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Old 02-15-2015
philgilbertjr philgilbertjr is offline
Moving Chicane / Regular Member (<5 Posts)
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Maplewood, NJ
Age: 43
Posts: 1
New (and Excited) Racer

Hi All!

I'm Phil. (Everyone: "HI, PHIL")

I'm a race fan based in Maplewood, New Jersey. It's a cute little commuter town outside of Manhattan. Might as well be called Mayberry.

I wear a lot of hats, but my career is focused mainly around lighting staged events; primarily large corporate keynote events. I also do media design and programming for these events (much like the big video screens at concerts) and project management for specialty installations (kind of like art galleries, but for large corporations).

I first started paying attention to auto racing about fifteen years ago, watching NASCAR irregularly on Sunday afternoons. Living in Texas at the time, it wasn't too hard to get engaged, but I never became a passionate fan.

About five or six years ago, I started DVRing the F1 races on a whim; my wife and I were quickly hooked. About twenty times a year, Sunday afternoons have become synonymous with a good bottle of wine and this week's race.

Having spent the latter half of my childhood in Austin (and returning to see family on a regular basis), the announcement of Circuit of the Americas was something I followed closely. It was also a great excuse to get my Austin-based father hooked on F1. We have been to each of the USGPs hosted in Austin and both have annual seats at Turn 1.

About three years ago, I met one of my wife's colleagues who is an active weekend racer. He mentioned that there are a handful of great intro racing programs about and my interest was piqued.

Last Christmas my wife gave me a gift certificate for 1-day racing school of my choice. This week my dad and I will be meeting up in Savannah to take part in the 1-Day Racing School (Formula Only) and we couldn't be more excited.


So, as a newbie, if you have any tips for how to get the most out of my first proper racing experience, please let me know. And if by chance you'll be at Roebling Road on Thursday, be sure to say hi to the two Phils!
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