Living in the Fast Lane with Diabetes

Racing around the Sunshine State

2012-02-02T13:53:00.001-05:00

I’m back in Indy after a week-long stint in Florida. Nothinglike a little sunshine, racing and time in front of a camera to get you excitedfor the season to start!

2012 No. 83 Novo Nordisk car

The first stop on my tour of Florida was Orlando where I didsome pre-season photo shoots and b-roll for my sponsor Novo Nordisk for their2012 media and marketing activation. I can’t say too much yet, but I’m stokedabout everything they have planned for this year! In case you aren’t followingme on Twitter (and why aren’t you?! @CharlieKimball), you can seea sneak peek of the new paint scheme in the photo to the left.

There was some rain in the forecast, so our schedule waschanged up a bit to make sure we got the on-track shots in the sunshine. All inall, everything went really well and I think everyone involved is pleased withthe results. I can’t wait to share the final product with you guys… stay tuned!

After we wrapped up in Orlando, I was off to Daytona tocheer on the Chip Ganassi Racing drivers at the 24 Hour race. I had a ton offun hanging out on the pit stand with my engineer Brad. I was lucky enough towear a headset and hear what was happening over the radio—the spotters, driversand crew members. It was awesome to listen in during the race, especially whenthe car was on pit lane for fueling and driver changes. I was most impressedwith the crew… the fuel stints are 40 minutes apart at most so they hardly getany sleep over the 24 hour race, all while staying on their toes and keepingthe car in good condition. True professionals!

Congrats to Justin Wilson for the win… it’s always great tohave an IndyCar driver represented on the podium!

As you can tell, things are definitely starting to ramp up. I’llhave a few more tests this month and then before we know it, the season willstart in St. Pete. 51 days and counting!

A long overdue update...

2012-01-27T12:13:00.000-05:00

I know, I know… it’s January 27, 2012 and I haven’t blogged since March 2011. It turns out, your rookie year in the IZOD IndyCar Series tends to get a bit busy and unfortunately I neglected my blog. However, this year will be different. I’m going to keep you updated as we prep for the 2012 season and plan to blog each race weekend so you know what’s going on at the track. See? I wrote it down, so it will happen! I promise.

As I head into my first test in the Honda DW12 car in a few days, I’ll take the chance to quickly talk about 2011. There were plenty of ups and downs, but I came out with two top-10 finishes and a ton of experience. Racing in the Indianapolis 500 for the first time is something I will never forget. There’s nothing like qualifying weekend in Indy or heading out to pit lane on race morning. It still gives me chills to think about it!

Rooting for Stanford at the Fiesta Bowl with family!

The off-season started off with an awesome trip to Hawaii, followed by the announcement of a multi-year extension of the partnership between my sponsor Novo Nordisk and Chip Ganassi Racing Teams. I’d say my off-season started off pretty well, huh?! I am so honored and fortunate to have the support of both Novo Nordisk and Chip Ganassi Racing. I can’t thank them enough for allowing me to pursue my dream. The rest of the winter was filled with quality time with friends and family, lots of physical training, and appearances in the diabetes community. Now, I’m more than ready to get back in a car!

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I’ll have my first test days in the DW12 at Sebring. I’ve been picking the brains of engineers, mechanics, my teammates—basically anyone who has been within five feet of the new car! Now the only thing left to do is actually get some laps in the car myself.

I’m really looking forward to 2012… I have my goals set on top-10 qualifications and finishes, hopefully with a few podiums as well. Thanks for reading, and I’m glad to have you along for the ride!

First Race Schedule!

2011-03-23T21:04:00.001-04:00

As we come roaring into the first race of the 2011 season, I wanted to take a moment and share the on track schedule for my first IZOD Indycar race.

