Yes it is!!!!

I guess that means you will finally be getting a trailer LOL.

Best of luck to you Tom, you will be missed here. :cheers:

Thanks Jay!

The SRF will reside with MBI at Buttonwillow Raceway and they will transport it to all of the races for me!

When it comes to vehicles I always say...

"When you're looking... you're buying!"

And the current participant, Mr. T. Stone, just posted another mark in the affirmative column. Of course how do you think I came up with this theory many decades ago - LOL :D

Congrats Tom and best of luck in your next progression up the scale deeper in the rabbit hole ;)

Don't be a stranger and keep us posted on your progress.

Best wishes and most importantly, keep having fun! :)

Yes, I think that they were definitely baiting the hook! And then to close the deal they threw in the free paint job and some coaching.

They knew exactly what it would take to get me to make the jump. ;)

Congrats and have fun Tom, but keep us updated :cheers:

That is great! SRF is a great class. Pure race cars are a lot of fun, because there are so few compromises - they are designed for one thing, going quickly.

Boxsters are great cars, but they are a heavy street car with a LOT of designed-in compromises. You'll have fun, and learn a ton from the SRF!

Sorry to see you "go".

You were an inspiration to me joining the SPB ranks and despite never being on track together, a great source of information and camaraderie.

Good luck in your SRF endeavors, those I know went that route rave about it.

Give me a shout when you finally check off COTA on your list.

Mike

Thanks Mike! I certainly count you and a few others that I met here on the forum as great friends!

Just start a new SRF thread to keep us up on the new adventures. We'd love to hear the stories.

Yep, would love to keep the stories here.

Here is an update of my first races in the SRF.

For the record:

Saturday race results: After a slow qualification, I started 24 of 26. I got a good start and worked my way up and finished 18th. A solid first race in a new car.

Sunday race results: Started 24 of 26 (based on lap times, not Saturday's finishing position) and finished 20th. I got as far up as 16th, but then I spun the car coming out of Turn 4 and had to battle to get back to finish 20th. Overall, a good first weekend.

What I learned:

Aero/drafting matters. A lot. Whereas the Boxster wasn't nearly as sensitive to aero, the SRF is amazingly sensitive.

During practice on Friday, I had a run behind another car on the front straight where we hit speeds around 135-140mph. I drove up behind them to pass, and as I pulled out, my car simply stalled and lost all momentum. I had to pull back behind the car in front and follow them again. I spent most of the rest of the day learning how to manage the draft to maintain my momentum so I could pass.

In Race #1, I also learned that the draft can be used defensively. If a car was gaining on me from behind, I'd move up a lane on the front straight to move the draft line away from the bottom lane. Often the driver behind wasn't thinking and would just drive into the full airstream on the bottom lane rather than follow my slipstream in the upper lane. This tactic was super effective in making it nearly impossible for the car behind to gain on me. Whereas if they pulled up into the upper lane and following my slipstream, they almost always caught up in 1-2 laps. This added a whole new level of complexity and strategy to my racing.

Send it. The SRF has quite a bit more grip so I had to continually force myself to drive into corners at speeds much higher than I would ever attempt in the Boxster. Of course, this technique finally bit me in Race #2 when I carried a bit too much speed into Turn 3 and ran out of room on track out at Turn 4 where I put the left rear wheel into the dirt and the car came around quickly and I didn't catch it in time.

Passing. My passing game has improved immensely which means that I have a lot more confidence and skill to plan, set up, and make a pass. I can now fairly readily dive on the inside under braking, take the inside line, and control the corner. It is hugely satisfying to be able to set up and complete nice clean passes.

Overall, it was a good first weekend. I still have a lot to learn but I am hoping to see gradual, but continual, progress through the spring.

The team and mechanics were great! It sure was a lot easier to focus on the driving when I didn't have to worry about the car. Especially on Friday when I lost 4th gear in the final practice! The team swapped the transmission Friday evening and the car was ready to race on Saturday morning. Also, the mechanics make sure that the car makes minimum weight - after practice on Friday my car weighed 1,567 lbs (car, fluids, and driver) vs a minimum weight of 1,560 lbs!

