President Letter February

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So here we are in the middle of the winter, but if you check the NNJR Calendar on our web site or the Around the Corner column in this magazine, you will see that there is plenty to do with more and more each month. I am looking forward to witnessing the magic performed by the Dent Man at the workshop to be held at Paul Miller Porsche. A really exciting event will be the Paul iller Classic Car Center launch. This is a major event for Paul Miller as they will be one of the few Porsche Classic Car Centers in North America. February is capped off by our Instructor and Driver Seminars. There is one seminar in the morning for our instructors and one in the afternoon for the rest of our DE enthusiasts.

You probably know that I am a DE junky on many levels. I really enjoy being a part of our instructor team as well as participating in as many events possible with our region as well as others. Last year was a good one for me with 27 days on track. I get asked from time-to-time what I do to maintain my car and whether I have any special projects planned for this winter. The long maintenance answer is not for this column, but I do know that proper maintenance and safety checks are very, very high on my list. Regarding special car projects, I am doing nothing, nada, not a thing! What? No special shocks, sway bars, bushings, shifters, ECU tune, etc….. Nope, not a thing.

What I am focusing on is listening to lovely music (vinyl) playing on my home audio system while I am envisioning every corner on every track I drive each season. I go through each corner many, many times to ensure I have a very solid mental image of where I am looking, where I brake, how I brake, rolling my hands and the wheel, moving off the gas and onto the accelerator, and so on. I think about “bending the turn” (thanks Dick Fell) and making longer straights. The point of the matter is, there is nothing I could do to my car that will make me a better driver. I need to work on me and not the car. All this is aided by reading books written by very fast people and some videos. I do look at some data but this is something I want to learn more about: how to use data. Anyway, time to get back to turn 1 at Watkins.

Enjoy the winter and everything NNJR has to offer and see you around.