Friday March 25th-
Practice 1: 10:15-11:15AM
Practice 2: 3:05-4:05PM

Saturday March 26th-
Practice 3:10:10-11:10AM
Autograph Session (Novo Nordisk booth- 30mins):11:50AM
Qualifying:2:30-3:50PM
Autograph Session (Indycar Fan Village- 60mins): 4:45PM

Sunday March 27th-
Warm Up- 8:40-9:10AM

Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, 100 Laps, Live on ABC:
Pre-race: Noon
Green Flag: 12:30PM Eastern Time

As a side note, my sister will be in Australia working this weekend. She emailed me to let me know that the race will start at 3:30AM Monday morning in Melbourne. So if you are reading my blog and will be watching there, stay up really late or get up really early to catch my race!

Second Test!

2011-03-08T09:52:00.001-05:00

I am heading down to Sebring Florida for the second test of the season. After last week's test day in the car, I can't wait to drive it again. There will 10 or so Indycars this week so I will get another good comparison on lap time. I will try and get a report from the test up here later this week. But in the meantime, check out this Indycar.com article!

Getting into the car for the first time last week:

Press Release from yesterday's first IndyCar test

2011-03-02T17:01:00.000-05:00

Kimball Completes First IZOD IndyCar Series Test at Barber

Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing and IZOD IndyCar Series Rookie driver Charlie Kimball completed their first test on Tuesday, March 1st at Barber Motorsports Park.

Kimball, who was announced December 16th in Indianapolis as the driver of the No. 83 Levemir® and NovoLog® FlexPen® Honda Dallara, tested the 2.38-mile permanent road course and turned his first laps in an Indy car.

“Charlie’s first test in an Indy car went great,” said Team Manger Mitch Davis. “He remained focused and professional throughout the practice. It was like he had been driving Indy cars for years and we were very impressed. Once we scrubbed off a few laps and Charlie got up to speed, we continued to get faster as the team made adjustments toward the end of practice. By the end of the day, we had met all of our expectations and felt accomplished.”

Kimball, turned 58 laps with a best time of 1:12.300.

“Completing my first test with Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing reminded me how grateful I am to be a part of this team,” said Kimball, who will compete for IZOD IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year honors in 2011. “The crew allowed me to focus on turning my first laps and getting up to speed, which is exactly what we did. Overall, I’m thrilled with the results from the test and I can’t wait to get back in the car.”

Up next for Kimball and the team is the IZOD IndyCar Series Open Test on March 14-15 at Barber Motorsports Park.

An Overdue Thank You

2011-02-27T18:39:00.000-05:00

It struck me on Friday night (at 30,000 feet, somewhere between Chicago and Salt Lake City) that I haven't really thanked or made an effort to thank everyone who has helped me get to Indycar. I hope that everyone involved understand the depths of my gratitude. I won't be able to name everyone here, but I would like to hit some highlights before I start driving this season. And since I will actually get to drive said Indycar on Tuesday, I should really (attempt to) do that now.

Firstly, at the top of my list, always, is my family. I would never have even gotten into a go kart, let a alone a racecar without them. It starts with my immediate family- my dad, my mom and my sister. They have always been and will always be my biggest fans, staunchest allies, fiercest defenders and best of friends. I remember our family trips fondly and while sometimes there was….tension, we always had fun in the end. A special thought for my sister: even though sometimes she and I fought like cats and dogs, the fact we had each other's backs was never a question. From England to Italy, Ventura to Camarillo, Woking to Witney, Pietrasanta, Indianapolis and everywhere in between, she has been there for me. The week I was diagnosed, my dad and I were in England, my sister was in Brazil (for work) and my mom was in So Cal. And my health wasn't the only crisis happening. But even from three very distant points on the globe, we rallied and, as my mom would say, 'circled the wagons' to get through it. Their strength gave me the courage to keep going.

I also want to thank all of my extended family for their years of support. From grammar to humor, business advice to relationship help, hiking the county to surfing Mondos, they have given me a lot. Thank you.

My friends are still a very important part of my life and as our lives get busy, we get to see less and less of each other. But it doesn't mean that when we do hang out, we don't act like we did in high school. Well, I hope not exactly like we did in high school (hoping for a bit more mature), but the important point is we still mesh. We may be scattered across the country- Fremont, Washington DC, Ventura County, Oregon, Indianapolis- but it sounds like the 500 this year may be a bit of a reunion. I can see it now: Monday night awards banquet after the 500; -Other big name Indycar driver "Hey Charlie, you look tired. You have a big party to celebrate finishing your first Indy 500?" Me, "Yeah, my friends and I got together since they are all in town for the race. We played RISK until the sun came up. And man did we destroy some take and bake pizza…." Yeah, we may not be the rowdiest bunch on the block, but we have fun.