Here are a few photos from the weekend. Unfortunately, the video system wasn't working but I'll get everything up and running in time for Buttonwillow in Feb.


On the starting grid...
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1580536212.jpg


With my sponsor - the lovely Mrs. Stone...
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1580536230.jpg


In the draft...
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1580536274.jpg


On the NASCAR banking...
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1580536305.jpg


Driving hard through Turn 13 in the infield...
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1580536323.jpg

Here is a short video clip....

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MHyYyu2DfTc" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Sadly, the time has come.

FOR SALE: 1997 SPEC BOXSTER

$35,500

The most well documented Spec Boxster on the planet is available for ownership.

PM with questions or for more details.

Thanks to everyone who followed along on this incredible journey.

Tom Stone

No! Say it ain't so!

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

and as the class act you always are, Tom, you didn't include the usual "never wrecked" or "minimal paint work only" detail in your description as so many try to sell.

GLWS and best of luck on your continued journey. :)

** Update **

The House Automotive Spec Boxster has been sold!

As luck would have it, I listed the car for sale about a week before Covid hit. Once the lockdown occurred, no one was motivated to purchase a race car that they couldn't use. By July racing was starting to open back up and I started to get some interest and the car sold in August.

This is the first time that I have been Boxsterless since Nov, 2011, so I hope that you guys don't mind me dropping by and saying hi every so often even though I don't have a Boxster.

SCCA racing is going well. Last weekend I raced for the first time since covid hit in March. I was a little rusty but its coming back. Only one more SCCA race this year. I still have a lot to learn but I spent my Covid lockdown time training so I'm probably in the best physical shape of the last 15 years and am ready to make big gains in 2021.

Here are a couple of pic's of the car on the transporter heading to the new owner.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1599612405.jpg


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1599612426.jpg

Congrats on the sale. I'm sure it was a bittersweet day with all the history and sweat equity you have with your car. I don't think anyone will complain if you stick around and impart some of your valuable wisdom to the members. I know I wouldn't (and I haven't owned a 986 for 12 yrs).

I would certainly be interested if you start a thread on your new racing adventures.

Same here!

I just wanted to bump this thread back to the top. There's a lot of great info and an inspiring story for new and old forum members. Hopefully Tom will come back from time to time to let us know what he's up to.

A great thread deserves a bump now and again.

I was just thinking about Tom a few days ago. Hope he's doing well.

Hey 986Forum Friends!

I thought that I'd stop by and respond to a few Forum posts and let you know what's been going on!

After going back to SCCA racing in the SRF3 in Sept, 2021 (after the covid lockdown was lifted), I focused heavily on improving my racing. I hired a racing coach, went to the kart track twice a month, hired a performance coach, and continued physical training with running (3-5 miles every other day) and lifting weights (every other day).

The racing coach focused on car handling, passing, and race craft. Karting let me put those things to practice before getting on a race track. The performance coach helped me to work on confidence and the key mental aspects of racing that are personal to each driver. The physical training helped my endurance, strength, and general well being.

When I started racing again in fall of 2020, I was finishing towards the back of the SRF3 pack; 20th of 25 cars. By spring 2021, I was mid-pack, and by summer, I was breaking into the Top 10. Then in October 2021, I finished 3rd on the Podium! This was probably the most intense period of learning that I've done in a race car.

By Nov 2021, I was feeling that I had learned most of what there was to learn from SRF3 and started thinking about what's next. My ultimate goal is to race a 911 GT-3 Cup in a Pro series like SRO or IMSA, so I was thinking about what car and series would be a bridge to racing at that level.

After taking inventory of my skill base as compared to what I'd need in SRO/IMSA, I concluded that I needed 4 things to be ready to move up:

1. I needed to drive a faster, more powerful car with full racing slicks and aero. The SPB and SRF were momentum cars with 200hp, limited grip tires, and no aero. What I needed was something around 300hp on racing slicks and a rear wing. The POC/PCA GT-4 racing class looked perfect. Most of the cars were Cayman's and 996/997's built with 280-325hp on slicks with wings.

