1 Goals and 2009/2011 Blogs, Its that time of year, again... Options

[Gary Dranow]

Eve of our next race...

Well its time to push cars around traffic cones as fast as possible once again.

This will be our 14th points race of the season and as I keep blathering I'm sitting
in third overall. Not bad for a veritable rookie by the terms of most of my competitors.

Yah, well the horn has been appropriately tooted.

Our main race car is in pieces still languishing with a broken rear diff and the one
we got in has some problems so no DP yet.

But we've decided to do some house cleaning and change cars and classes so as of
now our DP is for sale as is our 2002 Corvette Zo6. If interested just let me know
and I'll get ya all the details and data.

What are we moving to? Heh, heh, heh. Got to keep that a secret until the we get
the car but I will say it is the most competitive make and model in the Super Stock
class. We got to test drive one yesterday (and that is a very, very rare opportunity).

WHAT A CAR

I took the yellow Zo6 on a little drive today just getting road tires back on it. Its
been a great car and is a great car. FUN!

So tomorrow we'll be back in Charlie's 1989 BSP Corvette. A race off for me as
chair I get to just concentrate on my racing and I fully intend to lay down some
good runs. Charlie's car is no slouch and can be competitive for the overall when
driven to its potential, which I find surprising for a car this age. The thing RIPS!!

I'll update after the race and not much else to talk about so that's it for today.

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

He, he, he... Finally back on the Road Bike.

Won't do a lay off like that again

Still workin' on making the deal on the Gt3, WOW the
dealers and especially private sellers think those things
are made out of "Unobtainium" Sheesh

So we biked a quick 15 miles at 8am and then did a five
miler with our "Doods". Both are swimming like ducks now.

Pretty fun.

That's it for today...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

In the meantime our puppy Golden Doodle has become quite the swimmer.
She'll lap the pond we take them to (almost daily, 5 mile hike out and back).

Here she is doing her thang in the water

Tomorrow we'll ride then hike. Oh and I got pair of those Sketchers Resisstance
Runners, I'll report on those as well when I get a few miles on them.

That's it for today...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

Well I wouldn't say we're cross training...

But we are cross "fitnessing".

We are now biking consistently in the AMs and then taking the pups on
5 milers a little later in the AM.

Now that I've got my Skechers Resistance Runners (yeah, they work) we
may attempt to start do a little easy jogging in the afternoons.

Yea though the old back is still an issue but I'm starting to feel better than
I have in the last 3 years. Oh to get back in real shape. That might
change my entire outlook on Ski Racing. We'll see.

It was a nice day for hanging outdoors being cloudy all day long and
even though we have higher than normal temps the radiant heat ain't
all that bad.

That's it for today...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

Yeah hell...

Took 2 days off with all the thunderstorms and with the "Baby" coming in
(no folks, not human) we've been a bit busy with "it".



Anyho, that's going very well and we're back to racing in 2 more weeks
and will be out at Pocatello for the annual "SummerFast" at the Pokey
Airport.

The coach has now been gone more than a month as we get the fiberglass
repaired, had no idea it was going to be 2 months and a $15K job, holy
crap! Won't let that happen again (it was almost an unavoidable collision).
The funny thing about it was that you could barely see the damage from
five feet away. It will be good to have it back (even though we've enjoyed
a great rental season for our pad at Park City RV Resort with no cost for
storage during the repairs). It'll look brand new again.

Oh, another current event is we sold the Yellow Zo6. Pretty amazing, we
got it on EbayMotors and within a few hours had it sold. The surprised us.
It was a great car and we'll miss it... Kinda. Now we've just got to get the
"DP" sold and we're down to one REAL fast and fun car (to maintain).


Bye Bye


Anybody want to get into AX "DP" Class?

Biking is going very well, better than I expected but the hiking is hurting
the old bod. Don't know why (after 200 miles of hiking now) that the "old
bod" isn't acclimatizing as it did down in Zion this last Fall and Spring...
huh.

Well really looking forward to getting back to AXing and our schedule will
be a bit more consistent from here on out (our last race is in October and
then we're off to Zion until the snow falls).