There are many people in racing that I need to thank. And if I was to try and name them all, I am sure I would miss some. There have been lots and lots of great people from karting all the way to today. I want to thank my mental coach. And my physical trainer. So, thank you, thank you all.

On the partner side, I have had many 'champions' and I do want to thank them for everything they have done. Even something as small as a quick phone call makes a huge difference. And most importantly, I have to thank Novo Nordisk for their support and commitment to my racing career. With their help, I will be living a dream this year: competing in the IZOD Indycar series.

Finally, all of my fans and friends at the racetrack, thank you. A large part of getting to do what I love is because of you.

Tuesday I get to drive the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing car. I wish I could DVR the whole day so that I could replay it in perpetuity, but I will just try and soak up as much as possible. I will also try to remember everyone who was a part of me getting into that car. And honor their contribution by making the most of this great opportunity.

At least one in January

2011-01-31T15:05:00.000-05:00

Since I haven't blogged since mid December, I thought I should blog in January. And, well, as tomorrow is already February (?!?!), this is my last chance!

Things are really busy. I am back based in Indy after some really nice down time for the holidays. The Christmas/ New Year's period is always crazy, but really good to see all my family and friends that congregate back at home. I also got some time in the mountains with my best friend. We got a couple of days of snowboarding and some chill time by the fireplace (so many meanings since the power was out for a day!). Then it was off to Miami for the Orange Bowl. I had gotten tickets as a Christmas present to go see Stanford take on Virginia Tech. What an experience! It was amazing seeing all the Cardinal faithful from across the country cheering for victory. And I know that I didn't go to Stanford, but with my family's legacy and my acceptance, I still claim it.

After the game, I spent a couple of days in Orlando enjoying the magic of Disney. I realize that most of Disney stuff is for kids, but I was totally blown away, again, by the quality of everything at Disney World. I had never been to the Animal Kingdom and after a day there, I wanted to go back again! It was spectacular. A really creative way to display the animals and yet give them the room to roam in a very natural habitat. Plus the rides are very cool. The Everest train ride was awesome and the Dinosaur ride really caught me by surprise. All in all, I really enjoyed myself and would go back in a heartbeat.

And then it was time to head from the warm Florida sun to the cold and snow of Indianapolis. It was nice to be back in Indy though. I have been working really hard in the gym to get ready for the season. I have also been spending a fair bit of time at the race shop with my team. I have been continually impressed with the caliber of people involved and I can't wait to drive the car for the first time! The car is now being painted, prepped and when it gets back to the shop it will be full speed ahead before the first test, hopefully soon.

And if that wasn't enough, I moved house this last weekend. With the help of James Hinchcliffe, Philip Major and Stefan Wilson, we got all the stuff moved on Saturday. Moved however, does not mean 'moved in'. There are still stacks of boxes around and lots of settling in left to do. I haven't gotten my office set up yet, so I am writing this on the dining table. But having Internet and a dining table is a success in my mind!

Finally, I want to congratulate all of my teammates at Chip Ganassi Racing, Chip, Mike, Timmy and all the crew on the Grand-Am Rolex Daytona Prototype cars. They finished the Rolex 24 hour race first and second separated by a mere 2 seconds after a full 24 hours of competition! With that win, Chip has won the Daytona 500, the Indy 500, the Brickyard 400, the IZOD IndyCar Championship and the Rolex 24 Hour, all in 12 months. It's a great start to a promising 2011!

A few good stories after last week's announcement

2010-12-20T12:27:00.000-05:00

I got back home to California from Indianapolis last night and I was disappointed to find it raining! At least it's warm here- a solid 40 degrees warmer than Indy. While I try and stay dry, here are links to some great stories from the last few days:

World's Fastest Diabetic

Who the Heck is Charlie Kimball?

