JuicyGirl's First Race Weekend

Long time coming, Juicy Girl’s first race weekend:

Almost nine years to the day after my first inquiry into Skip Barber race series I finished my first race weekend. Many if not most of my fellow Team Juicy members have felt the exhilaration of crossing the finish line under the checkered flag. It’s a feeling so unbelievable that one must experience it for oneself to truly understand. I now know exactly what the rest of you feel each and every time you race.

Barber Dodge Pro Cars???

I heard that all of the BDPS cars are for sale? Is there any SCCA class that they might qualify for? Someone told me they might be able to run regional Atlantic, but would probably be too slow to be worth it. How much are they asking for them anyway? Does anyone know? How about if someone bought the whole lot of them? Does it inlcude the engines, or just the chassis? Just curious...

Sebring 2005 Group Picture - Click on Picture for Full Size Image

Sebring, Sebring, Sebring... Best Weekend Ever?

This weekend, 75 racers from the Southern, Western, Master's Nationals and Eastern Series descended upon the town of Sebring FL and created the biggest Skippy weekend in 3+ years. In return, Sebring brought us all the most glorious weather and Skip Barber delivered the best racing experience anywhere.

Todd, Steve and all of the Skippy guys did an amazing job handling so many groups and so many races, especially considering how many cars we wrecked (ahem..). Thank you for everything you guys do. It was also great to see so many new racers there, and to see how much fun they had. I think Skippy just found itself a whole bunch of newly addicted customers.

Come BEAT Matt Franc! (at Sebring) - by Matt Franc

No not with a baseball bat, nor with his Egbar the dragon suit, with the SBRS Computer Car!

On Saturday, February 19th, the King of Sebring, Matt “5&counting” Franc has kicked in the money (and ego) to reserve the computer car for a one on 75-grudge match. Huge prizes (seat time, clothing, whips, chains, etc.) will be awarded to almost anyone who can beat Matt’s target lap. Here’s how it will work:

Matt will lay down a target time Saturday morning and if anyone can do a lap (recorded by the computer car) that is better than his, they win!...

East Invades South (Sebring Race Weekend) - by David Casey

OK, back to reality, i.e. Skippy Racing. Let's get a group of eastern series TJR drivers and kick some southern butt @ Sebring, 2/18 - 2/20. I'm in, who else. Never raced there, but in certainly looks picturesque (gag me). February, sunny and 80 degrees, a nice primer to our season...

Team Juicy Boys Take on Daytona - by Michael Auriemma

So it all began with Spencer's TJR.com post offering "rides" in his Grand Am Cup car. It took me about 3 minutes to type him an email asking for details.

The story is, Spencer has 2 seats. One in the Rolex series (including the 24H of Daytona) and one in Grand Am Cup, the support series to Rolex. His Cup team had 2 cars last year, and will start this season with 4 cars. Hence the need for warm bodies (with American Express cards) to fill seats. Team owner Mike Pickett is a super guy and easy to get along with. In my first conversation with him, he invited me to come test with the team in Daytona. It took me about 3 minutes to pack my bag!...

National Championship Schedule

The dates and venues for the National Championship Race Series and the two summer Skip Barber Regional Race Series championships have been announced. The 2005 Eastern Series will be 16 races, held at six different race tracks. The 2005 Midwest championship will be 12 races held at five different circuits. Todd Snyder, the series' managing director, said, ''We really wanted the drivers from both divisions to have access to all the great tracks we race at. I am very proud of our scheduling department for having come up with such a terrific schedule.'

''In 2004 we rolled out a new race group format that has proven to be very popular with our Midwest and East drivers. Two further things the drivers asked for were more variety (i.e., less races at "home base") and more 'same-type' groups to allow for doubling. For 2005 we are going to improve on both of these aspects. Click here for more on this article...

I am in Fat City! - by JCraige

Just had all 10 NASCAR Race for the Cup cars and drivers pull up in a line and park right outside my window on Park Ave. Incredible sight. Every window in the buildings nearby if full of faces and the street was jammed with people. Great sight. Cars are still there right now. Nice and loud when they pulled up.

Competition to Benefit the Mechanic's Fun - Nations Cup Race of Champions - TGoodhart wins and we raise One Thousand Bucks!

At $50 per entry, the 'pick the winners' of the Race of Champions Nation's Cup competition was for the benefit of the Mechanic's Fund, a trully worthy cause. The event, which was AWESOME, was a multi-discipline racing event set in Paris on Saturday December 4th. Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Loeb, Jimmie Johnson and Marcus Gronholm, with 12 other awesome drivers, represented themselves in an Individual Competition, and their country in the Team Competition, driving Ferrari 360 Modena Challenge cars, ROC Cars and Citroen Xsara WRC & Peugeot 307 WRC rally cars...