Oh yeah, I've lost 10 pounds (since I've changed my drugs up) and well on
my way back from the depths of self loathing and covered mirrors... hah!

If you are reading this post try AX and join us at one of our remaining
events. Here's the link to our Facebook Page where
you will find all our event info or you can check us out at our Forum.

That's it for today...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

First quarter of August is gone...

Been pretty active with bicycle rides and hikes with the dogs. We take
them up past Swaner Preserve to Willow Creek Park off of Old Ranch
Road, about a 5 mile hike out and back. There the mutts (and they
really are being Golden Doodles) get to swim most everyday, very good
for their own conditioning as well as our sanity.





For the first time this year skiing crossed my mind today. I started thinking
about what I want to get out of this next season. I am still fairly resolute
about skipping the Master racing thing, especially with this year's schedule
(I think it sucks). But from a business perspective I'll probably have my
company step up the sponsorship or the Intermountain Masters just the
same.


Last year's IMM Season Bib Leaders

The real question is whether I'll want to make the trip out to Winter Park
for the Nastar Nationals. Its a hell of a drive from here but the real issues
remains if it conflicts with our first Regional Solo event as it did this last
year. Solo won out and will likely win out again with the Gt3 in development.

But hey, at least I'm starting to muse about skiing in general. Maybe this
post will get my mind kick started thinking about how I can improve my
turns, technique, hey even tactics.

Short post but that's it for today, thanks for reading my blogs!

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

Been pretty much on the same routine...

It may be a rut but at least we are getting consistent exercise and getting the
beasts exercise... important for our sanity.

After 75 days in the paint shop and some $15k later the Motor Coach is ready
to be back in service. In fact, we are pulling out of here tomorrow AM on our
way up to Pocatello Airport for three days of Solo racing. We have a test 'n
tune tomorrow afternoon/evening and since this will be the first race for the Gt3
it will be great to get some laps and feedback from the car prior to the actual
race.


"The Time Machine" just prior to loading it in the trailer

Sounds like we have a interesting format this "SummerFast". We'll be running
the course forward and backward with combined times both days. We've done
that before from one day to the next (on two day events) but never in one day
of racing (at least not since I've been running Solo).

At any rate it will be good to hit the road for a few days, get the "Mutant Puppy"
back into the swing out of the road and dry camping and get a full weekend of
racing in.

I suspect that we'll all find ourselves in the car fairly quickly and for me personally
I believe that the Gt3 will fit not only my style but my line and right foot braking.

Other than this I've been hearing a sucking noise in between my ears. Like what
we would hear on planet earth if our atmosphere was getting sucked away by a
black hole near us. In other words I haven't had a whole lot to say lately. Not
that this is really unusual for me but its a bit more extreme as I can't bring myself
to delve into topics that I know I should be developing, ski racing included.

Its either sun spots or just a phase I'm going through. Perhaps getting back to
Solo racing will help me find my muse.

I'm certainly concerned and watching the current financial and economic conditions
of the US and world markets but that ain't something I want to blather on about or
do I think its appropriate for this blog. Being the senior partner and C.E.0. in a
start up business (started www.PlatipusSports.com in April of 2008, sure didn't see
how deep this recession was going to be at that time) I am particularly aware of
these issues and topics. Man if I only knew then what I know now I might have saved
myself a lot of grief and concern (though we are doing better than most start ups
from the same period) and lots and lots of money.

Anyway the sucking noise continues and I'm looking forward to getting behind the
wheel yet again.

I may have more from or after the event but that's it for now...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

Hah! Fabulous weekend and a real eye opener (on "The Time Machine")

I'll be back tomorrow with the update and leave ya all with this photo



Utah takes SummerFast (and I played a key role)

That's it for now...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

Back to it...

This last weekend was a two day, tri-region challenge series. Hosted by Eastern Idaho
SCCA the event takes place annually each August at Pocatello Airport (hopefully the
new Airport mangers will relent from their current and allow us to keep coming back
for years to come). The regions that participate are Eastern Idaho SCCA (EISCCA),
Snake River SCCA (Boise) and our region, the Utah Region SCCA (URSCCA).

