2022

Kyle, Brian, Luke: your humble Bunch of Idiots with hardware from Lucky Dog February 2022 at CMP! They went on to be the OVERALL WINNERS!

FEBRUARY

2022 kicked off with a big ol' trophy for the Bunch of Idiots, with drivers Brian Nixon, Kyle Ray-Smith, and Luke O'Hara taking 2nd place in B Class at the Lucky Dog race at Carolina Motorsports Park in February. In the two days, two races format, the team was just off the podium on Saturday, finishing 4th in class in the dry, but came back even stronger on Sunday in a 7 hours-of-rain race. With a strong start from Luke, the team was running in first overall for part of the day, and the #287 Miata sailed through both days of racing with no problems. The team plans to complete all 3 races in the Southern Endurance Cup  presented by Hawk Performance (brake pads,) powered by Lucky Dog Racing League this year, so we'll see them running again at Atlanta Motorsports Park, and then a return race at CMP too. Check out more info at: LUCKY DOG SCHEDULE

MARCH

NMS-North started their year with autocross on March 6th with the Porsche Club of America, so after just one event,  the #77 is sitting in 6th place for Porsche cars PAX, so a good start for the season long goal of top ten. 

APRIL

Another autocross up north, and according to our unofficial numbers, sitting in 10th PAX for Porsche cars. Right on target, and looking forward to warmer weather and faster times! While the driver needs to improve, the crew chief is strongly advising some new tires to replace year and a half old Hankooks. More to follow after discussions with the finance department! The Bunch of Idiots were at it again on 23-24 April and took an overall 12th place in the Lemons Block Party race at CMP. Also in 8th in Class A, the team had a great recovery from a broken belt during Saturday afternoon, spending a minimal amount of time in the paddock to repair the car and get back out on track. No other incidents than that, other than some black flags for Robert due to spinning off course and missing a yellow flag on course, pretty much rookie mistakes for the guy with the least experience. A good time was had by all, and with no other drama, the car is performing well, easily running the entire race on used tires, and only swapping in new front brake pads Saturday night. 

MAY

The weekend of May 21-22 was busy, with NMS-South driving with the Bunch of Idiots at the 2nd Lucky Dog race of the year, this one in Atlanta, and NMS-North doing that autocross  thing again on Long Island. In the north, on the hottest day of the year, #77 finished 8th overall in PAX, 6th PAX for Porsches, and 1st out of 2 cars in S05 class. Early reports from Atlanta are that the BOI team brought it home in 5th in their B Class, as well as 9th overall. More to follow in the Lucky Dog Racing League, when the season ends with a 3rd race in September back at Carolina Motorsports Park. 

JUNE

Not to brag, but NMS-North took their highest EVER autocross placing, 2nd Overall PAX with the NY Metro Porsche Region at Nassau Coliseum. On a warm day, the final drive of the day turned the trick, lowering my best by 1.5 seconds. Still well off the winner, but 2nd overall was a great feeling! Looking forward to more in July!

Later in June we visited NMS-South in South Carolina, and did a little driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, as well as the Tail of the Dragon. Great driving roads!

JULY

Up north, another month means another autocross! Out of about 52 cars, we came home in 8th place on PAX, so right on target for the top 10 for the year, now up to 7th overall for Porsche cars. A busy work schedule means no big events again until August, so stay tuned for more autocross, an awesome Cars and Coffee, and a quick visit to the Corvette Nationals at Carlisle PA!

Down NMS-South way, a Chevy Aveo fixer-upper showed up in the garage! Apparently a garage had diagnosed terminal engine damage, but Brian's early prognosis is just a hole in the pressurized coolant tank, and some very minor things. Car seems to be running fine!

AUGUST

If you thought it was exciting buying a used Aveo, it must be 100 times more exciting to add a used Nissan 350Z to the NMS-South stables. Yes, that's 2 Z cars so far! This one is scheduled to be turned into a track car with roll cage, so stay tuned for more on this one!

The regular monthly Autocross at NMS-North ended with 7th Porsche PAX, 1st in a small class of 2 drivers, and a reasonable mid-pack raw time, 16th out of 32.

Later, NMS-North took on the Porsche Club of America Zone 1 (New England) up at Ayer Massachusetts, and won his class (ok, only one other driver in the class) and managed a reasonable 33rd out of 60 Porsches on RAW time. Lots of fun for two days, with the big course on a former airfield running counter-clockwise Saturday and clockwise on Sunday. 

SEPTEMBER

Brian, Luke, Kyle, the LUCKY DOG RACING LEAGUE 2022 CHAMPS!

Straight to the point: September 2022 goes down as the greatest month in NMS-Racing history! Why? Glad you asked! On the 24th and 25th, Brian and Kyle Ray-Smith and Luke O'Hara piloted the mighty Miata to a championship FIRST PLACE OVERALL WINNERS in the Southern Endurance three race Lucky Dog Racing League series! They won both the Saturday and Sunday races for Class C, which gave them just enough season-long points for the big title! In a 1.6 liter four-cylinder Miata! Oh, and with having to replace the clutch Saturday night til 2AM! 

On top of that, NMS-North took another top 10 placing in PAX on the 25th to move up to an unofficial 5th place for the season, so look for him in the October 15th Top Ten Shootout for the Metro NY Region Porsche Club of America autocross. 

OCTOBER

The Porsche Club Top Ten Shootout was a blast, and we all took turns driving the same car, this year a Nissan Altima. Nothing to write home about here, as NMS-North took 9th out of ten. Oh well, no trip to the hospital this year, so let's call it a victory!

At October's autocross, we had a dry morning followed by a wet afternoon, so with a reasonable few runs in the dry, took 4th place PAX for the day, with no faster times in the wet. Holding 4th PAX for the year, a good improvement over last year with one event to go!

NOVEMBER 

Believe it or not it was 70 degrees in November in NY, and with dry conditions and a quick course, we enjoyed the final 9 autocross runs of the year. At the end of the day, again my best time was in the morning, and in 8th place Porsche PAX for the day, so we'll say unofficially 4th for the year out of 75 drivers that competed at least once. For the tiny S05 class, an undefeated season too!