How i got here…

Unfortunately, I didn’t grow up in go-karts or anything like that. Heck, there weren’t even dirt bikes, 4wheelers, ATVs, or any motorized recreational vehicle in my family. Growing up in public housing in central Massachusetts, I was just happy with my bicycle. Needless to say, I didn’t get into driving until much later in life. However, I was fascinated with cars by the time I turned double digits in age. I’m a 90’s kid who grew up during what some would call the golden era of Japanese sports cars, and those were the cars that shaped my initial interest. I also had an uncle who ran a small tuner shop. I would always go and hang out at his shop. Watching and learning. So the majority of my early years was spent wrenching, modifying, and working on cars.

My circle of friends all had varying degrees of Japanese sports cars, and we spent a lot of time working on them and ogling over them. Keep in mind this was the early 2000s, so right as the tuner scene was peaking. This sparked my desire to figure out how everything in an engine worked. All of this had a huge influence in my early years, and by the time I had to pick a major at university, I knew I wanted it to somehow relate to cars.

“Tuning” my 1994 Toyota Supra on my uncle’s Dynapack Dyno in 2010.

Alas, after university I got the first mechanical engineering job I could land and away I went starting my career (albeit not in automotive yet). After moving a couple jobs, and surviving the first financial collapse of my adulthood, it wasn’t until the end of 2011 that I finally got the opportunity for an OEM and made my move to Michigan to start my career in engine development. This was a huge move in my life and kicked off many life changes. Playing with cars at home took a backseat for awhile as I concentrated on this next chapter of my life. Then in 2014 I took on a new work assignment and got the opportunity to work and live in Japan. This was an unbelievable experience, and one that could have an entire blog site dedicated to it. After returning back home in 2016, I made another transition in 2017 and moved out west to Southern California and joined the motorsports arm for my company. This was a dream come true on so many levels.

I took this picture of Mt. Fuji from Lake Yamanaka side in 2015 while living in Nagoya, Japan.

Finally after life and work settled down a bit, I started to think seriously about wanting to get into high performance driving again. In between the years, I was introduced to autocross and HPDE (high performance driving events), but never really committed to it. I got my biggest sample of it in 2016 when I was able to participate in a Skip Barber Racing School corporate event at Road Atlanta in an MX5 Cup car. This was when the seed was really planted.

Fast forward to the fall of 2018. I’ve been out in CA now for a year or so and I’m brainstorming on how to best get started in HPDEs. Overthinking way too much (this is a common theme for me by the way), I couldn’t decide what to do or which car to get as a track car. All the research said ‘Miata Is Always The Answer’, however I wanted something more practical. Something that had the same characteristics as a Miata - a driver’s car, a car that can really train YOU, and was cheap to operate, but could also carry more stuff in it. That answer came in the form of the Toyota 86. So after waiting awhile for a used one to show up on the internal company returned lease list, around October of that year, I landed on a bone stock 2013 Scion FR-S with 60k miles on it. I bought it from Michigan and had it delivered to California. And the plan was taking shape…….

My 2013 Scion FR-S getting loaded up for shipping - October 2018.

What plan you ask? Sorry to disappoint, but there’s no awesome track build here (yet). Just a heavy dose of the most cliché two-word phrase in the HPDE pits: “DRIVER MOD”.

The car was to remain all stock except wheels, tires, brake pads, an oil cooler and maintenance items. My plan was to do the only thing I know how; the only things that have brought me any success in the past: Discipline. Consistency. Commitment. Studying. Practicing with Intent. Train. Rinse. Repeat. Then apply with the most frequency of seat time.

My goal then for 2019 was be on track once per month - I smashed that goal and did 20 HPDEs that year - on top of the clinics and experience events I attended. I drove on ice. I did skid pad work. I even learned the basics of drifting. All in hopes to improve car control and build solid fundamentals for getting faster. I was highly motivated and super focused. I read as many books as I could get my hands on, and listened to every podcast I came across that talked about driving (I’ll list my favorites in a future post). I was on a mission to improve.

Subaru Winter Experience on the frozen Eagle Lake in Wisconsin working on the slalom. - February 2019

2020 came and then the world stopped. We all know what happened. If you don’t know, lucky you. Anyway, all the momentum I had came to a threshold braking stop. Tracks were closed. So I did what every locked-down trackday person did that period. I jumped online and got my first taste of driving simulators. I already had a Playstation4, so I decided to get Gran Turismo (a game I played intimately as a kid), and a steering wheel/pedal set up. This helped ease the pain a bit until tracks reopened again that autumn. Even with all the lock downs, I managed to do six HPDEs that year and even participated in my first time attack event.

By 2021, all the tracks were well in operation again, and most events were back on. Up to this point, I was making decent progress and lapping respectable times for a stock FRS and close to my benchmark set by 86Cup competitors. So I decided to try my hand at some local time attack events and committed to participate in TRD Series (a time attack series for cars made by Toyota), and select 86Cup events (a single make time attack series for the FRS/86/BRZ chassis)….and with that, I’ll end it here. I’ll make a 2021 recap post.

If you read this long, thank you! I hope you learned a bit about me, and how I got to where I am now. It’s only the beginning of my journey, and I hope you stay and follow along.

Fast in, and Fast out. Have fun out there.

Thanks!

Attacking cones at an autocross event at Angles Stadium, Anaheim, CA.