Great Weekend at Slippery Point - by Matt Varsha

It was an interesting weekend in terms of weather at Summit Point for the 3rd and 4th rounds of the southern series. Friday started out wet and very cold, which was not a good combo. Most people ran one session in order to save their 2nd and 3rd sessions for Saturday, when there was no rain forecast. I must have the record for most spins in a practice session. I spun, or went straight in some cases, 4 times in three laps, the first three laps for that matter. Everybody else had their head on straight for the most part, and there were no big offs, probably because everyone knew that it wasn't supposed to rain the rest of the weekend. So Friday was prettty much just a day for fun...

Expert Class or Not? - by Bill Hammer

A quick update on a conversation I had recently with Todd Snyder. I was asking whether next season there would be an expert class. The short answer is that no decision has been made yet. Todd is disinclined to have an expert class. He would just have championship and sportsman. I think that the problems created with scoring the masters group as well as the problems created when some experts raced in championship class as part of a double weekend or whatever is what leads him to this conclusion. On the other hand Divina is inclined to have the expert class again. By the way, in the South and West this season, there is only sportsman and championship, no expert. Todd and Divina will be making their decision after the new year...

John Edwards wins Red Bull Driver Search

Skip Barber Racing Series driver John Edwards, from Little Rock, Arkansas has been selected as the winner in the 2004 Red Bull Driver Search after being selected in the final round, held at the Autodromo Fernanda Pires Da Silva circuit in Estoril, Portugal. Edwards, who is all of thirteen years old, impressed the Red Bull judges with his dedication and potential after two days of fitness training at the Red Bull Diagnostics & Training Center in Thalgau, Austria and testing in Alan Docking Racing-prepared Formula 3 cars on the former Formula 1 race circuit...

Sid Brenner's 2004 Eastern Series Banquet Video

If you missed the Banquet, you've got to see this video. The man is a jewel.

Great Final Weekend at Lime Rock Park - Peter Ludwig & Various

On October 8th and 9th, all of the Eastern Series participants came together at the hallowed grounds of Lime Rock Park in Northeastern Connecticut to decide who the champions would be in the Skip Barber Racing Series Formula Dodge Eastern Series. The racing was awesome, the Banquet was a blast and the Golf Outing topped it all off. What an amazing weekend. Yes, another one...!

Eastern Series Championship Finale Previews

While Matt Franc may have already been crowned the as the Overall and Championship Class winner of the Skip Barber Formula Dodge Eastern Race Series, the Master's, Expert and Sportsman Classes are all still wide open and look to be tightly fought. This weekend's Lime Rock Finale is always the most highly anticipated and exciting races of the year, and looks set to decide who's going to win and fill out the remaining posotions in each division.

Click here for the Championship Class Preview - Expert Class Preview - Master's Class Preview - Race Groups as Posted

Watkins Glen Race Weekend - WOW!

What an awesome, awesome weekend! And I was only there for less than a third of it. Imagine how much fun everyone else had who arrived on Wednesday. There was perfect weather, an incredible racetrack, a seemingly endless supply of beautiful cars (especially the new blue ones..) and big groups of drivers that had a blast hanging out and racing with each other (cleanly). Skip Barber, thank you for a job very well done. The preparation was great, the staff was on fine form and smiles were the only things I saw, even though us Bozos destroyed more than a few of your cars...

Vinay Basaravaja and Skip Barber on SpeedTV's Chinese F1 Broadcast

Team Juicy member Vin got some great airtime Saturday night during the F1 race, with a big mention of him being the first American race winner on the Shanghai circuit. Skippy also got a nice little mention there. Patterson could have made it too, if that little TSOAB didn't keep fuggin with him in this weekend's Formula BMW support race. He still kicked some serious butt.

On Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! (Oct. 10, after the Eastern Region Oct. 7-8-9 finale at Lime Rock Park), Aaron Hollander has given us the greenlight to host a Race Series Golf Tournament at nearby Silo Ridge Country Club. Clearly, since you guys and gals can't beat the instructors on the race course, we're going to give you a shot on the golf course...

(Tournament and Invitation from Skip Barber)

Thursday, September 09, 2004 By RUDY MILLER of The Express-Times

EASTON -- Race-car driving legend Michael Andretti filed for divorce Tuesday in Northampton County Court. The Bushkill Township man accuses his wife, Leslie Andretti, of causing their marriage to become "irretrievably broken," according to the filing...

