Hanging out this morning with Magnus Walker at the Pelican Parts Cars&Coffee in Rolling Hills, CA. Magnus caught up to me on the freeway, slowed, pulled up alongside, and we drove to the event together.

Great event. Very low key. Well over 400 cars from 60's muscle to E30 to R32 to a pair of Murcielago's - and a bit of everything else under the sun. Was hoping a 959 would make an appearance but none showed up.

Of course, a ton of Porsche's including my Spec Boxster and Magnus' 911SC hot rod.

http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...psdhus7r5h.jpg

How cool is that Tom! Great picture! Your car looks really good sitting next to his:cheers:

Way cool! :cheers:

From the Pelican Parts Facebook page...

http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...psrwul7aia.jpg

While taking a little time off from racing this summer (too damn hot here in Cali), it is time for the 2-year smog test. This means re-installation of the cat's so I can pass the test.

This is one job where having a lift certainly comes in handy. Took me about 3 hours to remove the test pipes, re-install the cats, and button it all back up.

This is at the 50% completion point (on the left, cat is re-installed, on the right, test pipe);

http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7fl1fkbh.jpg


http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...pslwabkkmq.jpg

Every time I see you have posted I am like a 5 year old opening a gift. I am looking for another one of your race videos!!!!

Thstone
you are a gentleman and a scholar
Great posts!

Chuck and Plus3db - thanks for the comments!

Taking August off to get the smog test done along with some mid-season maintenance. Back to racing Sept 12-13 at AutoClub Speedway in Fontana!

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Good luck this weekend Mr. Stone, it is going to be damn hot out there! Oh.... don't forget to video it!!!!

Thanks Chuck, the video cam is already installed and I'll have an ice chest full of water/ gatorade along with the Cool Suit system (to which I have recently added the cooled pants) to battle the heat.

I am excited to get back to racing and also really happy to be sharing the Boxster this weekend with my 22-yr old son who will competing in the time trials.

And as the old saying goes, "Mr. Stone is my father"!! Tom will do just fine. :)

Very good Tom. The racing is cool. The fact that you're doing it with you 22 year old son is fantastic. Having a quality relationship with your son at that age is a great thing. Unfortunately, there are many that don't have it.

Best of luck to you on the rest of the season.
Always like to see your posts. Good info and little BS

In the theatre for good luck we would say "Break a leg"

What is the right thing for auto racing?
Break an axle?

I always preferred "Go fast, take chances!" ;)

Another great weekend of racing!

For the record;

Race #1: Started 6th of 13. Running 5th with two laps to go when shift cable broke. Finished 13th.

Race #2: Started 7th of 11. Fell back to 9th, moved up and finished 5th.

Overall, a good weekend! The weather was hot as hell so I used my full cool shirt system (shirt with hood and pants) to stay comfortable in the car.

The shift cable broke (about 5 inches from the where it snaps into the shifter) as I was shifting from 2nd to 3rd. I let out the clutch and got neutral, re-clutched, shifted to fourth and was still in 3rd with the gear shifter flopping back and forth. I put the clutch in (unsure what exactly had failed) and let the car coast thru two turns and pulled off in a big runoff area. Got towed into the pits after the race ended. This happened around 4pm on Saturday afternoon. Since I live reasonably close by (45mins) AutoClub Speedway, I left at 5pm and went home for the evening with my son who came in another car.

Luckily, I had Tyson Schmidt and Brad Keegan from Pro Motorsports in Burbank, CA providing track support for me and they found a new set of shifter cables (late on a Sat afternoon) and installed them Saturday evening at the track. So, when I got back to the track at 8am on Sunday morning, the car was fully repaired and ready to race again!

Overall, it was a solid racing weekend for me and I feel that I am maturing in my race craft. One goal that I was successful in achieving this weekend was becoming more patient to set up a car in front of me for a pass rather than being impatient and then somewhat forcing the issue.

It was explained to me (by points leader Alex Bermudez) that I should be looking for the easy, high probability pass rather than trying to make the more difficult low probability passes. He explained that there was no reason to make things harder than they need be; but it takes planning, patience, and skill rather than just going balls out (which at times can feel more fun but the risks of making a mistake and being at fault are much, much higher).

I hope that you'll be able to see this in the coming videos.

I'll close this initial post with a screen shot from my video showing six Boxster's (in front of me but there are also two next to me) on the NASCAR banking; three rows going 3-wide at over 130mph! This is about as exciting as it gets and I feel so lucky that I get to actually be out there racing like this.

http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/...pspsmqemu1.jpg

Love that blue and yellow one. I want to do that with my exhaust ... trying to figure out what they used for rings around the exhaust tips on the mesh.

Looks like a lot of fun! I CANNOT wait to get mine done.

Love reading your posts Tom. I'm up in LA a few times a month, Maybe one time we can connect for a beer or ???

Not sure if you are interested in some TT slumming with San Diego PCA, but we are going to Chuckwalla Oct 24/25. It would be great to see you out there kicking ass

It would be great to meet up sometime - let me know when you're going to be up in LA.

And TT is hardly slumming! I have great respect for anyone getting out and driving their Boxster like it was meant to be driven - that is what its all about!

Here is a video of the first few laps from last Saturday's POC race at AutoClub Speedway. This is the race where the shift cable broke and I didn't finish. Sunday's video coming soon.

As always, best viewed in full screen HD with the sound up to get the full flat-six effect!


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Always enjoy watching your videos Tom! Keep coming!!:cheers:

I've always wondered, how do you shift when you are in one of those long banked sweepers? It seems like lifting off the throttle to shift would upset the car. Is it because there is so much grip due to the banking that the car is nowhere near the limit and so a brief lift to shift is ok?

Steve