Racing season is underway!

It's again been a pretty busy week. Last weekend, we held our first AISA auto racing school of the year at St-Eustache. I think we can call the event an unqualified success. There were over 60 students and 30 instructors. The atmosphere was great, the weather was all over the place and people seemed to learn a lot and have fun. There were some crazy cars this year... there were two 600 hp rear-wheel-drive Porsche 996 turbos in my group. There were multiple other Porsches, V8's, and all-wheel-drive turbo cars. I rented out my blue Civic to a student from Ontario, and he seemed to enjoy himself, despite less than stellar handling due to a worn bushing in the front suspension. Usually, I try to get in a few laps in the race car at this school, but the transmission rebuild has not yet been completed. I think I only actually drove three laps all weekend (in a 2007 Golf GTi, fun car, but more for the street than the track, in my opinion). The next event is the first Monday of lapping on May 3rd. We are also hosting a second school at Calabogie on May 8th and 9th. Alex will be joining me for the Calabogie school, and it should be a fun event.

News of Alex:
Alex has been quite busy with work since her return from Chicago. She has many work projects going at the same time. However, given that she is not someone who gets stressed out by large amounts of work, she is still able to enjoy the lovely spring weather and hit the gym several times a week. She has also managed to find time to join me on some of my runs, keeping me company on her bike. Alex is also trying to figure out where and when we will take our summer vacation. It's looking like a European destination, possibly with some town-to-town hiking.

Speaking of running, I am still following Christian's plan and it's going well. I finally signed up for the marathon online this morning... someone had told me there was no rush as the event doesn't sell out, but the website said it was 98% sold out, so I went for it. I don't know why I was procrastinating. Today's workout is probably the toughest challenge yet: I am supposed to run a half-marathon in 1:28, which is 5 minutes faster than the time I set in February. I will give it a shot later today on the Lachine canal. I imagine it will be extremely tough to hit that time, but we will see. Alex will be there on the bike to encourage me and carry my water and stuff. I will post how it went.

My men's basketball team won our first game of the finals in convincing fashion by 20 points on Friday. I think I only scored 4 points, but I think I made a significant contribution on defense. It was quite a physical game and I took a lot of contact, although I think I ended up with only 2 fouls. There were many "no call" situations. I would love it if we could wrap up the series in only one more game, so that I will be able to head to Calabogie on Friday night instead of Saturday morning in 2 weeks.

So basically, there is still lots going on. Soon basketball will be over and the marathon training will end with the marathon May 30th. Hopefully by then, I will have more time and energy for car stuff and planning some sort of summer vacation!

Cool cars spotted:
AISA school:
Shelby GT500
Porsche 996 turbo
Porsche 911 RS America
Porsche 997 GT3R
Toyota Celica GT4 Carlos Sainz
Subaru Impreza STi
BMW M3

Elsewhere:
Nissan GTR
Nissan Skyline R32 GTR
Nissan Pulsar GTi-R
Acura NSX
Toyota Supra twin turbo
Lexus IS-F
Ferrari 328 GTS
Ferrari California
Ferrari 612 Scaglietti
Lamborghini Gallardo Spider
Maserati GT
Bentley Continental
Bentley Arnage
Audi R8
Auti RS4
BMW M3
MGB (chrome)
Volvo P1800
AMG C63
Mercedes 230 GE
Fiat Tipo