Time Magazine talks Twitter, FDA and Charlie Kimball (I like this one because I get called a 'rockstar'! I think I am going to have to get a larger helmet size......:) )

Novo Nordisk Partners with Charlie Kimball and Chip Ganassi Racing

2010-12-17T15:32:00.000-05:00

For those of you who missed the press conference yesterday, here are a few highlights!

Chip Ganassi Racing and Novo Nordisk Team Up for 2011 IZOD INDYCAR Series Season

2010-12-16T11:43:00.000-05:00

Yes, you heard that right! For those that missed it, here is the press release from today regarding the 2011 Season!

Chip Ganassi Racing and Novo Nordisk Team Up for 2011 IZOD INDYCAR Series Season

New Team to Feature Driving Talents of Rising American Indy Car Pilot Charlie Kimball

INDIANAPOLIS (December 16, 2010) – Chip Ganassi Racing Teams (CGR) today announced the formation of Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing, featuring rising American Indy car driver Charlie Kimball. Ganassi’s IZOD IndyCar Series stable continues to expand with the addition of the new team, which will be sponsored by diabetes care world leader Novo Nordisk.

Novo Nordisk has sponsored Kimball since he joined INDYCAR in the 2009 season, and the partnership between Novo Nordisk and CGR makes him the first driver from the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights Series to move up the official “Road to Indy” with a full season sponsorship.

The creation of the new team allows Novo Nordisk to continue as Kimball’s primary sponsor, with naming rights to the car, as well as other branding elements. Kimball will also continue to make appearances for Novo Nordisk throughout the country, with the award-winning Race with Insulin™ campaign and other diabetes programs.

Diagnosed with diabetes in 2007, Kimball monitors his blood sugar before, during and after each race, and uses the Novo Nordisk insulin Levemir^® (insulin detemir [rDNA origin] injection) and NovoLog^® (insulin aspart [rDNA origin] injection) and a pre-filled insulin pen device, called FlexPen® to help manage his diabetes.

Notes of Interest:

About Charlie Kimball: Kimball, 25, began racing go-karts at age nine, and was later accepted into Stanford University and chose to defer admission to follow his dream to become a race car driver. He finished the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights Series season in fourth place with five podium (top-three) finishes, including four second-place finishes. Prior to his diabetes diagnosis in 2007, Kimball shattered the European stereotype that “Americans are not fast” by becoming the first American in 11 years to win a British Formula 3 race. He went on to secure two track records and several F3 victories in both Britain and Europe. Kimball has also raced in the Formula 3 Euroseries and the World Series by Renault. With Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing, he will become the first licensed driver with diabetes in the history of INDYCAR to race at the highest level of the series. Follow Kimball and his work with Novo Nordisk on Twitter @racewithinsulin or www.novonordisk-us.com.

About Novo Nordisk: Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare company with more than 87 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care. The company also has leading positions within hemophilia care, growth hormone therapy and hormone therapy for women. Novo Nordisk's business is driven by the Triple Bottom Line: a commitment to social responsibility to employees and customers, environmental soundness and economic success. Headquartered in Denmark, Novo Nordisk employs more than 30,000 employees in 81 countries, and markets its products in 179 countries. Novo Nordisk’s B shares are listed on the stock exchanges in Copenhagen andLondon. Its ADRs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NVO). For more information, visit novonordisk-us.com.

About Diabetes: In the United States one in 13, or 23.6 million people, have diabetes^{^[i]}, a condition in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, the hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. Poorly or untreated diabetes can lead to a long list of health complications such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, high blood pressure, blindness, nerve problems and amputations^{^[ii]}. Prescribing information for Levemir^® and NovoLog^® is available by contacting Novo Nordisk at 1-800-727-6500 or visiting Levemir-us.com and NovoLog.com.

