For best results view in 1024X768

 --Shawn Rizzo, Team Leader

 (From left to right:) Natasha, Abigail, Liana, Kimiko, Amanda

 (Not Pictured Samantha & Sasha)

Updates

   In other news next weekend Shawn, Alicia, Jeremy and I will be four of 50 drivers representing Texas Motorplex in the regional bracket series finals.  Though qualifying for the opportunity to be part of the team Lura had a prior commitment for that weekend and thus will not be able to participate.

   Now to recap the events from the last weekend.  On Saturday, 7-20, we all showed up at the track with slightly cloudy skies and ready to race and hopefully win a Wally.  For those who don't know what a Wally is, it is a special award they give out to the winner of a selected race one per year to honor National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) founder Wally Parks.  On the first time trial Shawn took Amber up to do her burnout and a loud crash later he was pulling off to the side of the lanes.  The sound was his transmission going out.  A quick phone call and Bruce was on his way bringing Jessie's WRX, Hecate, to the track.  With the car never having been on the track before and with only one time trial to see what she could do Shawn took to the lanes but not until after we waited a couple of hours for the rain to pass.  That's right it rained on the day of the race that had been rescheduled due to rain a couple months ago.  Once it was time to race Shawn took to the track like he had been driving the car for years and took it all the way to the finals against Will.  After a close race Will went home with his first 1st place win and the Wally and Shawn got his third 2nd place win for the season.  That day Jeremy was on a roll of his own.  Despite the high humidity every time he tool to the line Jeremy set his fastest time ever in Jacen.  Droping his best time nearly thee tenths of a second to a 14.128 for the little SUV.  Still without his car Shawn retuned to the track on Sunday with Hecate and managed to repeat his performance taking 2nd once again.

   When all was said and done everyone was very happy with how they did for the season despite various things such as cars breaking and new cars being bought.  Shawn was the big winner on the team taking home 4 trophies for the season.  Right behind him was Alicia and Will with two a piece.  Jeremy and Lura also both took one home.

   Now that the drag racing season is over there is still a bit of autocross left and after the fun people had last time there are sure to be a good number of people out there for the rest of the season including this weekend.

     Last Sunday most of the team went out to Texas Motor Speedway and while Shawn and Alicia had given the sport a try in the past they were able to convince elim, Kyle, Robert and myself to give it a try too.  I cannot begin to tell you how much fun it was.  Shawn and Alicia both took their cars out while Robert and elim borrowed Bruce's 300ZX, Anastasia, leaving Bruce to drive Jessie's WRX which they let Kyle drive too since his Supra is still being worked on and finally there was me in my Altima, Abigail.  A couple of spinouts and a bunch of cones later the event was over and Shawn left with his first autocross trophy.

    The next day Alicia, racing in her new '07 STI (more on that to come at a later date), made it to the semi finals but unfortunately got knocked out that round.  Not only was this her first weekend at the track in her new car it was also her first time driving an all wheel drive car at the strip thus just further proving her skills by making it to the semi finals.  She has already started to crush what little hope people had in moving up in the points on her as she tried to learn her new car.  Shawn again found himself in the semi finals too only this time he was against Lura  After a close race, only a thousands of second separating the two, Shawn moved on to the finals.  In the finals Shawn took home the runner up spot.

    Though still waiting for the official points to be posted according to our calculations Team Squid still holds 5 of the top six points in our bracket.  For those checking the standings Alicia's points are not shown from the Sunday June 10th at that point she was leading the class in points.  We have notified TMS and hopefully will see the corrected points later this week when the weekend's results are posted.

     In addition to racing news I also owe a happy belated birthday to Jessie.

   Summary of this past weekends events:

     Saturday - June 9

      For only the second time since the team started racing we had two members in the finals.  For those following the team for a long time you may remember when Bruce and I found ourselves in this situation last year.  This time it was Lura and Shawn who found their way there.  In the round prior to the finals Shawn knocked me out and Lura knocked out Alicia.  Though this was not the first time we had two Squids in the finals it was the first time the last four cars in the competition were all Team Squid members.  In the end Lura took home the first place trophy and Shawn took home the second.

     Sunday - June 10

      Shawn made a good push to go to the finals again but he had been having problems with his clutch slipping all weekend and on his final run it would not hookup as he tried to shift into third gear resulting in losing his race and so he came in 3rd place for the day.

     Everyone did a great job this weekend and stay tuned to the Texas Motorplex's website, and here, for when they post the standings.  The rankings have shifted around a little bit but if I have done my calculations correctly we should still have four of the top 5 spots.

