The past month has been a whirlwind. With the help of Mopar and the factory supported team of Cindi Lux, NayKid Racing and Lux Performance, we completed our three race campaign with the pros. Overall I would say that our efforts paid off well with a fourteenth, a twelfth and a sixteenth placing in those three SCCA Pro Racing events. The races gave us a chance to experience the technical challenges of Mid Ohio, the high speed demands of Mosport and the perilous walls of a street course at Belle Isle. While Belle Isle was our lowest finish, we would have placed better if not for a DNF due to a blown transmission just five laps from the finish. This in itself was another first for Roberts Racing as we had never not completed a race.
In retrospect, "knock on wood", we had no offs, no contact and no car damage throughout our journey. Of course, this is in keeping with our reputation and may have cost us a few spots for not taking just a little more chance in a sport where drivers can go from hero to zero in the blink of an eye. Ultimately, our goal was to take our somewhat "tame" World Challenge spec car and see if we could manage the stress and pace of the "big boys" and to assess where we might want to go next year. I would say that we achieved our goal in that we did reasonably well for our first attempts at pro, and those drivers in the SPEED World Challenge series have come to know that our driving is solid and courteous to those teams that are faster and in the hunt for points towards the championship.
In a short three races I would like to think that some of the off-track activities have yielded some positive momentum for our team, including an opportunity to get to better know the folks at Mopar and others that will be instrumental to advancing our cause next year should we decide to move to a more demanding pro schedule. As part of our last race weekend at Belle Isle, Detroit, I was asked by Mopar to speak to a group of several hundred Viper owners to share our story. Specifically, our story of how we have gone from sitting in a race car just a short eighteen months ago and now find ourselves competing at a pro level. I guess at the end of the day, the story has merit considering I was in such an audience just two years ago at a previous Viper Owners Invitational wondering what it would be like to race. And now I know.
So what is next for us? Good question ... we will finish up the year with a few last events with the Viper Racing League as any more pro events will forfeit my Rookie status with the SCCA and I want to retain this for next year should we take a run at the World Challenge. I know for sure that I want to develop some business opportunities from our pro efforts. We have been invited to participate with a team for the Rolex 24 hrs of Daytona in January and beyond this, we will most likely engage a few teams about support for next season. As a sensible privateer (another word for "funds everything"), we are going to keep our options open and leverage off of our relationships to optimize whatever next year may look like.
I owe a thanks to Cindi from Lux Performance/Naykid Racing for making me feel a part of the Mopar family, to Gary from Dodge for connecting the dots for us to go to the pros and to Mike from Mopar for such a warm reception and kind words along the way. Hopefully, some will hear of our story and reach for their own racing aspirations by way of this awesome machine called the Dodge Viper.
So now, it is time to start shopping for a new transmission and pay some attention to the points race at the VRL since I took my "eye off the ball" during my pro debut. We are scheduled for Spring Mountain at the end of the month, however, it would be nice to surprise a few of our friends and show up at Willow Springs ahead of that. We will see.