Chip Ganassi Racing Teams 2010 Recap: Team owner Chip Ganassi had an historic year in 2010. After wrapping up the GRAND-AM Rolex Series Championship, Ganassi claimed his second championship of the season by winning the IZOD IndyCar Series title for the third straight year. In addition, Ganassi became the first owner in history to win what has become known at the Triple Crown of American Racing by winning the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same season. Also, on the weekend of Aug. 6, for the first time in team history Ganassi brought home wins in all three series when Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas won the GRAND-AM race in Watkins Glen, Juan Pablo Montoya won the NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Watkins Glen and Dario Franchitti won at Mid-Ohio in the IZOD IndyCar Series. In all, Ganassi’s teams shattered a team record with 19 total victories (previously 14) across the three series, and now boast 134 total wins since 1994.

Quote Board:

Charlie Kimball, Driver, Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing: “I am honored to join Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing and excited to be moving up to the IZOD IndyCar Series. This is a dream come true and I am very proud to work with Novo Nordisk and continue to spread the message that diabetes does not have to slow you down.”

Camille Lee, Vice President of Diabetes Marketing, Novo Nordisk: “We have sponsored Charlie for the past two seasons in the Firestone Indy Lights Series and seen his development not only as a race car driver, but also as a role model to thousands of people with diabetes. We are excited to join Chip and the entire Ganassi organization to ensure Charlie’s success not only on the race track, but also with Novo Nordisk to prove that diabetes does not have get in the way of your dreams.”

Chip Ganassi, Owner, Chip Ganassi Racing Teams: “Many don’t realize this, but we have had a relationship with Charlie for a number of years now. I have been keeping close tabs on him and his successes in racing from afar for a while now – whether he was racing in Formula 3 in Europe, or running in the Firestone Indy Lights Series the past few seasons. We’re excited to have the opportunity to turn this longstanding relationship into a reality with Charlie and Novo Nordisk.”

^{^[i]} 2007 National Diabetes Fact Sheet. Centers for Disease Control Web site. http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/estimates07.htm.

^{^[i]} National Institute Health of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases. National Diabetes Education Pro Web site, http://ndep.nih.gov/diabetes/pubs/FS_AsAm_Eng.pdf. Accessed January 2007.

Friday at Edmonton

2010-07-23T19:46:00.000-04:00

Here is a quick practice results update with a little more detail than my twitter. I ended the session in P3 and was bouncing around the top 3 all session. I am really happy with the car and got out with a huge smile on my face. Edmonton is an airport circuit so it is pretty wide open, with some really tight twisty sections. Also, with the harsh northern Alberta winters, the track is a bit rougher than last year. And it was bumpy then! With a rough track like this, a bad car can make for a long weekend. But with a good car, it sure makes it fun! I finished just 0.04 off of Hinch in second and about 0.2 off of my teammate, Plowey, who was quickest. Plowey ran a set of new tires though and I have some things to work on- both in driving and with my engineer. There is definitely more to come. I can't wait until tomorrow morning's practice and then qualifying in the early afternoon.

As a quick side note (really quickly, otherwise I will be late to dinner!), the Canadian fans are awesome. Today was Friday, just practice and the stands were pretty full. There were a lot of really knowledgeable people walking around and the Indy Lights autograph session was well subscribed. It probably didn't hurt that today's weather was nearly perfect. Bring on the race weekend!

Where did 2 months go?!?!

2010-07-21T11:22:00.000-04:00

May 25th. That was my last blog. Hmmm. Nearly two months ago..... Wait!?!?! What? 2 months? Time has just blitzed past. I am used to things moving at a high rate of speed, but these last two months have been crazy fast and busy. Well I guess that's why they have gone by quickly is because I have been crazy busy. Let's see if I can write an update on all that has gone on without having to classify it as a novel....

Freedom 100
I wanted the Win, but came away with a solid second place. I had an incredible race with Wade Cunningham and he just beat me to the win. He has raced in the Freedom 5 times and that definitely helped him. I fought as hard as I could, used all the racetrack (and then some at times) and was very happy with how my Indy weekend turned out. Plus with Wade not being a full time driver this season, it was a moral win. It also put me within 7 points of points leader JK Vernay.

Testing
After Indy, we had a test day at Mid Ohio in preparation for our race there in August. It has never been my strongest track and when I tested with Andretti there last fall, I really struggled to get the car where I wanted it. This time though, we made big strides in the car set up. Because it was a 'private' test, there wasn't official timing, but I ended up within 0.05 of the quickest car at the test, Stefan Wilson. With the a string of street and road course races coming up after the Iowas Speedway event, we were very happy to be quick on the road course test.

