Tuesday February 9th, 2010

2010 Driver Selection is now in the books! Yesterday we were out at the beautiful facilities of Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, NV to get in the racecars for the final day of driver selection. What a place, the facility is a country club style, with rows of garages for people to keep their cars and a beautiful club house (tile floors, pool table, etc). Unfortunately, when we arrived the weather did not match the facilities. I got a ride out with AJ Nealey and we passed through snow over a pass just before the track, it was definitely ugly. First up was the track walk and just as we arrived at Turn 1 the hail came, ugh. We headed back to the tent for Jan Heylen (chief driving instructor) to give us a “verbal” track walk instead.

Luckily, next up was breakfast, which gave some time for the weather to ease up ever so slightly. The first scheduled session of the day was for the returning drivers, and we were faced with ALOT of standing water, very very tricky conditions. Despite just doing some slow laps behind a pace car to get a feel for the track, the cars were dancing all over the place, and I definitely had a few “oh sh*t!” moments as the car got loose. Luckily this was the turning point of the day, as while we were on track, the weather started to break, and we never saw any more rain. It took a few hours for the water to disappear, but by the time we were out on the track for our second session, the Pirelli slicks had been slapped on the car for some dry running.

It took a few laps to get up to speed, but once I got going, man was I having fun. It had been way to long since I had driven anything in anger, and it was awesome to be back behind the wheel throwing the car around. The loop that we were running at Spring Mountain was a lot of fun, with some great corners, and if it had more of a straightaway it would have been a great place to have a race. The session ended up, and I managed to run a time of 1min 22.1, which was fastest of the session save for our instructor Mr. Heylen (who somehow threw down a disgusting 1min20.8, despite the track being damp, Im calling foul play! lol).

After the second session it was back to the clubhouse, for lunch and more importantly the cuts to announce the 25 drivers competing in this year’s TDI Cup. Unlike 12 months before, it was pretty relaxing for us returning drivers knowing we were probably through, but its still good to hear your name called. We look to have a very deep field this year which includes 9 returning drivers: AJ Nealey, Andrew Cordeiro, Taylor Broekemeier, JD Mobley, Ryan Ellis, Andrew Novich, Juan Pablo Sierra Lendle, Juan Pablo Delgado, and myself. Also, there is some great new talent including some National champion karters in Michael Hogg, Arie Ouimet, Jarvis Gennari and Chris Wehrheim, as well as Wyatt Gooden, who won his seat in the series through iRacing, and showed great speed all weekend. Obviously, I know to look out for the names I recognize from the karting world, but I know some other guys that I haven’t got to know as well yet are going to be fighting for wins.

After lunch, the final 25 drivers got 2 full practice sessions to let everyone get familiar with the cars. The track was now fully dry and I was able to really get after it, dropping 1.2 seconds to put in a lap of 1m20.9, fastest of the series drivers and just a hair slower than the benchmark that Jan had sent. In the final session, I was able to shave a little bit more time and get down to a 1m20.6, but full credit to JD Mobley, who found a little bit more and ended up with a 20.5, the fastest time of the day. There was a whole group of drivers just behind JD & I, who ran 20.9s including Nealey, Gennari, and Cordeiro, so that shows just how close its going to be all season.

All that was left after that was the drive back to Las Vegas. By now the snow was really coming down in the mountains, but AJ got us back. I have to say, that for whatever reason, I found it to be a very taxing week. As I write this I feel mentally run down and exhausted, I suppose that comes from trying to be at the top of my game all week. The first race is at VIR in a couple months and I will be working hard to get ready for the season until then.

Here are a few pictures we close the books on another edition of TDI Cup Driver selection….

Take Care

Jake Thompson

Monday February 8th, 2010

Just got back to my room after Day 2 of the Selection event, which was another good day here in Vegas. Bright and early at 6AM I regrouped with team Purple (temporarily nicknamed team Grimace) for another day of evaluation. Once again we were woken up by an early morning workout with Athlete’s performance. While yesterday focused on testing our physical fitness, today they ran us through some nutrition training and took us through a full workout tailored for racers. After the workout it was helmet on for our second crack at the autocross course with the 2010 Golf TDI’s. I will say right now, autocross is not my forte. For those of you that don’t know, autocross involves taking a car through a course defined by cones, usually in a parking lot. Unfortunately, no matter how many times our instructors told me to pretend the cones were a cement wall, there still cones and I couldn’t help clipping quite a few in my never ending pursuit of going faster. Ultimately I was pretty disappointed in myself, as I have worked very hard to prepare for this season, and it was silly of me not to leave a bigger margin for error.

