Just wanted to let everybody know that we will be carrying "The Works" again this year. I'm excited about working with the guys from Greased Lightning again. It's a fun program to be a part of. They push us to be a part of our community and to do charitable work and in return we are able to get TV coverage and the chance to compete for extra money each race.
Greased Lightning is a great supporter of our series. Every person I have met from their company has been nice. They are all of a certain character or personality that is easy going and fun to be around. They have a good moral character and feel a certain corporate responsibility that is refreshing and motivating to be around. It may sound like sucking up, but from my experience, these are genuinuely good people.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Noticed the widget??
hey everybody, take a minute and check out the widget in the bottom right corner. Yep, thats right, South Boston is the next race on the schedule. That means we get to go racing really soon. I can't wait. South Boston is a really fun track to race on. It's a lot like Motor Mile Speedway in that it's a .4 mile bullring. It's not banked quite as much as Motor Mile but it is still plenty fast. The crazy thing about South Boston is that confounded inside wall that they put up a few years ago for the Busch series races to separate pit road from the track. It really gives you the illusion that the track is super narrow. Wait a minute, it is super narrow so I guess that wall doesnt mean didly huh? Seriously, every driver meeting will start off with "cut your fellow competitor some slack coming off the corners and all spotters need to be on there toes coming off these corners, the track really tightens up and when one car gets sideways it bottlenecks the whole thing". I promise we will hear that at least a dozen times. I know Jimmy (race director) will get tired of saying it, but honestly, all of us need to be constantly reminded of it. None of us want a massive pileup on the front straight.
So how do you get around South Boston? The straights are short and the start/finish line is really close to the entry of turn one. You barrel off with a big head of steam into turn one. Drive it in deep cause the exit of 2 opens up and you can carry a lot of speed on exit. So stay in the throttle as deep as you can, use the brake pedal to set the nose and take the car down to the white line and hug it all through the corner. You'll be just a couple of feet off of the inside wall so dont take it down too low. Once you're in the center of the corner ease back into the fuel, remember dont floor it or you'll spin the rear tires all the way on exit, and let the car start to drift to the wall. The rear straight is pretty short, as I said earlier, so about the time the steering wheel gets straight you need to prepare yourself for turn 3. Just like turn one, drive it in deep, just this time you'll have to use a bit more brake because the exit of four is tighter and you'll need to keep the car low. The lower you can keep the car on turn 4 exit the better. The winner will be the guy that can keep the car on the apron of the track in turn 4 and still get good traction off. Late in the race, guys will be all over the track. A few years ago, Clayton Rogers won a race there using the top groove. Some guys will try that, but I believe the car that can stay on the bottom will be the car to beat. Hopefully, that car will be ME...
So how do you get around South Boston? The straights are short and the start/finish line is really close to the entry of turn one. You barrel off with a big head of steam into turn one. Drive it in deep cause the exit of 2 opens up and you can carry a lot of speed on exit. So stay in the throttle as deep as you can, use the brake pedal to set the nose and take the car down to the white line and hug it all through the corner. You'll be just a couple of feet off of the inside wall so dont take it down too low. Once you're in the center of the corner ease back into the fuel, remember dont floor it or you'll spin the rear tires all the way on exit, and let the car start to drift to the wall. The rear straight is pretty short, as I said earlier, so about the time the steering wheel gets straight you need to prepare yourself for turn 3. Just like turn one, drive it in deep, just this time you'll have to use a bit more brake because the exit of four is tighter and you'll need to keep the car low. The lower you can keep the car on turn 4 exit the better. The winner will be the guy that can keep the car on the apron of the track in turn 4 and still get good traction off. Late in the race, guys will be all over the track. A few years ago, Clayton Rogers won a race there using the top groove. Some guys will try that, but I believe the car that can stay on the bottom will be the car to beat. Hopefully, that car will be ME...
Monday, March 10, 2008
Are we ready yet??
The question I keep getting is "Hey Michael-are you ready to go racing yet??" Well, the answer is uh, yeah. I've got one car ready (the Laughlin car that we finished the year out in last season) and the Hess car is almost ready to roll. I've got the engine in it, just need to finish the exhaust work up, fabricate the radiator ductwork on her and she'll be ready for the track. For the first time in my career, I'll have two kick butt race cars in the stable. I'm really excited about that.
I'm really excited about this racing season. First, I think our team is awesome. Secondly, I'm excited about the schedule. With a couple of exceptions (Milwaukee??), I think the schedule is awesome. Finally, I think I've reached a point in my career where I'm pretty content with what I'm doing and just plan on being myself on the track. I'll be more confident and a little looser at the track on race days. I learned a lot about who I am as a driver last season, basically, I'm just as good as any of these other guys. I learned that if I focus and apply myself, I can do anything they can do.
Now, I know the pre-season is for high hopes, dreams and maybe a little bragging but I'm not going to do any of that here. What I will do is share my goals for the 2008 season with you. My primary goal is to be competitive week after week at each race that I choose to run. Now what that means to me is that instead of riding around trying to protect the car and stay out of everybody's way (like last year) I'm going into each race to race. Maximum effort-don't hold anything back. It might be for 15th spot but I intend to race my hardest for each and every inch of that race track. I'm here to compete this season....Let's go race...
I'm really excited about this racing season. First, I think our team is awesome. Secondly, I'm excited about the schedule. With a couple of exceptions (Milwaukee??), I think the schedule is awesome. Finally, I think I've reached a point in my career where I'm pretty content with what I'm doing and just plan on being myself on the track. I'll be more confident and a little looser at the track on race days. I learned a lot about who I am as a driver last season, basically, I'm just as good as any of these other guys. I learned that if I focus and apply myself, I can do anything they can do.
Now, I know the pre-season is for high hopes, dreams and maybe a little bragging but I'm not going to do any of that here. What I will do is share my goals for the 2008 season with you. My primary goal is to be competitive week after week at each race that I choose to run. Now what that means to me is that instead of riding around trying to protect the car and stay out of everybody's way (like last year) I'm going into each race to race. Maximum effort-don't hold anything back. It might be for 15th spot but I intend to race my hardest for each and every inch of that race track. I'm here to compete this season....Let's go race...
What's Happening with Kidd Motorsports?
Hey everyone, Welcome to my new blog/website. I wanted to do something a bit more old-school and have something more personal to me than the standard driver website. The great folks at Digital Beckley have produced a quality website for me over the past couple of years and for that I am very thankful. I still intend on posting pictures and press releases on that site.(www.michaelkiddracing.com)
This season though, I thought I would start this blog-just to put my thoughts and opinions out there and to report to you how my racing season is progressing. No corporate BS press releases, just me, telling you how my weekend went. The good and the bad. I hope to post a few pictures, maybe some practice times and qualifying times from the weekend. I just might even do live updates from the track on race day. Who knows really, I sure don't. All I know for sure is that here it is-so I guess we'll just take it from there......
This season though, I thought I would start this blog-just to put my thoughts and opinions out there and to report to you how my racing season is progressing. No corporate BS press releases, just me, telling you how my weekend went. The good and the bad. I hope to post a few pictures, maybe some practice times and qualifying times from the weekend. I just might even do live updates from the track on race day. Who knows really, I sure don't. All I know for sure is that here it is-so I guess we'll just take it from there......
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