Iowa Speedway
Before my race in Iowa, I had a great event for my sponsor, Novo Nordisk. I went to a Minor League Baseball game to talk about diabetes, racing, and throw out the first pitch. The Clinton Lumberkings were great hosts and I managed to make the ball to home plate. I will admit I resorted to the 'skyball' to make sure I didn't one-hop it to home. It is quite a lot of pressure standing out there on the field. I guess it would be like a baseball player strapping into a race car...
Well onto the race at Iowa Speedway. And to be honest, I would rather just forget the whole weekend. In the two practice sessions, where the results don't matter at all, I was quickest and second quickest. In the two sessions that mattered: qualifying and the race, I was last! The car had a fuel pump fail in qualifying so I had to start at the back. Then in the race, I went into turn 1 on the first lap and the back of the car stepped out on me. I caught it the first time, but it stepped out again and I spun into the wall. I think it was a combination of being at the back of the pack and in dirty air and having cold tires. I was definitely trying hard to get past a couple of drivers that were a long ways of the pace before settling down to pick off the rest as I could. It was something I will definitely learn from. The next race was Watkins Glen and one of my favorite racetracks in the world!

ADA and CWD
But before I could get to the Glen for the race, I went to San Antonio TX for an ADA Expo. I was very impressed with the size of the turnout for the Expo as well as the city itself. I really enjoyed myself wandering around the Riverwalk and the older parts of town. Not to mention seeing the Alamo. (On a side not, I got my iPhone 4 that same weekend and the excitement of that might have colored my view- but only a little! And yes I love it. And no I don't have signal problems.)
After San Antonio, I flew down to Orlando for the ADA National conference and the Children with Diabetes Friends for Life conference. I really like both of these events because it gives me a good chance to catch up with friends from the diabetes community at the ADA. Then CWD is such an amazing conference with so many great stories and people! I had a great time at both and still managed to train almost every day to prepare for the Glen, Toronto and Edmonton.

The Glen
Watkins Glen is one of my favorite racetracks and one of my favorite places in the world. The whole of the Finger Lake district is great, the city of Corning is a lot of fun, and the racetrack itself is very special. The length, the speed, the elevation changes all combine to create a challenge for the driver, a challenge for the engineer and a great spectacle. However, once again bad luck would wreak havoc with my race. I had been in the top 5 in practice and was ready to go for qualifying. However, in qualifying I made a mistake and while trying to overtake another driver, I spun across a curb. This stalled the engine and meant I would lose my fastest lap. I still managed to put myself into the top 6. Until we looked at the bottom of the car from when I ran across the curb. The impact had broken the bottom of the engine and would mean it would have to be changed. This also meant I would have to start from the back. Because three other drivers had to do the same, I wouldn't be dead last! Then disaster struck again and half way around the parade lap for the race, the engine shut off. The safety crew towed me back to the pits and after changing the ECU, I rejoined the race- but I was 4 laps down. Because of a full course yellow, I caught the back of the field. Because I was a lapped car, I was cautious to stay out of other people's races. Halfway through the race, there was another yellow flag and the team and I decided to pit to make changes to the car and treat the race like a practice session. As the line of cars ahead of me strung out, I passed people when I was sure it wouldn't impact their race. I moved all the way up to what was 5th place on the road (even though I was 11th because of being laps down). I also posted the 4th quickest lap time, 0.2 off of the 3rd quickest time. While the result was extremely disappointing, the speed of the car was very encouraging. The two bad races in a row had dropped me from 2nd in points to 5th.

Mental Health
Because I had been on the go so much since the beginning of May really, I was looking forward to a weekend off! I was still training very intensely in the week leading up to the weekend and my body was looking forward to some time to recover as well. I went to a BBQ with some friends on Saturday and had a great time relaxing poolside. While there were a lot of racing people at the BBQ, it was definitely a mental health break. Then on the Sunday, I slept in, did some DIY, cleaned my room, watched some of the ALMS race, and then watched the Dodgers destroy the Cubs on Sunday Night Baseball. A perfect Sunday that really rejuvenated me for the Canadian leg of my season- Toronto and Edmonton.

