For many watching the races from the stands, it might seem like no matter how close you are to the race, it’d would take a million years to actually get in behind the wheel and do it yourself.
But that’s not the case for Race Day On Fox and SPEED Radio host Rob D’Amico, who is living that dream as he has experienced the “Making of a Race Driver in 30 Days” where he raced in the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge at New Jersey Motorsports Park in round 5 of the 2009 season.
With little background as a racer but a massive amount of passion for the sport, D’Amico’s experiences serve as a good example of someone accelerating their life to become a race driver.
Like many racers in the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge, D’Amico’s journey started with a visit to the Miller Performance Training Center in Tooele, Utah. The Performance Training Center also utilizes the Ford Mustang as the platform, which helped D’Amico get tuned up for his actual racing machine, the Ford Mustang FR500S that is the centerpiece of the Mustang Challenge.
But like many rookies, the experience didn’t get off to the start he was hoping for.
“My first day, I was several seconds off the pace, and was thinking ‘uh-oh, what did I get myself into here??” said D’Amico. “But they just kept working with me and the times kept coming down and even though it was nerve-racking at first, it was a great experience and they really knew how to coach me to perform. The Miller Performance Center guys are just phenomenal and the Miller facility is amazing--it was just a first-class experience for me.”
After emerging with some training, D’Amico got his first taste of competition with some regional race action at Miller Motorsports Park. And despite his newbie status, the radio rookie had several strong outings, enough so to score podium appearances in four different races. But even though D’Amico showed impressive speed and generated strong results in his first race outings, he still made a pretty big rookie mistake. “I showed up at the track the next day, and everyone was asking me, ‘Hey, where did you go yesterday after the race?’ It turns out I missed the podium ceremony—I had no idea!!”
After his experience at Miller he headed for Round 5 of the Mustang Challenge at New Jersey Motorsports Park where D’Amico will bring some confidence but he knows that he’s going up against some very tough competition.
“I am was optimistic about the weekend, having had the podiums out at Miller, but I knew it was going to hard to do that at New Jersey. It’s amazing that one second seems like such a short amount of time, but when you are chasing that one last second in your lap time, it feels like forever!!”
Once it got closer to Race Day things start to get better and worse for D'Amico. He found himself gaining speed after each session with his coach Jamie Slone and all the data that was available thru Capaldi Racing but as each hour flew by the weather was getting worse, rain was definitely in the forecast. This is where things started to get a little interesting as D'Amico needed a little help hand from driver Ted Anthony Jr. who told Rob a few secrets about how to keep his classes from fogging up during practice and qualifying.
D'Amico's efforts to master the Mustang Challenge cars were made difficult by serious rain. (MMC) » More Photos
Once
that was taken care of D'Amico was able and go out and qualify 14th for his first professional career start.
Literally 30 days after starting at Miller Motorsports Park Rob was ready to begin his first professional race but there was a problem - the rain was falling and he has never raced in the rain. Leo Capaldi from Capaldi Racing had to make a decision on how to set up the car for the rookie and which direction he thought the race would go. Capaldi told Rob that it would be rain tires and "to make sure you bring the car home in one piece". "No pressure" D'Amico said with a smile.
Well the good news is that D'Amico had a clean race and brought the #00 OfficialRacingArt.com/Sue Bee Honey Ford Mustang home in the same position he started. The bad news is that he was a little unhappy because he wasn't able to race in good conditions showing everyone the skills in learned from the Miller Performance Training Center.
Not only can you listen to Rob D'Amico and Co-Host Michele Rahal every Saturday and Sunday across the Country on over 250 Fox Affiliates, XM Radio Channel 142 and SPEED Radio at www.SPEEDtv.com but also look for Rob on a track near you as he has now been bitten by the racing bug.
