If we had any sense we would find a less expensive and less time consuming hobby…
like heroin addiction.

It was all but inevitable that I would find myself racing in some form or another. My father, Pasquale, is a master motorcycle mechanic and successful roadracer. Growing up in a house where you are playing with valves and valve springs under the kitchen table instead of blocks, you’re guaranteed to want to get your hands dirty later in life. And being that my first word was “car”, Dad probably already knew that I was destined for four-wheels instead of two.

Like many kids from my generation, I discovered tuning before racing. My first “project” was a 3rd-gen Jetta that I made handle like it was on rails (not easy for a front drive pig like a Jetta). Switching to BMWs gave me a better platform to work with, and also introduced me to autocross. I did that for only a handful of years before being introduced to something much more addictive.

After relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2000, I started attending driving schools. Boy was that a slippery slope. Driving schools lead to time trials (competing in the Open Track Challenge in 2002 and 2003) and ultimately to a gutted 1995 M3 sitting in my garage awaiting a cage. I went on to contest three seasons of the BMWCCA Club Racing and NASA Endurance racing championships.

Like I said, a heroin addiction would have been more convenient.

Road racing is nice, but rallying makes on-track events feel like some kind of warm-up. I was lucky enough to co-drive for Bill Arnold at the 2003 Targa Newfoundland Rally. After 5 days of grueling competition, being pursued by a number of faster cars throughout the entire event, numerous near-misses with stationary objects, and an ailing car that weren’t sure would cross the finish line, we managed to win the whole shoot and match by a margin of 8 seconds. That’s eight SECONDS. After 5 days. Forget heroin, this is is MUCH better.

I co-drove the Targa in BMWs for 3 years before finally deciding that it was time to go back as a driver. So, my stout and moderately successful BMW M3 went to a new home, and a 2006 Mitsubishi Evo IX ended up in my driveway in it’s place. The target? A tough race car that can soak up a week long rally, 350+ wheel horsepower to run up front with the big boys, and hopefully a drive that, if not able to deliver an overall win, at least deliver a couple of good stage-winning ass-whuppins to the factory Subaru team.

Our first foray in 2007 was fun, and we showed serious promise, but a failed clutch half way through Leg 4 knocked us out of contention. We plan to return in 2008 with more power, lighter weight, better braking, and — most importantly — more experience in the car.

Watch your mirrors. Slower traffic keep right.