Our Race made the news up in Pokey

We compete for one of them tall trophies which the winning region gets to take home
for the year (not sure who's mantle it will sit on, I'm voting me Why in a minute).
The challenge works this way. Points for the top twenty in "PaX" (a factored time a
lot like NASTAR Handicaps) with a bonus point going to the Top Time of Day and the
Top Pax of Day. So that's 2 extra points to help determine the winner after both day's
racing is calculated.

On Saturday it was a straight up dash for cash with a total of seven runs on the same
course to determine each driver's top time for the day. There was no tie-breakers on
Saturday as this was a two day, combined time event. As of Saturday afternoon the
Eastern Idaho was one point in the lead with Utah close by in second and Snake River
a few points back in third. All regions has racers in the top 20 so Snake River could
play the spoiler by taking points away from either EISCCA or URSCCA.

Of the 120 or so racers the Utah Region fielded 37 racers and almost all were in the
top 50.

I was sitting in 21st after day one, one out of the points. I wasn't at all dissatisfied with
this knowing we were just fleshing out the setup of "The Time Machine". We would end
up making a major change to the suspension setup but didn't figure it out until after we
corded the right front tire and halfway through Sunday's race.


The Time Machine at Pokey

On Sunday the format was different. We'd take 4 runs in the morning on a new course
set then in the afternoon three more runs backward with times combined to set the
placings.

Saturday the course was running about forty seconds and Sunday both directions around
twenty six seconds.

After we made the adjustments to the car it handled absolutely brilliantly. It was still fun
earlier though it was pushing fairly hard if you missed your corner entry at all. The car
will be very competitive when we get done setting it up which will require a upgrade set
of dampers all around (not cheap). Right now, with proper alignment, corner balance and
sway bar settings it will be competitive regionally but we'll need the shocks for the National
and Pro Tour events.

With "The Time Machine" we've moved back to Super Stock, easily the most populated and
competitive class of them all. Its time to "Man-up".

Anyway, back to the challenge. After all was done Sunday afternoon it came down to the
last runs of the day and it was my last run, taking 21st and breaking a dead tie that won the
"Mike Stout Memorial" Trophy for the Utah Region.

When we left Pokey I had no idea where I had finished but assumed I was close to twentieth
after my 7th and final run of the day (just four tenths behind my co-driver and National
Champion Charlie Shelton). Once I got home I got the news that it was my final run that
broke a dead tie between EISCCA and URSCCA winning us the challenge. It was good news
and definitely made my whole weekend. Linda, Charlie's wife and Dr. Liz's co-driver was just
a few tenths behind me in twenty third with Dr. Liz turning a 91 PaX finishing in the top 50.

Overall for the season I've dropped to fifth overall (edit? this may not be the case, there is a
problem with our scoring, I may still be hanging on to third) as we started "Drops" at 13 events
and as of this Sunday we've had 17 events. We don't know the regional results for Sunday yet
but on Saturday I took ninth with a PaX of 95.91 which gets ride of one of my lower scores from
earlier in the season. As I have said in the past I need to PaX 97 or better from here on out
to protect my top five overall year end finish. I'm confident as we burn in "The Time Machine"
I'll be able to do it and was close on Saturday (still a decent score). Dr. Liz should have
Sunday's results posted tomorrow so we'll see how things shake out after points event 16.
We'll have a total of 22 events with 11 to qualify for trophies and drops after your 13th event.

So I'm hanging in there and am one of the top drivers even though I've competed in 4 different
cars this season, not an advantage. It will be "The Time Machine" for the last six events of the
season and looking forward to it.

Other than that its hiking, hiking and more hiking. Been having trouble getting out on the bike
but plan to get back to it this week along with the hiking, hiking and hiking. We've been hiking
mostly due to the "Puppy Brain" as she needs at least 5 miles a day plus swimming and copious
fetch to not drive us out of our minds (energy to burn to say the least).

Well that's it for today, my next race is Labor Day and I'm the event chairperson so another early
day, lots of work and a little racing...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

Egads!

