,
I saw the lights on the dash, 1:10.694; I knew I had reached the goal.
(WD: and made me $10 richer!)
As I pulled back into the pits I breathed a large sigh of relief. Talking with Jeff afterwards, I suggested he get back into the car to try and improve even more, but he had his true responsibilities with GST the remainder of the day. I went out for a final session, but there was no time to be had. The track conditions worsened, my killer instinct was gone, the team was content and I just wanted to nap.
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| In the end Dan showed Westphal this view… Well I suppose with as close as they finished it would have been door to door but still… I think the reason this car is so fast is the license plate frame and YES that is a real plate! |
After all was said and done, there was no podium and champagne spraying for me. I requested that Mike and Grant handle that responsibility as I got in my rental, found a place with a lot of shade and fell asleep for an hour or so. I had to get back on a plane, head to Chicago, drive to my house and be ready for work at 8 AM the next day. Mike, Grant and the ever-reliable intern Darren got into the van and safely brought our Evo home.
The next few days we slept a lot, but already the preparations for November have started. Soon we will begin building and California should be prepared for the havoc that we will bring to Buttonwillow: our final dragon to slay this season!
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| To the victors go the spoils. Mike, Dan, and Grant showing off their bounty. |
Wes requested that I close by writing a short bio about Professional Awesome, what a jerk. Fairly simply we started about 4 years ago with a goal of breaking as many time attack track records as we could. After getting my ass kicked a few times the first year, I convinced my friend, Grant Davis, to move in and help Mike Lewin and me focus on perfecting the car. That winter our car went under the knife and has become a test-bed for our ideas and fabrication skills. We don’t do it to make money. We don’t do it to sell parts. We don’t have any ulterior motives other than going as fast as we possibly can while ensuring the car is extremely reliable. I believe this extremely tight focus and the team’s combined skill set have been the reason for our successes to date. We still have countless ideas we haven’t explored and have not yet pushed the limits of what we feel is possible. Hopefully with more knowledge, improving our abilities and of course ever important ‘resources’ we will continue to break records and most importantly, push ourselves.
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| If I had to pick one picture to sum up Professional Awesome this would be it. I was going to explain myself in this caption but decided that I would let the picture make the point. |
Our thanks list is endless and I am sure I will forget people and for that I am sorry, but I will do my best in no particular order. Alec Cervenka, Dan Leuck, Mike Fleege, Jordan Gilsinger, Erin Farrell, Paul Sullivan, Tommy Barker, Ian Girvan, Paul Kapoor, Dan Carey, Chris Carey, Jim and Kathy Davis, Betsy Lewin, Mary O’Donnell, John Naderi, Jason Dienhart, Mike Warfield, Jeff Westphal(David Beckham), Brian Fox, Cheryl Pierce, Lee Tourek, Melissa Johnson, Thomas Smith (Black Doppelganger), Tony Wiesenhahn, Shawn Berry, Darren Rabaduex, Mike Mishler, Tony Barber, Naige, JC Meynet, Tony “Hot Cawk” Szirka, Eric Arms, Yukioooooo Taira, Wes Dumalski, Andy Stevens, Dave Hary, Anthony Mason Pitts, Chris Rado, Pat Sanderson, Ryan Upham, Klimes, Demetrius Minor, Vinscent Minor, Brandon Minor, Andy Smedegard, Drew Hackett, Michael Oromaner, BOBBY Del Bello, Markos Mylonas, Matt Andrews, Joe Ippolito, VOSS, Cody Loveland, Smile Meade, Larry Chen, Cheng Sun, Will Cannady, John Van Antwerp, Tyler Griffin, Tony Malito, AMY DILKS, Takashi Nakachi, Dave Karey, Chris “New Jersey” Kretvix, Clint Boggess, Robispec, Micah McMahan, Rico “Get Crunk” Jones, Allan Crocket, Dez, Noah and Adam Levy, Mike Kojima, Daniel Grace, Faraz Shah, Travis “Sauce Bauce” Barnes, Elliott Sherwood, Taylor Allen, Abby Hackett, Michael “Vanilla Lightning” Ostby, Reid Yoken, Geoff Raicer, Nik Malechikos, Adam Brunson, Jonathon Rochin, Todd Wilson, Clint Boisdeau, Brian Hedian, Matt Dennison, Khiem Dinh, Robbie Montinola, Robert Iannello, Joseph Barszcz, Cam Benner, Mike Alejos, Billy Johnson, Jeff Naeyaert, Dave Coleman, David Fung, Paul Jho, Kerryann De La Cruz, James Elmore, Josh Alicea, William Chan, Eric Meyer, Tsuyoshi Inoue, Jeremy Sierra, Mike Bonanni, Kyle Lewis, Gino Reyna, Ryan Gates, Taylor Wilson, Jim McKeone, Chris Marion, Doug Burkmire, Moses Fueled Mag Senquiz, Gary Cupp, Jackson Stewart, Tarzan Yamada, every current sponsor and past sponsor as well, all friends and family I forgot and anyone that has supported time attack. Thank you all!
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Professional Awesome would like to thank our sponsors:
