Hello Sports Fans! Sorry this is so late in coming, but not surprisingly this whole trip has been a whirl wind and it doesn’t look like there is any chance of it slowing up anytime soon.

Way back on April 12th, 2007 I got on a plane in Detroit headed for Dulles and then finally to Frankfurt for the start of the 2007 Dunlop Drivers Cup World finals. This plan was complicated by snow / rain in DC. Our flight was over an hour late leaving, thankfully the plane to Frankfurt was late getting to DC which caused a huge ruckus and a flurry of phone calls trying to get everything straightened out. In the end, we were blessed and everyone got on some plane or another and to Frankfurt within 3hrs of each other. This might not sound impressive, but remember that we had people from California, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Maine, South Carolina and Michigan all trying to get somewhere. I’d say that a three hour window is pretty good. It’s even more amazing that five of us made it on the same correct flight together.
The flight was a pretty easy one, no major turbulence, a couple of OK movies and a little sleep.
After several trips through immigration and a couple of baggage claims later we all had our bags and met our wonderful Dunlop De hosts. Then we all stood around

And stood around some more. Then, that’s right, we stood around some more.

Finally the last member of our group got there. Even though she was missing her baggage, she was intact and in pretty good spirits.

Finally, it was time for the jet lag to set in and the fun to begin.

To the hotel we went to unpack, have a second to, ah, freshen up and then back out we went. The general opinion was that the best thing to do for jet lag was get out, see the city, have some lunch sample the local specialties and generally see the local sights. So see the sights we did. We found the brothers Grim:

We found an old church that looks like it got bombed out at some point:

And some other great historical stuff:

And of course, the Best Worscht in town! And a big thanks to Egon for posing in this picture to show how we all felt about the food there, it was really great.

After that, it was back to the hotel for a nice 2hr nap, quick shower and then off to dinner with our most kind German hosts. At dinner, I ate the most delicious schnitzel and had some locally traditional Apple Wine. By the end of dinner, I was wiped out and it showed. However, in the confusion, I didn’t get any group photos so I will get a few later when we do the picture swap.

Next up, the opening day ceremonies!

The short of it is, that Egon and I won the whole thing! Coming into the last day, there were 5 teams that could potentially win. Team USA III (Egon and I) were able to sneak in and take the whole thing. Needless to say, we are very excited.

Full write up to come soon.

Thanks for the support from eveyone and thank you Dunlop for the trip of a life time!

Hi all!

Internet access is something of a novelty here and today is the first day that I've been able to get on. What's all this about Europe being so progressive?

The good news is that after day 4 all three teams from the USA have podium positions. At this point, Egon and I are tied with another team from the USA for second.

I've gotten a little bit written about the trip, and a few pictures and just as soon as i can, I will get things posted.

You guys rock!

Today was a cold day here in not so sunny Michigan. While snow on April 5^th is not unheard of, after a week of weather warm enough to drive around with the top down, all of this cold has been a shock to my system. However, I heard that our new bag of Dunlop swag was to arrive today and that helped take some of the edge off of the cold.

When I got home, much to my excitement, there was a box waiting for me!

Quite frankly, I couldn’t wait to get into it, so I opened up the packing slips and got right in.


SWEET, brown paper ROCKS! Those folks at Dunlop sure do know what to send to keep me busy.




As I pulled the paper out to start what was sure to be an evening of entertaining myself, I found even more stuff.

It’s a bag! And a high quality traveling bag at that. It sure was heavy, I wonder what could be in there?

It’s so heavy I can barely lift it, thankfully I’ve been going to the gym a few times a week.

It’s a book! On the cover it says “Rally Program Hanau – Malaga 14^th-24^th April 2007” Holy crap, that’s next week. It’s not very heavy though, what else could be in there?

In this book Dunlop says that they would like to thank their associate partners:

Nissan (they supply the road and track vehicles for the events)

Maier sports (they are the outfitters for the event)

Cobra (suppliers of communication devices)

Motorex (suppliers of some fine lubricants)

Polar (supplier of heart rate monitors for the fitness portion of the competition)

As such, I’d also like to thank these associate partners as well! And so, if you are in the position to, go ahead and support these companies so people can come out and play with the DDC for years to come.

The first thing I see is a new karting suit. It’s very nice and fits incredibly well.

Pardon the socks, we had just arrived home from work and I was too excited to change. Rest assured I’ll wear something more appropriate on competition days.

After the driving suit, I found a pile of shirts, one for every competition day.

The shirts feel like they are made out of some light weight technical material. That’ll be nice to keep us cool during the heat of competition.

Look at this cool pile of stuff. Maybe there’s some more in there.

Look at these huge pants!

Just kidding! They fit pretty well.

Under the pants there is was a great light weight jacket. According to the tags it’s windproof and waterproof in light rain. Perfect for the spring weather we will see in Germany.

Who’s got two thumbs and thinks this jacket rocks? This guy!

Under the light jacket is a full winter parka. I went outside and tested it out in the sub freezing weather that we currently have. It kept me warm all the way from the house to the mailbox and back. Although I’m going to bring it along, I hope I don’t get any use out of it.

That’s my best model pose… anybody looking to hire a new spokesman? I need a sign that says “Will model for track time.”

I finally reached the end of the swag. Now it’s time to put it all through the laundry and get ready to pack it back in.

Dave says “All that and more needs to fit in here to get me through 10 days in Europe.”

That’s plenty of excitement for today. For now I’m going to have a look at this book to see if I can divine the secrets that will ensure my victory at the 2007 World Finals.

Thanks to my good friend Sean, you can right click and save as here to have a look a power point presentation that my booklet was made from.