Next up was karting, and although i have a lot of karting background, once again there were cones to hit, and I couldn’t resist crossing the limit a few times. Again, pretty disappointed with my performance. The karts were CRG Rotax engines, and the people from SSC East did a great job getting them ready to go, and I had a lot of fun on the track.

After a quick lunch, we had a sponsorship seminar with IndyCar driver Townsend Bell. I have sat through a number of these type of seminars from fellow drivers, but this one was hands down the best. Townsend has a great story, great advice, and is a great speaker, so I learned a lot as well as throroughly enjoyed his presentation.

Then Cuts. Last year I can’t even tell you how nervous I was, and I could relate to all the terrified faces in the room. As a returning driver it was nice to be able to relax a bit. I know how hard these decisions are for the coaches, and I really feel for the people who didn’t make it through to tomorrow. On a positive note, all 6 drivers in team purple made it through to tomorrow when they will cut it down from 30 to the final 25.

Tomorrow I finally get to knock the dust off after the long winter and get back in a race car, so I’m totally pumped up. We are headed out to Spring Mountain Motorsports Park, to log some hot laps in the TDI Cup car before final cuts. It should be fun. Im excited to be back with Volkswagen and this outstanding program for 2010, and I know I can better last year’s performance and win that championship. One more day tomorrow, so look for another blog…

Sunday February 7th, 2009

Today official festivities kicked off at driver selection, bright and early at 6AM, as 40+ finalists arrived to compete for the 25 spots in the 2010 VW TDI Cup. I was assigned to the purple group, which included JD Mobley from last year, and Michael Hogg from Vancouver who I know well from karting. Team purple was put through the ringer early as our first stop was Fitness Testing with the good people from Athletes Performance. They ran us through a push-up test (props to JD who CRUSHED out 70 reps), an excruciating wall sit, and finally a VO2 Max Test.

Still reeling from the early morning workout we headed outside to hit up the autocross track. This year they have a fleet of 2010 VW Golf TDI’s, which with their short wheel base are ideal for the tight autocross course. If you got after it you could really make the golf rotate, even getting it up on 3 wheels, and I had a blast, although I hit a few too many cones. After all that early morning excitement, the rest of the day was spent in the classroom where we were put through a series of written tests and sponsorship training.

Tomorrow it’s another 6AM start with karting and more autocross on the docket. First cuts come tomorrow so Im sure there will be a lot of nervous faces from the new drivers. They let us off a little early today, so im just relaxing in my room watching some Superbowl, although a little more craps might be on the cards.

I forgot to get the camera out during the day,  but I took a couple shots of the hospitality setup they have here at the Southpoint.

More to come tomorrow…

Saturday February 6th, 2009

I`m here in Vegas at the 2010 VW TDI Cup Driver Selection, and although the weather is right miserable, its not enough to take away from the excitement of the weekend. The event is hosted at the South Point Casino Resort and i spent the morning wandering around looking for familiar faces. It was great to see all of our mechanics again who deserve all the credit in the world for the hard work they put in to make this thing happen. I also ran into a few buddies from last year, and was able to spot some nervous faces of guys who are here for the first time. I can relate, I remember feeling exactly that way last year.

Right now I’m thoroughly enjoying the view from my room on the 11th floor of our driving instructors (Jan, Andy, Ryan & Mark) sloshing around in the rain setting up the autocross course for tomorrow. I know they’re going to be hard on us once the competition starts so I can take a certain amount of pleasure in the fact that right now I’m dry and they’re not.

Right now I’m thinking that I’ve swallowed enough casino smoke for one day, so Im gonna grab some dinner and try to get to bed early tonight. Driver selection starts in earnest tomorrow morning at 6AM sharp, so it’ll be an early one.

PS. Gambling is a bad habit that I don’t condone, so I can tell you that I didn’t play craps with AJ Nealey this afternoon, and we both didn’t win a couple hundred bucks

Cheers,

- Jake Thompson