2. I had to improve my ability to work with a team. In SRF3, I relied on a team for car build, maintenance, and track support. Having a pit crew is completely different than running your own car. You have to learn to communicate what you need to other people and it's not nearly as simple as it sounds! It takes a lot of work as a driver to learn how to communicate effectively to the car lead and pit crew.

You also have to trust the crew and remember when they screw something up, that they're only human and that you win and lose as a team. As a driver progresses through this process, one option is that you can be a dick and just yell and scream at people. Believe me, it happens. Another option is to learn how to work well with others. I chose the latter path and did my best to never make a crew member feel bad for a mistake (to be honest, crew member have a lot of integrity and pride in their work so they would usually beat themselves up more for making a mistake than I ever would).

3. I needed to become expert at learning new tracks. In SPB and SRF3, I've run at a lot of the same tracks around California for years and know them well. If I hope to make the jump to the Pro level, then I will be visiting tracks that I've never been to before and learning them quickly is a necessary skill. This meant that the next series had to go to tracks that more Pro series race on along with the opportunity/challenge of racing at new tracks to fine tune my track learning ability.

4. In a perfect world, the car would be able to grow from POC-PCA GT-4 to a POC/PCA GT-3. A typical GT-3 car would have 350-400 hp and a better power/weight ratio than Gt-4. Racing a car like this would make it an easy transition to a car at the Pro level.

With all of this in mind, I purchased a Porsche 996/997 POC/PCA GT-4 race car in December, 2021 and went back to racing with the POC/PCA (and sold the SRF3).

The new car is a 2003 996 GT-3 tub with a 2010 997 GT-3 body and suspension that has been converted to a full race car. The engine is the original 3.6 996 GT-3 motor that has been built to 4.0 liters. Stock 996 GT-3 6-spd manual transmission. To run in the POC/PCA GT-4 class, the engine is detuned to 290 hp and weight is added to just over 3100 lbs. The car runs on Michelin or Hankook racing slicks and has front aero planes/splitter and a big rear wing. The Michelin's have more grip and are faster, but the Hankooks last longer. The car has electric power steering to eliminate engine hydraulic steering power losses. There are no electronic assistants like ABS, stability control, or traction control, so its a very driver involved car.

The POC/PCA offered the best range of tracks including some familiar tracks and some new ones that are also used by some of the Pro series.

I've done two weekends of POC racing in this car thus far. The car has an enormous amount of grip with that big wing helping to keep the rear end planted. The car has amazingly neutral handling for a rear-engined 911 but you have to remember that if it does start to come around, you'll need a BIG dose of countersteer to keep the car from spinning (ask me how I know).

I am a much more capable and prepared driver than I was in SPB so I was pleased to win 3 of the 4 races thus far. I'll be heading to Spring Mountain Motorsports Park in two weeks, then back to Willow Springs in May, and then to Miller Motorsports Park (Utah Motorsports Campus? or whatever its called now) in Utah in June.

I plan to continue to document my racing journey. Let me know if you have a preference for platform. Some of the candidates are a Pelican Parts forum thread, Facebook page, Instagram page, or even a YouTube channel. I promise, no Tik-Tok!

I still consider the 986Forum to be my home and I am really happy to be back in Porsche racing!

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1648856615.jpg


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1648856668.jpg


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1648856696.jpg

Hi Tom, great to hear from you! Those are some impressive results, your dedication and preparation are paying off! Please keep posting.

Fantastic, thank you Tom for the update. I'm very interested to hear more of you learning on racing. Very interesting thread, please do keep on posting :cheers:

Impressive! Thank you for the update, I was thinking about you the other day :cheers:

Busy and productive as always! I can't say that I know many who have got this much done during the pandemic.

Just curious if your training included any sort of cognitive excercise other than the obvious racing stuff.

How is the transition to the rear engine weight bias?

Giving this thread a bump for newer users who haven't seen it.
I miss Tom's presence here.