New Lime Rock Park 'Backwards Layout' Track Map Revealed - by Donald MacDonald

Hop Baker, owner of the Lyme Tick Trailer and Amusement Park is pleased to throw his full support behind the new Eastern Series Race Series announced earlier this week by Skippy Race Director, Mr. Thomas "Carr" Glider. Mr. Baker is quoted as saying, "I think the new format announced by the Skippy people is a wonderful idea and will give them my full support for the upcoming event!" Also at today's press conference, Mr. Otto Butcher, Hop Baker's track manager geefully announced that any plans to repave the race course have now been put on hold "indefinitely, if not longer..." pending the new October event's crash damage tally.

An Open Letter to Skip Barber Regarding HANS devices - Please Vote on Poll & Give Feedback

The HANS device has now become a mandatory safety requirement in all major racing series, from NASCAR to both Indycar series, from Formula Mazda to Formula BMW, and as of July 1st every FIA sanctioned event from WRC to DTM to Formula 1. While our Skip Barber cars may not achieve the top or average speeds of any of those series, our cars are still fast enough to get us into serious trouble. In a crash, sometimes our cars are slowed from high speeds (70-140mph) down to 0 mph in 6 feet or less, as has been witnessed numerous times recently at Lime Rock, Barber Park etc. The G forces generated by these impacts are really high, whether or not the car absorbs a lot of the impact.

I'm really concerned that few if any of the drivers have the physical strength to support their heads under such loads. I've seen the videos on Basal Skull Fractures. If you have too, I think you would also be very concerned. I think we all have a responsibility to look out for and protect each other. I believe in the HANS device and that one day it will save one of us. It's really important that you voice your opinions and thoughts on this matter either way. Please submit your vote as well as replying with your thoughts.

As you know those of us with true dedication made it to Germany last week in order to finally conquer the greatest track of all. It was an honor and a pleasure at the same time to witness how Sy dominated the track and finally succeeded to unlock all its inner secrets. Who here has not heard of the famous "Carousell" with its rugged banked concrete banks? Ever wanted to know how to master it?

I would like to ask the race-educated audience of the forum to please watch the linked video and vote in the poll. The scene plays in Alabama, approaching the high speed right hand turn number 7. The video is slowed to frame-by-frame in the decisive moments.

The two racers are to remain anonymous so that your vote won't be biased by "sympathies" (or the lack thereof)...

Team Juicy Racing members propose new rules of conduct and behavior to ensure a championship trophy for one of it's members in 2004...

Priceless...

Due to my incredibly awful (which means good on the Juicy scale) and pathetic driving display in Virgina, I'm still in the lead. But in one race Maurice almost got himself to the top of the list. Is it possible that at Temblant, in his only other race scheduled for this year, he could pull off another bone-head move and win the whole thing? I also just want to re-iterate how sad and boring we all were (other than Mo, that is) at Lime Rock. Let's try and make a better show of it in Alabama..

Three days of blue skies, warm weather, excellent food, good friends, and a Sunday afternoon "walk around the park" to end what was a perfect weekend. We even got in some track time of our own at Grand Prix Karting of Quebec. There is nothing like the sound of an F1 car in the morning. Especially when you're standing twenty feet away as it brakes from 180mph for a 35 mph harpin and then blasts away in a blur of color in the opposite direction as quickly as it had arrived...

Drivers Talk, BF Goodrich Listens

We just got the word on tires from B.F. Goodrich. In response to the issues we've been having with the new Race School/Series tire, starting with the next rounds of the Eastern and Midwestern Race Series, we are returning to slicks. The new tire, the B.F. Goodrich G-Force, is based on the Michelin Pilot CS slick from previous years, but is a new tire with BFG branding on it...

In Virginia, a new grouping and scoring system was implemented. The fastest drivers are grouped together into what is called the Championship Group, the experienced midfield drivers are placed into the Expert Group, and new drivers are put into the Sportsmen Group. The intention of the grouping was to provide closer racing by grouping drivers of like skill. A new points system has been introduced to equalize the difficulty levels of receiving points.

We welcome your input on the new system. Click on the points sheet or the heading above for more.

Southern Series Championship Finale - Brains Not Included

Running fast & furious, on March 27th & 28th our esteemed fellow Team Juicy racers attacked the 24 Hour Course at the world renowned Daytona International Speedway. We showed our speed, our courage and also our complete lack of common sense... (UPDATED: Pictures Here)

Man Causes Big Crash - Somewhere - and Gets His GF P-D off

FT. LEE, N.J. (Apr. 3) - Race car driver Walter Irvine, 22, of Lakeville, Conn., was involved in a near-fatal incident Saturday evening as he backed his girlfriend's 2004 Range Rover Freelander into another car -- or maybe it was a fire hydrant...

