Well a lot has changed, to say the least, since my last update.  I’m now “on loan” to ABC Supply Racing (AJ Foyt Racing) from Vision for the remainder of the season.  Following the Texas race this move was put into motion and I’ve been pretty busy with the Foyt guys covering all the bases.  It’s tough having to jump into a new environment with no testing right into a race weekend, but we were well on our way.

After Texas I again went down to Florida to spend some more quality time with Mom again.  She’s such a fighter, right when we think we have things figured out and the chemo therapy is working, bam the cancer adapts and the doctors have to switch methods once again.  This time with different side effects, what a nasty process.  She’s charging on and I’m right there with her.

I left Ft. Lauderdale Wednesday evening for Detroit where I had some business to tend to, and then off to Iowa early Friday morning.  I met some of the team at the track just before noon and we started on the driver-car fit process, which I have become very good at.  The seat I am currently using was made in HVM’s shop just a couple weeks before the season opener just prior to testing at Sebring.  I then took it to Vision and now onto Foyt.  Three seat driver/car fits, three months, three teams, one seat. 

I had met AJ briefly in the past and at several tracks over the past couple years we crossed paths and shook hands, but I was really looking forward to sitting down and really getting to know him and work with him.  Unfortunately he didn’t show up to the track Friday, so I sat down with him early Saturday morning before practice.  He’s like no one else I know.  First, the guy is a legend; he’s seen it all, been there, done it and won it.  I was immediately surprised by how involved he is with the engineering/set-up of the car and I really appreciate and respect that.  He’s been in racing for 52 years and he still won’t miss a race or even a practice session, he has to be there to be certain everyone on the team is firing on all cylinders and to make sure those 52 years of knowledge and experience don’t go to waste when it comes to applying it to his IndyCar team.  The guy knows what he wants from his driver and team. 

If you’ve ever seen AJ you’ll know he has scars all over the place!  I couldn’t help but ask him what each scar was from; each one has a crazy story to go with it.  I can’t believe he still has four limbs!  After the stories I’ve heard, I can’t believe he’s alive!  In my opinion racing back then you had to be certifiably insane.  I feel over-protected and safe when I relate the era of racing I have experienced to his.

I was really looking forward to getting back to Iowa.  We practiced and raced solidly inside the top ten last year, so I know what I wanted out of the race car. Our race weekend started off pretty good.  We went right to work on the car’s balance and we were finding speed with just about every change we threw at it.  Some changes would come from Foyt’s engineer, Adam Schaechter, and others straight from AJ, but most importantly we were moving up the time sheets.

By the time second practice came to an end we were P13.  That may not sound great, but to me, less than 2 hours into working with a different team this was great!  It was the highest spot in any session I have been all year on an oval, so I was really looking to make something happen in qualifying, We had a goal of P11-14 and I think that was definitely attainable.  So here I am with the best shot at qualifying I’ve had on an oval all season, the weather is fine and what happens?  Qualifying is cancelled.  I mean c’mon.  Qualifying was cancelled due to “weepers” in turn three.  It hadn’t rained since Friday afternoon, yet somehow 24 hours later that rainfall has cancelled our qualifying after a full day’s track activities? 

At first I had a moment of relief as I realized the grid would be determined by points, several minutes later I found out it was ‘entrant’ points, not ‘driver’ points.  Had we grid on driver points I would have started 10th, but we’d now be starting 17th due to all the horrible luck this team has faced over the past couple months. 

Going into the race we didn’t change much to the car, we knew what we had and it was working just fine so let’s go racing.  I took the green and held my position until we came down to turn three and four.  Doornbos seemed to be tip-toeing into turn three so I went low and pulled up alongside him as Viso and Conway went around his outside.  As I was pulling alongside I could see he was losing the rear of the car and I just kept my foot on it on the bottom line just hoping if he spun his momentum would carry him high.  Well that didn’t happen.  He spun and just came down right into us and clobbered the right front, our suspension was wrinkled up.  We're done.  We didn’t even get to complete one lap!  Wrong place wrong time, nothing we could do. We really needed to get this race under our belts to take the momentum and experience with us to Richmond.  Seems like the string of bad luck has continued for AJ Foyt Racing, but it has to come to an end soon. 

I’m encouraged by the two sessions we had in Iowa and I really enjoyed myself this weekend, it was fun.   You know things are on the right track when you’re enjoying yourself.  Back to more short-track racing next week under the lights at the soup bowl in Richmond.  Get well soon Vitor!  Until next time……