Park City has become even more predatory, hard to believe. Its time to start
shaking out the budget to buy those money saving [sic] season passes. Park
City has not only raised their prices (substantially) but apparently eliminated the
mid-week pass. Maybe they've just omitted the mid-week pass from their website
but when we were up shopping yesterday it was absent. Next they are now
charging for the underground parking and the Fast Tracks, which both were
incentives to the season pass holder. Makes me wonder what they are going
to do with their Nastar pass, which was also free with a season pass.

In short, tough economy, you raise prices on all your stalwart customers... nice!

In addition to our season pass at Park City we pick up mid-week passes at Deer
Valley. Even with the increase in PC's rates it only costs us an extra $800 over
the full season pass at Deer Valley and DV doesn't have underground parking
or at least not at reasonable rates and their locker prices are sky high.

So for the convenience of having underground parking, a locker and the ability
to ski on Sundays (Saturday is usually a mad house at either resort) we take
the hit and hold passes at both mountains. The main attraction for DV is their
Nastar hill is vastly better than Park City's and is run by nice people. The
crew at Park City is usually fairly good but the race department is run by an
Ogre that affects the attitudes of the course setters and pacesetters (which is
generally bad to awful). The poor folks that actually run the race are nice
enough but are always at risk of being dumped on by their Führer. I won't
name names but if you've been around their long enough you know of what
I speak - shivers run down my spine.

We'll take the dive here shortly to get inside of the rate increases after Oct.
30, which again is substantial and quite frankly puzzling to me. But of course
it is their businesses and they can do as they wish having a stranglehold on
the most local venues for skiing and ski racing.

We are going to sit out (as I mentioned earlier) the Master season once again.
Both Dr. Liz and I are burned out on the Master grind and with this year's
schedule being really lacking we just don't want to do it. Hell, we may ski
a lot less this year and travel to California for a few Solo races in the late
winter and early spring. We'll probably miss the Nastar Nationals due to a
schedule conflict with our early season solo racing (that is what happened
last season). And again, as I mentioned, with the Nationals moving farther
away (Steamboat wasn't a bad drive at all) to Winter Park we just aren't
excited about the long haul for a four runs over a three or four day ordeal.

Yeah, the attitude could use adjusting and it may take snowfall to do it,
we'll just have to see. Piss, moan, grip

That's it for today...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

No that I bitched about things related to skiing, time to set goals...

1) Improve quality of arc on steeper terrain on both Slalom and GS Turns

a) Better engagement of the inside ski, cleaner arc of the inside ski

2) Get out a few Sundays on speed skis for some gliding and again cleaner arcs at speed

3) Get my slalom turns "Turned around". Meaning early high edge set with soft exit/early transition

4) Smother transitions with less "Up and Over", more through (Cross-through)

5) Ski steeper terrain (Deer Valley)

6) Get in better "Ski Shape". Ski longer per run with quality turns beginning to end.

7) Finish in the top spot for Men's Nastar 56-59 Platinum year end computer standings (finished first 3 out of the last 4 race seasons with 2nd in 2008. Won National Championship in 2005, 3rd in 2007 and 2nd in 2008, missed '09 season and '10 National Championships due season ending injury - snowboarder collision).

8) Top Nastar Racer at Park City (was Number 1, last season)

9) Top Nastar Racer at Deer Valley (was Number 3, last season)

Last Season's Nastar Rankings
Rankings (2009 - 10 Season)
Rankings State / Resort / Team Age & Gender
Category Handicap
or Team
Score Rank Out of

Platinum National Male 55-59 3.43 1 105
Platinum State Utah Male 55-59 2.13 1 1
Platinum Resort Park City Mountain Resort Male 55-59 0.59 1 7
Platinum Resort Deer Valley Male 55-59 2.13 1 3
Overall National Male 3.43 53 7997
Overall State Male Utah Male 55-59 2.13 4 687
Overall Resort Park City Mountain Resort Male 0.59 1 2856
Overall Resort Deer Valley Male 2.13 3 2502
Team Points 9.96 45 83401
Family/Friends Team Modern Skiing Forums Team 9.722 5 4131
Resort Team Deer Valley 9.435 36 149
Club Team Modern Ski Racing Team 9.587 5 1954
Days Raced (37) 44 91393
Number of Results (147) 104 95112

That's it for now...

