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| 2024 with NMS in Victory Lane! |
10: Tools, Tires, Lights
I think I bought more tools this year than any previous year, inspired mostly by the student discounts from Snap-On for being enrolled in Auto Tech school. As usual, I bought tires, and even sold some I didn't need too! Light wise, I bought flashlights and a UV flashlight for AC leaks to use in school, and with Brian's help installed LED lights in my garage. If you can't see what you're doing, get more lights! A fair amount of tools also came from Harbor Freight, which you should be able to find near you.
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| McLaren Senna, my car of the year |
9: McLaren Senna
I attended a lot of car shows and Cars and Coffee events, and saw a lot of nice cars, but the stand-out of this year was spotting a McLaren Senna at the Lamborghini of Charlotte Exotics and Espresso event. Just about anything related to former driver and 3 time F1 world champion Ayrton Senna gets my attention, so seeing one of the 500 McLaren automobiles named for him is always very cool. If you're looking to buy one, the Internet says they go for about 2 million dollars. Speaking of Senna, there is a new series on Netflix about him that just started last week too.
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| Bowling Green Kentucky is the home of today's Corvette. |
8: Corvette Museum Visit
In the midst of some other traveling this summer, we managed to cruise into Bowling Green Kentucky and visit the Corvette museum. While I may not ever drive a Corvette, I have a big appreciation for them and it was cool to see a lot of new and old models on display. When I win the lottery I'll consider ordering one and then taking delivery inside the museum, since that's one of the cool options that Chevrolet offers. We saw several new cars lined up inside just waiting for their new owners to show up that day. I'm also happy to report that they have repaired the sink hole that swallowed up some of the museum's cars a few years back! If you're looking for more to do in Kentucky then drink bourbon and go to the horse races, visit the home of the Corvette!
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| NMS #86 Nissan 350Z race car about to undergo an Air Conditioning System Delete. |
7: 350Z Car Updates
NMS-South has been very busy with a lot of work on the 2008 Nissan 350Z in preparation for racing in Spec Z with NASA in 2025. Various parts have been updated, the roll cage is installed, and we even spent some time with a block of dry ice to remove some insulation. We combined this project with my Air Conditioning class at York Tech and removed the AC system too. And yes, Brian owes me "More Than a Cheeseburger" for that work! If one 350Z sounds like a good idea, he also bought a 2nd one to fix up, and his wife Alicia has one.
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| NMS #77, Porsche Club Autocross Class Winner |
6: Autocross
The NMS Cayman ran all six events with the Carolinas Region Porsche Club of America, and took the class victory for similar cars. With a best event of 2nd place overall, there were no Fastest Times of the Day like the previous year, but it was fun to get out there and compete. Like most years I've auto-crossed, there weren't a lot of cars at every event in my class, but hey, you've got to enter to win!
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| Camshafts |
5: York Technical College Automotive Classes
OK, this isn't directly driving a car on track, but learning to work on your car is the next best thing. As an older student, I'm still trying to learn more about cars in general, and then apply that knowledge to keep my cars going, and just maybe make them go faster.
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| Need an instructor? Brian is your guy! |
4: NASA Instructor Qualified
Brian achieved a big goal and is now qualified as a NASA on track driving instructor. He has gone all the way from beginner (HPDE 1) to the top level (HPDE 4), competed in Time Trials, and now has Instructor on his resume. One perk of being an instructor is that you get to spend the weekend at the track for free, and drive your own car when you're not instructing. On top of that, instructors also earn various contingencies from NASA sponsors, which earns them free stuff or big discounts on things like tires and brakes. A dang good deal right there!
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| At Carolina Motorsports Park |
3: On Track with NMS
Both NMS drivers spent a good amount of time driving on track this year, and we both agree that you get a whole lot more driving experience at a track event than in a lifetime of 40 second autocross runs. For NMS-North, 2024 included a NASA HPDE weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park, and an SCCA Track Night in America on the ROVAL at Charlotte Motor Speedway. CMP is where I've done the most track driving, but the ROVAL was a first for me. With the added cool factor of driving on a track that the NASCAR drivers use, it was a blast, even on a very hot day. Down at NMS-South Brian kept busy with driving the Lemons race at CMP in April, NASA instructor school at CMP in May, another NASA weekend at CMP in November, and instructing at Road Atlanta with NASA in December.
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| The CORONET raced LEMONS in 2024! |
2: 24 Hours of Lemons
Brian and the Bunch of Idiots team entered another 24 Hours of Lemons race at CMP this year in the 1970s Dodge Coronet, and as usual had an epic weekend. If you're not familiar with Lemons racing, it's easy! Just get a $500 hooptie, install safety gear like a roll cage and all the gear the drivers wear for safety, and go racing! In a normal year, this would have easily been the NMS #1 highlight of the year, but then in the Fall, something else came up!
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| The Bunch of Idiots MAX WIIINGS 33 TEAM after the final race. |
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| During the qualifying race. Yes, that is a gravel track! |
1: Red Bull Non-Stock 600
Totally out of the blue, one day in September or so I saw an ad for something called the Red Bull Non-Stock 600. I had no idea what that was, which is easy to understand because this was the first time for this event. It was sponsored by Red Bull, and to kind of tie it in with Charlotte NC being the home of NASCAR, it was going to be some go-kart races where Red Bull provides the karts, and each racing team provides some goofy theme and drivers. Long story short, Brian sketched up a concept kart, we threw together an application at the last minute, got accepted, and then had a month to put together an oddball theme on to a go-kart body, and then go race it. Brian and I spent most of October on this crazy project, and then on November 9th we raced it with Kyle and Luke (you know, the Bunch of Idiots again) against the other wacky 19 entries. OK, we didn't win, but we easily got into the final race, and it was both the goofiest and dumbest thing we've ever done. Along the way we got a free dinner (and adult beverages) at the kick-off event, a lot of free tools from the race sponsors like Northern Tool, had some free hot dogs and RED BULL on race day, and it was big fun! Plus, all the bruises have finally gone away too!
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