February Off-Season Blog: Tim Paul
Hey everyone. I hope this blog finds you happy and healthy, with the recent holidays being a success for you and yours. We have been busy here at SMR in the off-season. After Mid Ohio, I headed back to college to work on my English degree, and we have made a deal with GTP Motorsports for the 2011 season that I could not be more excited for. I also found out that I’m going to be an uncle again, as my sister is pregnant with kid number 2!
2011 is going to be a good year for the F2000 Championship Series as well. The 1600 class is going to be an exciting addition to our race weekends, and I am looking forward to watching them battle it out on the track, and watching the class evolve as we move forward. It makes a lot of sense to run with a smaller-displacement series every weekend, as it will really pack a helluva “bang for your buck” wallop into every fan’s experience. Formula car racing is one of the most dynamic, exciting forms of racing, at any level, and to double the dose for the series is a seriously good move. I hear the entries for the 1600 class are already abundant, so we have a pretty good idea that the grids will be jam-packed and the action will be intense all season.
Also exciting for 2011: new tires. Oh boy. Supposed to be faster and hopefully stiffen the rear sidewalls, the new tires by Hoosier are going to be big news for this season. Testing will be commencing in the next few days I believe, and I can’t wait to hear how it went and what the test drivers think of them. I’m sure it will be nothing but praise, anything to speed the car up is usually ok by the drivers!
How about Carbone to Indy Lights? I really can’t congratulate him enough. He drove a DOMINANT season last year and I’m more than happy to hear of his progression up the ladder. He definitely deserves this shot and I wish him the best of luck, although I doubt he needs it. I will be eager to follow his progress this season, pulling for him every step.
So, those are the big things that happened in the off-season. Now it’s time to get back into the gym and burn off some of this hibernation laziness, blow the dust off these bones and get ready for the season. I have been studying onboard camera footage fanatically, it’s almost an obsession for me. I feel like I know the tracks for the most part pretty well after last season after spending tons of hours viewing onboard footage (Thanks to Johnathan Scarallo, I promise you’ll get your HD back soon).
I CAN’T WAIT FOR VIR!!!!!!
-Tim