from NMS-North from 2019. While we didn't get that call to move up to drive in Formula 1 like we were expecting, there were some other fun events this year too. Now that I think about it, this entire blog got started as a year-end wrap up, after we'd published a little booklet on our first year of autocross in 2013. Oh well, we'll probably just keep doing it next year too, so you have been warned!
1. Probably the top feature was driving for two days at Watkins Glen. Taking even the FIAT onto such a famous course, and one that has awesome corners and elevation changes, was just 100% fun. The only reason to say this is only "probably" number one, is because of #2 below.
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| Drove at Watkins Glen, Bucket List CHECK! |
PREVIEW
MORE PREVIEW
WGI WRAP UP
2. Outside of actual driving, another memorable experience this year was attending the F1 race weekend in Austin TX. Normally, just being in Texas is great enough (thank you, BBQ) but having a weekend jam-packed with the sights, sounds, and smells of racing was a lot of fun.
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| NMS North with Alfa Romeo Formula 1 Driver Antonio Giovinazzi. |
F1 PREVIEW
F1 FRIDAY
FRIDAY PART 2
F1 SATURDAY
F1 RACE DAY
3. Yes, it is tons of fun to drive a car (why else would you have one?), it's fun to look at other people's cars. I don't mean to break into the garages of the rich and famous, but to visit your local car show, Cars and Coffee, or an automotive museum near you. Topping my chart in this category, the Simeone Foundation Automobile Museum in Philadelphia. Well worth your visit, Dr. Simeone's collection is all about race cars, and I was lucky enough to have a Saturday off work when they brought out some of the cars to drive around their parking lot, with this event also hosted by F1 announcer Will Buxton, and all around great driver David Hobbs. Another noteworthy entry here, the Father's Day Ferrari Cars and Coffee not far from my house.
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| David Hobbs and Will Buxton signing their books |
NMS AT THE SIMEONE
CARS and COFFEE FERRARI VERSION
OK, the car show category is a big one, so I have to mention the annual show hosted in the spring on the campus of the US Merchant Marine Academy, and the big New York International Auto Show held in Manhattan.
4. Beyond driving our own cars, driving someone else's car is sometimes even more fun. Mostly when it's a brand new shiny car. Or even better, a brand new shiny car with big horsepower! Hey, or even, (stop me if I'm dreaming) someone else's brand new shiny car with big horsepower and they tell you to drive it like you stole it!! Yeah, now we're talking! Sign me up for some of that! Oh, which I did at two events this year, thanks to Lexus and BMW!
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| Adam Andretti talks Lexus |
NMS DRIVES LEXUS
NMS DRIVES BMW
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| Photos or It Didn't Happen? I was 4th Fastest out of 21 Drivers on the Autocross Course. |
5. Autocross wise, I pretty much took the year off and concentrated my fun on all those events already listed. My autoX in 2019 was packed into one weekend in March with Brian down in North and South Carolina, driving his BMW at ZMax with the Central Carolina Region (SCCA) in Charlotte, and with our friends in the South Carolina Region at Darlington. Somehow Brian managed to be faster in his own car, but I had a great trip with the entire NMS squad (yes, all two of us!) and seeing some autocross friends from my time in the Carolinas. Yes, there was BBQ involved also, and that South Carolina mustard based BBQ sauce still hits the spot.
All in all, 2019 was a fun year with some great memories made, so I hope you will get out there and do your own fun stuff in 2020 too. Coming up in the near future we'll take a general looks at NMS plans for next year, so for now we're putting 2019 down in the books as another busy year.
