Now for the rest of the story....

Who knew that a couple decades of flying Hornets would land me in some of the hottest machines mankind has ever created. Shocker....yeahhh notsomuch.

My wife's best friend from high school married a Porsche tuner decades ago. He currently works at Black Forest Automotive in San Diego and also spends afternoons creating another magnificent hotrod. Mark has become sort of an expert at back-dating 80's 911's (G Body) to early 70's 'long hood' along with the power to go along with it courtesy of a 3.6 liter engine to be able to 'back-up the hat with a herd of cattle' (another way of saying his cars 'walk the walk'). I've been fortunate to live in the same city for the past 12 years so I've seen all the bad-ass creations (and get a taste of what they can do). I'm also lucky to get to photograph these machines and even do Mark's website for him. 

Hop on over to www.kinningerracing.com and see some of the most incredible machines with the attention to detail that would make Dr. Porsche proud in addition to being right at home on the grass at a Rennsport Reunion or on the track at Laguna Seca Raceway (won't ever get used to calling it Mazda or Weathertech....it'll always just be Laguna) running with the Porsche Owners Club or the Porsche Club of America.

It is safe to say that Mark goes through cars like we go through tubes of toothpaste. Once can never know what will be found in his driveway or garage on a monthly basis. Given his exposure to a great deal of potential 'donors' (read: customers who are tired of their machine and want to move on to something else), it's not hard for Mark to find something unique or in need of a bit of 'TLC' to get it to his standard of excellence.

Given Mark's said purchase opportunities, he'll often dangle that lure in front of my bass lips to see if I'm interested. Suffice it to say that my lip is scarred from the lures I've laid into. Mark's first and most game-changing opportunity for me was finding a 1980 911 Weissach edition already set up for big-track efforts. Roll bar, bigger anti-sway bars, front oil cooler along with a window net to keep hands and feet inside the ride at all times. I autocrossed it once and despised the 'cone fever' and never liked stopping between time trial efforts. I moved on to Streets of Willow time trialing for a weekend then hopped over to big Willow for my first test of intestinal fortitude: keeping the foot to the floor through turn 9 probably doing 110 mph in my 190 rwhp 3.0. 

I met some great folks that weekend who have become life-long friends as we raced against one another for the next 3 years. Buttonwillow became my home track so to speak given I was stationed 59.4 miles away at NAS Lemoore. All the buddies would ditch the track when it went cold on Saturday afternoon and we'd head up to my house where I built a detached guest house around a Tahoe blue pool. While the buddies were cooling their berries in the pool, I'd get the bbq going for some exquisite cuisine to be washed down with an appropriate beverage. Admittedly, we had some foggy Sunday mornings (hey, its the Central Valley of CA, there's always fog!).

My relationship network at the track hooked me up with car owner who put me behind the wheel to enjoy a truly race-prepped 3.8 liter mechanically injected flat six with all the bells and whistles (but no air jacks....or power steering....turn 2 on a full tank was brutal!). It also upped the ante for wide open throttle thru turn 8. We'd be doing over 140 mph there and feeling comfortable at that speed with over 1 lateral G really never happened...max concentration every time not unlike a night carrier landing. This proved vital when driving the 4 hour night race in order to deliver consistent lap times. Had it not been for a spin in turn 9 by my buddy, we'd have been on the podium vice in the crowd after finishing 4th.

The Porsche Owners Club (POC) was having challenges with drivers making contact with one another and if you do, you are placed on probation for 13 mos and if you have another incident, you're banned for 13 mos. 13.13's were getting handed out like candy and I began to see what was happening: (to steal a well worn out phrase but entirely appropriate) driver's egos were writing checks their body couldn't cash. So I offered to design a new clinic that every upcoming racer (a driver making the transition from time trialing to no-kidding side by side green flag rolling starts) would have to take for two weekends before being able to transition to the racer's group.

We had 12-16 drivers for every clinic that we offered 4 times/year at BW and WSIR. I would often times jump in the car and mix it up with the students to see how their blind spot awareness was (aka situational awareness) and if they demonstrated acceptable amounts of courtesy while dealing with off-line driving (i.e. pairing the group in 2's and making them drive side by side for a run session to see what it's like driving in the marbles). We practiced starts and debriefed it much like a TopGun post flight evolution: any safety violations? How was the administrative portion? How did we do on our mission objectives? It was interesting to see how different folks responded to the training, with Magnus Walker being in the first group of students (looked the same and was driving a yellow '68 911 if memory serves) to very wealthy folks with expensive cup cars. Most of which made it through the clinic and some of which were denied a racing license because they believed their wealth infused the skills of Schumacher when in reality they were a mixture of Ricky Bobby and a belligerent drunk. And boy, was there hell to pay from their 'arrive and drive' coordinators politicking on the driver's behalf, tellings us we just didn't understand him well enough yet. 

Truth be told, it was eliminating drivers like that which dropped our 13.13 rate. Guys with $$$ to spend on a wrecked car, leaving the budget conscious driver involved in the melee with a large bill. Most drivers could not afford a total write-off.

While I may not be the 'fastest' or 'most technically proficient' driver on the track, I have spent oodles (that a tech term just above boat-load) of time living in the 'red mist'. You know, when the fangs come out and you'll do whatever it takes to win. Couple this with 'situational awareness' (or lack thereof) and you have the beginnings of a disaster which may range from a bit of swapped paint on the least expensive end, or a totaled chassis because you got punted and ended up somewhere nobody walks away from. To reinforce the fact that 'accidents happen' and we're not professional racers, we're car owners and CFO of the race team with limited resources, I created a short video to kick off the class

Using these two dynamics of 'passion' and 'tunnel vision', I was able to reduce the mishap rate 75% over 2 years. And it really wasn't that hard, folks responded well to accountability and responsibility in 'gentleman racing'. Like having a 'rookie dot' on their rear glass for the first 12 mos of racing telling an overtaking driver that he's behind a newbie so give him a bit of extra room. The most often asked question though in the clinic was, "What brings you here when you're used to landing on that aircraft carrier at night".

The answer was simple: driving through 8 wide open demands similar attention and concentration when you're learning how to do it. The first night trap was like being a cat and pushed into a bucket of water (feet pushing back against the rudder pedals as though it would do any good!) and the first time around 8 WOT had a foot hammering down on the dead pedal (like it would give you any more grip lol). Most likely just a flight or flight response to intense performance demands where the driver is 'bracing for impact'.

The 8 years driving with the POC were some of the best of times a driver can have. I was rewarded by being able to apply skills developed throughout my career as a Naval Aviator (and paid for by the US Taxpayer....giving me the keys to the twin tailed after burning crack pipe was more fun than Hunter Biden in a strip club with a new credit card. Ahem). So whether its on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, trying to land on said aircraft carrier, teaching others to land on it, going 140 mph thru turn 8 at WSIR, or being on the drill deck of an oil rig, it all boils down to risk management and situational awareness.

Now go out and get some.