Hasta!

[patmoore]

All the best to you this season Gary. It would be nice for both of us to complete a year injury free. Hope to see you at Winter Park.

[Gary Dranow]

All the best to you this season Gary. It would be nice for both of us to complete a year injury free. Hope to see you at Winter Park.

Thanks Pat and +1 on that thought

[Gary Dranow]

Just a head's up that we'll have our annual boot reviews up around September 15
in our Bio-Mechanics, Alignment, Boot Fitting and Boot Reviews forum.

I'll post up an announcement when they are up. The only caveat is you have to be
a member to see them...

That's it for now...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

The wait is unbearable...

If I had my way I'd be racing Solo (Auto) everyday so the two weeks
in between races has really be dragging along. At least we've been
keeping the dog heads in shape with hikes most everyday for the last
two weeks - a good thing.

It clear now I'll be going into this ski (NASTAR race) season with only
hiking and some cycling for fitness more than for conditioning, obviously.

I'm not worried about it because the demands of spring racing just isn't
that overwhelming and strength training, as we'd need to do for Masters
is not mandatory for an enjoyable season. We'll have the whole month
of December to ski ourselves into shape and that'll be fine for me. As
we'll be spending plenty of time at Deer Valley the consistently steep runs
will definitely burn in our muscle groups. I'll be ready to push out of the
start by early January when the NASTAR venues open up for the season.

With all the hiking (and yes, I use Schetchers Shape-ups and am a firm
believer in their benefits) I feel confident that I'll have enough muscle
tone to protect myself from injury from basic skiing rigors. What I can't
control (apparently) is injury from either dramatic falls or contact with
the errant out of control skier or rider. Yes, I ski with my head on a
swivel and never start a run with someone coming on from uphill but
it seems I'm a bit of a magnetic being hit from behind in three of the
last four seasons with two of them resulting in a pretty bad injury. Its
true that one of my worst injuries, costing me all of 2009 was of my
own doing when I hit a grooming seam in poor visibility at the apex
of a pretty radical slalom turn. That one left my left ankle hanging
by two of many ligaments and resulted in surgery, again, wiping out
my entire 2009 season. We won't do that again

This Monday I am the Chairperson of the Labor Day event which means
I need to get there at O'dark Thirty to get the course and venue all
setup for the race.

I love course setting! Its much more entailed than setting a ski race
course and takes quite a bit of experience to become what I'd consider
an excellent designer. I've been doing it about a year and this will be my
tenth set. Unlike most of our other course designers I have site maps
for all my venues and work out a design on paper, which I follow to a
large extent for each race. Here is this race's design at the Maverick
Center this coming Monday (I may have posted this before, can't remember
and not looking back)...



I've given this design lots of thought and will be making quite a few changes
on the fly with the map serving as a general guideline and theme.

We'll have both cars out this weekend. Dr. Liz and I will be in the Gt3 with
Charlie and Linda driving the DP, which has just been re-assembled needing
a new rear differential (A Torsen Limited Slip Differential, an amazing piece
of engineering)



We broke one of the "Worm Gears" inside the housing and that was all she
wrote for that rear end. I've learned more about differentials than I've ever
wanted to but still think the geometry involved is miraculous that someone
sat down and figured this thing out.

Well its back together and I'm happy having only two drivers in the Porsche
this race and probably for the rest of the season.

So to say I'm excited to get out and run the event and even more excited
to race is an understatement. Time is dragging along quite slowly with work
not making a dent in my anticipation

I did sit down and write down some goals for this event and here they are
(for posterity sake);

I have a short list

1) Drive the RIGHT line

2) SET UP

3) Use my brakes as a tactical advantage

4) No Coasting, either on it, partial lift or braking (as late as possible)

5) PaX over 97

Other than racing

1) Set a GREAT course, not just good. Leave multiple lines.

2) Have Fun

I posted this up on our region's forum and was curious is some of the other
drivers would follow suit. I was surprised at the lack of response. Oh well,
at least I've got my game plan in writing which gives me a better chance of
hitting my marks for the event.