New Skippy Girl Ashlei Coming to the Eastern Series

Ashlei is joining the already lovely crew of young ladies at Skip Barber's timining/scoring and hospitality department...

The Old and the Restless - Geriatric Juicies take on Daytona -by Mark Patterson

Veteran Skip Barber antiques, Jim Victor, Dario Cioti and Mark Patterson, all well over 50, talked pro driver Peter Argetsinger into racing the mighty Daytona 24 Hour Grand Am Rolex Race, and in a fit of remorse, included John Pew as the 5th driver, despite his youthful 47 years of age. We took the #46 bright yellow Corvette (white on race day), which has more output and noise than Dario after a good Italian meal. We ran in the SGS class, and watched our mirrors as a lot of GTs and DPs screamed by at 185-190 mph...

'Yes Sir, Officer' or 'Please Don't Impound my Turbo' --by Juicy Sue

2:05 am. 1st Av and 96th Street in Manhattan. On the way home from Pork Chop Willie's Fabulous Show! Pulling away from the gas pump. Michael Auriemma reaches for a button on the dashboard of the 911 and presses it right before pulling onto First Avenue. Sue, his trusting wife, remarks, "What did you just do?" Michael responds, "Just turned off the traction control...."

Skip Barber Announces New Low Cost Race Series -- by Dick Lippert & Doug Harrison

Walter Irvine of Skip Barber Racing announced "In our efforts to bring the thrill of racing to a wide audience, we have introduced a new program that aspiring drivers can attend for only $29.95..."

Dario Cioti Passes IRL Rookie Test -- by AutoSport writers Dick Lippert & Doug Harrison

American Formula Dodge veteran Dario Cioti completed his Indy Racing League Rookie test at the Texas Motor Speedway. The 47-year-old completed 80 laps, recording an unofficial best average speed of 216.08 mph...

Preview - The Intentional Off-Road Challenge....4-Off's A Must -- by Walter Irvine

UPDATED - From M Auriemma on Jan 26th: "Lots of you have been asking me about putting together a 'Serious' 4-wheeling weekend. Ask and you shall recieve!" Excellent, I have a new Land Rover...

Team Juicy Racers Star (and Crash) on Discovery Channel -- by Jim Craige

On January 11th, Discovery Channel's 'Macho Monuments' aired what must be considered one of the most compelling documentaries of this new Millenium, revealing the true courage and brevity of our fellow racers. It also debunks one of the most hardened and established myths in racing: That it's impossible to spin on a straight...

Anatomy of a Crash - by Michael Auriemma

As Gerardo Bonilla said in Macho Monuments, a crash is usually the result of 3-4 compounding errors. If you catch the 1st, you can limit the extent of the damage (and humiliation). In the following video, you can see a range of errors committed by one of Team Juicy's drivers. See how many you can pick up...

Fab Four Complete Record 11 Races at F1 Boston --by Donald MacDonald

Off-season hath no meaning for some racers, as the four horsemen of Team Juicy completed a facility record 11 races on December 29th....

Laguna Seca 12/13/03 - by Martin Birkmann

Four of the bravest racers to be found in the Eastern Series embarked to Laguna Seca, way out West, determined not to let the silly nor the cold season distract them from their path. Alex, Sy, Francois and myself even succeeded in luring our significant others (Alex, I heard something about an upcoming engagement?) to the venue. The fact that the bribery included excessive spa treatments and opulent dinners needs to be elaborated on another time. Because this is all about the racing, right?...

1st Annual Team Juicy Turkey Day Shoot(out) --by Donald MacDonald

On November 28th this past fall, Team Juicy made the pilgrimage to Boston for the first annual Turkey Day Shoot(out). The event was held at F1 Boston track in Braintree, MA, a short distance from the site of the original Pilgrim landing at Plymouth Rock. Whether a function of the poor training of the F1 Boston track staff or an off season case of Red Mist, the early rounds of the day’s events were fraught with needless penalties and crashes all around....

'Get out of my way, you little s--t' - by Bill Hammer

So, I'm visiting my parents over Thanksgiving weekend in North Carolina. There's this miniature golf place with kiddy go karts. Kinda fun to do with my son. You don't ever have to brake or even lift, but you slide pretty good at the turn at the bottom of the hill. Anyway, my son and I are out on the course and so is another father with his nine year old....