Toronto
The streets of Toronto race is one of the hardest on our calendar. Especially if the weather plays a role. Last year, we had to start the race in the wet, do a pit stop and finish it in the dry. This year, the weather was extremely hot! And with how bumpy, technical and physical the track is, high heat and high humidity just make it more challenging. We had a good car in both practices and were 5th quickest in both before qualifying. Then in qualifying a bit of bad luck struck again. I was having major gearbox problems and didn't really know what gear I was going to be in going into a corner. This makes it really tough! But I told the team that I would do my best and see how we came out. I ended up doing a lap that was good for 7th, only 0.2 off of 3rd! While the result wasn't fantastic, I was extremely how well I had handled the problematic gearbox. And my last lap was going to be quicker until the gearbox auto-magically shifted for me and nearly put me into the wall! Going into the race though, I was confident I would be able to move up through the field. On the start, I passed Adrian Campos Jr. into turn 1 to move up to 6th and set off after the top 5. While I was quicker than Sebastian Saavedra ahead of me, I couldn't find a way past until a mid race yellow flag. On the restart, I set up Seb and passed him into the hard braking of turn 3. Then it was about biding my time and chasing the pack of 2-4th ahead of me. As the race moved towards it's 50 lap conclusion, James Hinchcliffe in 2nd started to struggle with his car's handling. On the last lap, he made a braking mistake into turn 3 and slid wide, Dan Clarke moved past into 2nd and Gustavo Yacaman passed him for 3rd. Then into the next braking zone, turn 5, I moved up the inside of Hinch and made the pass to come home 4th! Unfortunately, Hinch ended his race in the tires in turn 5, but after the race we both agreed it was a racing incident with no hard feelings. Which is a good thing when it comes time for our next boxing workout together!!! The 4th place finish moved me back into 3rd in points, only 7 behind Hinch. JK Vernay is still leading, 75 points ahead. But with 53 points available per weekend, and just after halfway through the season, everything is still to play for!

Edmonton
I am really looking forward to this weekend's race in Edmonton. I thoroughly enjoy the wide open airport track here and the fans always come out and support the race well. I got into town last night and have media commitments today and tomorrow morning before getting on track for practice Friday afternoon. Here's the weekend schedule:
Friday July 23rd- Practice 1; 1:30-2:30 PM (Mountain Time)
Saturday July 24th- Practice 2; 9:15-10:00 AM
Qualifying; 2:15-3:15 PM
Sunday July 25th- Warm-up; 9:20-9:40AM
Race (50 Laps!) 1PM (Streamed live on indycar.com)

I still can't believe it has been two months since my last blog. And if you have gotten this far through what has ended up being a short novel, the next ones won't be so long! I hope. :)

Getting Ready for the Freedom

2010-05-25T18:32:00.000-04:00

This Friday is my race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Wow. As a kid, I never thought I would get to race at the Speedway. But this time is my second year in a row. And I know I'm not in the 'big' show, but still. Unlike last year, I am not going to be happy with a good result, or a solid race. I want to win. And win BIG. We had a good test a couple of weeks ago and I have sooooo much confidence in the Andretti Autosport/ AFS Racing team that I know we can do it. While I have been busy bouncing around to appearances in LA, Raleigh, Chicago, and all around Indianapolis, the guys have been getting the car prepped and pretty. And man does she look good! I can't wait until first practice on Thursday! And this race will be the only televised Lights race this season. It will be shown live at 12:15 ET on Versus TV as part of the Carb Day coverageRoll on Indy, Roll on the Firestone Freedom 100, and (hopefully) Roll on the W!

