Hi folks,
It's been about two weeks since I left for Memphis, TN for the 12th annual National Fbody Motorsports Event. It was May 15th through the 17th. NFME rented the facility for three whole days. Literally "all you can eat buffet" or racing, with autocross, road course, and drag race.

Man, what a time it was.
I drove 760 miles to Memphis along with some others that we met up with in Louisville, KY. We then caravanned to the hotel. I guess what makes the event special is not only is everyone there to get track time, but to hang together, have parking lot parties, and fix each other's cars. It's kind of neat to meet internet friends that you know for almost fourteen years, but you only meet face-to-face a few times.

Thursday was a wet day, and the drag strip was washed out. Instead, we had the whole day for using the road course. Driving in the rain, splashing puddles of the track, it was pretty cool. A few of the sessions had the track mostly dry and we were able to get into it with about 85% power.



That night, we all got our dirty cars back into the parking lot with no breakages, then headed off to the Pig & Whistle where we all had ourselves some famous Memphis ribs.



Then on Friday, we set up the autocross course, plus did some drag racing. The track was hooking great, but I was so busy autocrossing, teaching the course to new autocrossers and doing ridealongs, that I never made it out to the strip that day.




The road course was so fast that on the fourth (or fifth?) session, I finally pushed it too far with some 140 MPH blasts on the straightaway followed by huge braking in order to keep the street tires on the asphalt... I ended up greasing the tires and boiling the brakes at the very same time--- Then jumped the red&white curb and scraped a header collector. That ended the road course action for me, as I wasn't able to get the fluid changed before the track switched back to drag racing.

Here's one of the last laps of that session, where I eventually overtook the white LS1 (and passed him):


Of course, he found time to hit the drag strip that afternoon, something I didnt manage to do:


That's okay, it was fun to watch as I was pretty whipped after standing outside all day doing autocross and road course. That night we all got together at the hotel and had us a parking lot thrash fest, replacing an axle on the prototype Comp TA of Dean Fait. The Deano show turned into a party that had several of us nursing hangovers the next day....



Saturday got us back onto the autocross course. We were short on help this year so I pinch-hit in the autocross for the day. It meant no drag racing, but I figured that since I had a 760 mile drive home, I might as well keep the slicks and nitrous saved for a track day closer to home. ...It paid off well I think though, as this was the first time in nearly eighteen years that I put in a drive like that in the Trans Am... I got 23 MPG, which is a record that even beats my old 305.

I think Richard's face shows the general attitude that we all had at the event: Pure joy at being together and racing with each other. I have to say that the NFME event has got to be, hands down, the most fun event I've ever attended. I can't wait for next year!

 

Looks like a great time!

 

Awesome! One of these years I'm going down there with you.

 

Let's make it next year, Jake. You, me, Chris, Jason, Scott Settlemire, plus the GM development team and a whole bunch of 2010 preproduction Camaros. It would be great! You know, I bet I could still beat them around the race track and even clean a few fifth-gen clocks on the autocross course!