Good morning race fans and supporters.  Lot of TV lately and for the next week+ about Daytona.  We are/were the lead race for the Daytona speed weeks that include ARCA, Nationwide, Sprint Cup – Bud Shootout and the 500, plus bikes and suport series.

We will be going through the Acumen Motorsport Porsche over the next few weeks, preping the racecar for the coming spring.  The Autobahn tracks in Joilet, IL opens in about six weeks and a good place to shake it out. 

The total experience of our Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona adventure including pre-race testing was a magnificant experience for drivers, crews, and our sponsors/guests.  Running 22.5 hours and missing the last 1.5 hours still had us finishing ahead of 21 GT cars.  The achievement, a combined effort by a huge number of people, only left taking the checkered flag as the missing link.  The racecar was unmarked – not a scuff, scratch, or dent – no mistakes.  Can’t wait for next year!

Good morning race fans and supporters:  5:40am here in CT and off to the gym.  I’ll do a bit on the senior driver workout schedule here soon.  Should have more time to write now that we have a spam blocker on this blog.  I was spending a lot of time deleting suspicious messages.  We are planning our spring and summer racing schedule over the next two weeks.

7:06am – Just back from the gym – getting prepared for the next series of racing beginning again in a few months.  Tony Kester and Douglas Grunnet were guest speakers on an Illinois radio show over the weekend with the Porsche just as it came off the race track.  We will do some shake down runs prior to our next scheduled race.  More on plans as they get finalized.  We are still working on photos and video from the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.  Once that gets done – I’ll do a recap of the race.  All of it will be here and on the Acumen Motorsport web site.

Good morning race fans and supporters:  Thanks for all the good comments – some have been getting mixed in a pile of spam lately, so if I deleted yours, please accept my apology. There have been at least a 1000 comments so if I have not replied directly – that is the reason.

The team is back, Porsche on display exactly as it came off the race track.  Not a scrape or mark on the car except for the hundreds of rubber marks, grime and oil.  As the race progresses, race tire rubber micro-melts off the treads with tire temperatures over 200 degrees F.  That rubber collects on the track and becomes crumbs, balls and clumps which get kicked up by cars in front and leave black streaks everywhere. 

Gearbox is out and getting re-built.  Rare to have a gearbox failure, it lasted through some 20,000 shifts during the race and practice.  The gearbox is a 6 speed sequential.  We use 2nd through 6th all race long.  1st gear is only used leaving the pit lane.  Shifting up – never lift off the gas.  Downshifts require a blip of the throttle.  We will talk about footwork and styles of the pedal/s dance on another post.

Race fans and supporters:

This past week all of the team were catching up on our regular jobs while going through notes, photos and videos.  We will post new material on the web site as it comes in or gets edited.  We finished 25th in class of 45/46 starters in GT despite having a rare gearbox failure at the 22.5 hour mark and parking the Porsche for the last 1.5 hours of the race.  While not the victory we had hoped for, it was a monumental achievement by a first year team.  I’ll be posting more this coming week on the prep, pre-race, and post race activites.  Thanks for all your support and good words.

Race fan and supporters, we just drove the team RV into the driveway at the Connecticut base.  That’s 2 – 24 hour drives in 2.5 days.  I’ll catch you up with news and notes on our amazing race as soon as I can catch up a bit.

Thanks for all you emails and comments – over 500!

Shiftless – not the Porsche – we will do that 20+/- times per lap X 700+/- laps – 14,000 shifts!   The team is on the move – the Morris, Illinois contingent headed down the road with a trailer full of parts and spares.  Porsche going into a second trailer in Michigan.  Arizona, Colorado, New York, Florida crew heading to the track in a few days – and this CT base operation soon to be on the way!

Joining our primary sponsor – ALM Material Handling and associate sponsor, Camping World of Jacksonville is Bridgeport Fittings of Stratford, CT.   Bridgeport Fittings is a manufacturer of electrical conduit fittings and has been in business for decades in CT.

Also today we filled out our driver roster with the addition of champion driver, Randy Pobst.  Randy has won the Rolex 24 Hour twice (2001 and 2006) led numerous times and has over 80 wins to his credit in all types of race cars.

Good Morning Acumen Motorsport fans and supporters:

Thanks for all you good comments.  I wish I could respond to each separately, but there are just way too many.  check in regularly for our updates especially around the Rolex 24 Hour coming up on Jan 28th – 29th. 

We have a new associate sponsor – Camping World of Jacksonville, FLorida.  If you are at the track during the race, we will have one of their magnificent RV’s parked along the super stretch – back straight – Lake Lloyd area.

It’s 5:32am here in Connecticut and time to head out to the gym.

Up at 4 am:  Mental check list – Motor out for rebuild, gearbox same, hotel rm. reserved, RV’s lined up for team and guests, new sponsor decals and banners being made up, new pit sign under re-design for better visibility especially at night, drivers and crew suits at the cleaners, airline tickets made, caterer going over team food requirements, new timing sheets printed, emails answered, two property analysis completed (non-racing  job).  It’s 6:42 – time to hit the gym.