   Schedule Info:

     In talking with Shawn this weekend I found out that there has been some changes in the autocross schedule.  When I built the calendar I was working off the original schedule posted prior to the season starting.  The reason I mention this is that there is no race on the 24th as I have originally said.  I believe it was this past Sunday but since the SCCA removes past events and so I am not able to verify this.  Regardless we did not have anyone participating at it however unless something happens there should not be any more scheduling conflicts thus allowing some of us to make it to all of the remaining events.  For those who want to try to come out and watch us compete there are four drag racing events left (two weekends in July) and five autocross events (not including the divisionals and there is one a month until November) still to happen this year.

   Other:

     Thank you to all of those who have provided feedback on the site.  At the past two events we have attended (an autocross and this past weekends drag racing series) we have been taking pictures and some video.  Over the next couple of weeks I will be sorting through the pictures as well as watching the video to make additional photos and I will also try to post some video.  Actually getting the video loaded might take a little bit of time since I am going to have to do cleanup before I will have adequate hard drive space for video editing.  Also, I have moved all of last year's update notices to the update archive section.

The past couple of updates have been about changes in the racing schedule so I am pleased to say that I have some different news to report about.  Subaru of Dallas has started up a contingency program at this year’s North Texas SCCA races, see the details here.  Along with this they have decided to sponsor Shawn in his inaugural year of competing in the event.

Though since I mentioned the racing schedule just let me remind you that we will be at Texas Motorplex this weekend for the bracket series.

I was just going through my e-mail and today I received the following message from the folks at Texas Motorplex.:

We apologize for the inconvenience; we are making some Scheduling Changes for June-July.

We are rescheduling the “Fast Friday / O’Reilly Bracket Series #5 & #6” that was rained out on May 25 -27 to the new dates of July 20-22, 2007.   We had originally rescheduled this event on June 30 & July 1, but found that this would be a conflict for our racers with another event in the area.   We will have the Fast Friday including the High School Racing Series on July 20, The National Dragster Challenge will be held on July 21 and Ladies Day Featuring the Divas and Quick 16 No Electronics Classes will be on July 22. 

   Backflash:

      4/28 - Texas MotorPlex, O'reilly Bracket Series race 3 Alicia took second place

      4/29 - Texas MotorPlex, O'reilly Bracket Series race 4 Alica took second place

      5/06 - Texas Motor Speedway, Autocross

              - Shawn moved up 2 places in the standings, added some new tires that dropped his average time by 3 secs

             - Alicia tried autocross for the first time

   Current:

     Weather permitting, we will be out Ennis this Saturday and Sunday for the next two races of the O'reilly Bracket Series.  Because of an overlap in racing schedules nobody will be out at the autocross event this weekend.

    Team Squid is doing awesome this year out at the track.  I would like everyone to help me congratulate Alicia in her 1st place standing in the bracket series.  Bringing up the pack behind her is Jeremy and Will.  Not far behind them is Shawn, Lura and Elim.  Total Team Squid makes up 6 of the top 10 spots.

   Oh and due some unfortunate events we had to put almost all of our projects on hold, even those which were in a torn apart state so for those hoping to see some of the cars that have been down for a while you are going to have to wait a bit longer.

   In other news last weekend Shawn started the autocross season.  Having not competed in the sport for many years he decided to run in the novice class.  It turns out if he would have run in the street modified class he would have taken first.  Though Shawn is the only person planning on running the full season several of us are very interested in giving it a go so don't be surprised if you show up to watch and you see Will in his Altima or Alicia in her Civic.

   March is going to be a very full month for Team Squid.  In addition to the normal drag racing a couple of our members are going to try their hand at autocross.  It just so happens both of these events are taking place over the course of two weekends resulting in something going on almost every day of our weekends.  For now I just have March up and ready to see but I should have more done soon.

   Check out Amber's page and see all of the fun new toys that she has received since the end of last season.  Don't let the quarter mile and stats fool you those were last years numbers and after his first run down the track this girl should be our fastest car.  It should be a blast to watch what Shawn can do this season.

   1.  Jeremy's new Forster now has a name, which is Jacen.

   2.  Jessie bought a 2002 WRX

   3.  Dallas got ice, I know it is not team related but seeing how it made national news I figured it was note worthy

   4.  Amber, Shawn's WRX, has received a bunch of upgrades...list to follow as soon as I can get it

   5.  Kimiko, Elim's Z, has gone down for some engine upgrades.  Due to the weather we have not been able to make very much progress on her.  More on this project as it unfolds.

   Speaking of next week we have or first team meeting of the new year scheduled to take place.  At that time we are hoping to get the bulk of our calendar voted on so hopefully I will be able to load the new calendar full of events.