The other thing that's got me excited is I've found my passion for playing
guitar recently (went through a six month fallow period) and worked out
Hendrix's Spanish Castle Magic... Love the tune and as usual found Jimi's
approach and technique most interesting (I've got the main lick correct,
most people misinterpret it). Love that C#7add9 (guitar is tuned down
a 1/2 step or Eflat) The lead, as usual has taken me some time to
get the notes, bends and fingering just right but now I'm ready to add it
to my set. Hopefully I'll start playing with other players here in the near
future.

That's it for Today...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

The race went off huge...

Will have to see the final results to see if I hit my PaX goals (a 97 or higher)
but I finished 8th our of 104, 2nd in Super Stock and pretty much beat the
majority of the Prepared/Modified cars in my bone stock Gt3. Fabulous car.

I definitely hit it out of the ball park with the course design. By popular opiion
one of the best courses in years. If I say so myself... no wait, this what others
said, yeah

Overall I ran an extremely good event and I'm pleased.

Will check out the goals tomorrow...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

Some good feedback...

I'll have a lot more feedback over the next couple of days but we're
already getting good feedback after a long event, means people
really enjoyed themselves, here's some of the quotes...

Great event. I will have to say most fun I've ever had at an event.

Thanks for the work you guys do to set these up, I had a great time.

It's been 6-7 years since I was last out and it was a good refresher on how fun it is.

awesome day guys! i've never pax'd this high before.. maybe the 35 new drivers had something to do with it?? or maybe it was my new tires?? either way i had a blast!

great course, great people, great cars, great driving, GREAT LABOR DAY!

Kudos for the course design. So easy to follow fast. Had a blast today.

Thank you all for the great show! I had a blast. I am definitely hooked.

Had an awesome time today. Thanks to everyone who put on a great event! This course was one of my favorites, too bad I couldn't seem to get a clean run with a decent time... Had a ton of fun though!

Definitely a good course!

This was a great event. Thanks to all!

The competition is SSM was terrific. It was great to see a bunch of us all with a shot at top time!

Today was a blast. Kraig... thanks for the worthy competition!

That was an amazing event. I had a great time and again wanted to thank the instructors. I started around 79 first lap and finished just over 71 for my first event, they had great advice. The course was really fun and I want to run that one again!!!!!

Most satisfying after a long hard day and I do it all over again October 3rd back at
the same venue.

That's it for tonight...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

Well the results are in and here's how I did on my goals
for the event

I did sit down and write down some goals for this event and here they are
(for posterity sake);

I have a short list

1) Drive the RIGHT line

I'd give myself a B+ on this. I was going in a little deep and pushing a bit but
overall I was on the right line

2) SET UP

And A on this, I hit zero cones in 7 runs, you can only do this if you are setting
up for each element/section

3) Use my brakes as a tactical advantage

A B here. My brake points were excellent, I could of just stayed on the brakes
a millimeter longer (Patience) to eliminate all pushing throughout the course.

4) No Coasting, either on it, partial lift or braking (as late as possible)

Another A. I was either on the gas or the breaks. Where I couldn't get on the
gas I was feathering it in. No coasting pretty much the whole day.

5) PaX over 97

Failed! I had a 96.64 - DAMMIT Still my third best showing of the season.
Edit: It was my second best showing, that makes me feel better so a D-

Other than racing

1) Set a GREAT course, not just good. Leave multiple lines.

An absolute A+. This was the best course with multiple line choices in every
section. I'll pat myself on the back on this one.

2) Have Fun

Even though I had to WORK MY ASS OFF, I had a great day and punching into the
57s on my last run (by 15/1000ths) made my day. I had the 8th fastest time of the
day in a Super Stock car, it was a very fun day and event for me.

That's it...

Hasta!

[Gary Dranow]

A photo essay of yesterday's event

The 7:30am morning course walk (same as course inspection in ski racing). We had 104 racers,
pretty big event for us.



Running the Drivers Meeting







Our control center, the URSCCA Trailer



Some of the cars on course







And so on... That's it for today

Hasta!