Friday a trip to Canfield. Easy, but always the 5pm traffic leavingColumbus is difficult. Met Simi as she was closing the Subway storesand went to Quaker Steak n Lube for some wings. Saturday I was up at7am to play some tennis. I need practice but I had fun trying forsure! A few errands, and such, followed by a quick afternoon nap, thendinner at a nice pizza place called Inner Circle. From there we wentand saw "The Hangover". A hilarious movie, but not for kids.

Sunday, we were up at 6am, and out the door by 6:30. A rainy driveacross the turnpike landed us near Cleveland for an autocross. TheOhio Challenge, as the folks from Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, andPittsburgh were in attendance. Sadly, only 4 people from Columbus madethe trip. Half being Simi and I. We were out of it for the OhioChallenge, but still in for fun! We worked the 1st heat in dryingconditions. Second heat we made a trip for lunch. Third heat was ourtime to run. Simi buckled in, and we decided to let her do her 6 runsin a row. The quick turnaround between those driving two driver carswas pretty hectic, so we just did 6 and 6. Her runs improved, as Itweaked the car, adjusting shock settings and tire pressures. She hada good time, and I think did pretty well against the 13 total peoplein our class.

My 6 runs were to follow. The course was VERY fast, flowing down ahill at highway speeds around a kink, where it was threading a needle.Followed by a series of 180 degree turns, a blast back the other way,touching highway speeds again, then a flowing series of corners to thefinish. My times were in the hunt. On my 4th run, the car was justperfect. I hadn't had a run like that in a LONG time, were even Iwould get my fingers tingling, and just had a huge smile. It felt great.

On my fifth run, I told Simi I was going to just push it harder thanpossible and see if it works. "I'm likely to hit a lot of cones", Isaid. She replied, with "This isn't the coney challenge." - in areally comical pun of the Koni Challenge, a racing series that travelsAmerica. The object is to NOT hit the cones that line and guide thecourse. My 5th run, the tires were too hot, and on the 6th run I wasable to close in on my own best time, but I wasn't able to go muchfaster.
I changed my tires, chugged some water, and we packed to head home. Weawaited the awards ceremony. I ended up winning my class by somethinglike 0.088 seconds. Less than a 1/10th of a second! It was close! Myprize was a KONI CHALLENGE banner! Haha! Simi and I both had a greatlaugh at that.

Then they read off the top 25 index times. The index being how fastyou are, versus how fast you should be. A slow driver in a fast carwon't do well here. A fast driver in a fast car will climb the charts.The top five, top 4... then 3rd place... then 2nd place, and I won!Yeah! I won the whole damn thing.

My prize? A three night, four day trip to Orlando Florida! $50 creditto Universal Studios, and a $500 coupon book for area attractions! Weonly have to pay for our flight. Holy cow! The look on Simi's face wasso awesome. I was in shock! Many of my friends we happy for me, andgave me a nice hand shake or pat on the back. Such a nice group andreally make some great friends after doing this for so long. Our tripisn't likely until January or February as it'd be a nice break fromchilly Ohio cold. We drove home, and arrived by 6pm, in which we had anice dinner, and were both fast asleep by 9pm.