Schedule for the Freedom 100:
Thursday, May 27th:
Practice 1- 9AM-9:45AM
Practice 2- 11:45AM-12:30PM
Qualifying- 3PM-4PM

Friday, May 28th Carb Day (Carburetor Day, not Carbohydrate! :) )
Pre-Race 12:15PM
Firestone Freedom 100- 12:30PM (100 Miles, 40 Laps)

Centennial Blog

2010-05-12T15:40:00.000-04:00

So this is my 100th blog and I was trying to come up with a good topic to discuss. When I was looking back through my early blogs, I reread my community blog (my first one). Now more than ever, it is true that I am part of a lot of different communities. I really enjoy the different roles that I am getting to play both at and away from the race track.

Away from the race track this year, I have been enjoying going to ADA Expos and sharing my story. Before a couple of those Expos, I got to go to local hospitals and talk to patients with diabetes. That is a really special feeling because most people don’t expect to see a professional racing driver with firesuit and helmet walking around the hospital. Especially not one with diabetes! I have also been to a couple of Taking Control of Your Diabetes conferences. They are great events because the main message of the day is to really Control Your Diabetes rather than let it control you. I have been the closing presentation at both days and always get a great reaction from the crowd. I also get to see and interact with everyone during the day at the health fair. I have met some really great people and always enjoy hearing everyone’s stories. The truth is that I learn and take encouragement from everyone I meet at the Expos and TCOYD. The fact that they come out and spend a full day on their health reminds me to make sure I am being proactive enough about my own healthcare.

At the racetrack, I have gotten extremely busy! Alongside the full time job of racing, I have been doing a lot of media outreach to try and get my story about diabetes out there. I have had some great coverage and gotten to meet some cool reporters. As the son of an engineer, I like getting to see behind the scenes of the TV studios. The first time I went into a studio that had mechanical cameras that move auto-magically, I was blown away. It is amazing how technology has changed the way TV is made. As well as the racing and the media, I am lucky to be a part of the Indy Car Series Pace Car Team. The PCT is comprised of 4 Firestone Indy Lights drivers (myself, Martin Plowman, Stefan Wilson and James Hinchcliffe). While the main duties of the PCT are giving VIP’s, Media and Sponsors rides around the race tracks we visit, we also get to make PCT specific appearances at different events. We just finished a road trip to and from Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois where we appeared on behalf of the Indy Car Series in promotion of our race, August 28th. It was a night open to people who had bought tickets for the season’s races at Chicagoland. The fans got a chance to interact with Kyle Busch, Jamie McMurray, Scott Dixon, Sam Hornish, Chip Ganassi, Alex Lloyd and the Pace Car Team. We answered questions, signed autographs and had a bull riding competition. There was a mechanical bull and as good upstanding members of the PCT, we each threw the challenge at each other. The resulting video is quite amusing and can be found on my YouTube channel soon. We have a lot of fun on the PCT and we are going to be announcing a cool charity program soon! If you are going to be at an Indy Car race this year and are interested in buying a ride in a Pace Car with a PCT driver, leave me a comment and I will let you know who to talk to. So between PCT, media and driving, my race weekends are flat out....so to speak!

Kimball Races to Second in front of Home Town Crowd

2010-04-22T01:29:00.001-04:00

Charlie Kimball competed this weekend, April 17 and 18, in the Firestone Indy Lights Grand Prix of Long Beach in front of an enthusiastic crowd of sponsors, friends and family. Kimball put on a great show, qualifying third and racing to a second place finish on Sunday. Balancing responsibilities on and off the track kept the young driver busy, but he continued to impress and share his story across southern California.

Kimball’s race weekend began two weeks ago as he joined the IRL team at the Long Beach media day to promote the race. He coached celebrities competing in the Celebrity Pro race, gave Pace Car rides to members of the media and was the featured Indy Lights driver for the Grand Prix weekend. When he finally got into the #26 Levemir® Flexpen® car at the race weekend on Friday morning, Kimball was ready to go to work. He worked with his AFS Racing/ Andretti Autosport team throughout the two free practice sessions, developing the car and sneaking up on race pace. Kimball’s times in the sessions were never outside the top 5.

‘When we first got on track on Friday, we were a ways off with the car set up but my engineer and I went to work. We worked through a lot of changes and produced a very competitive car,’ remarked Kimball of the practice sessions. ‘We chose to play a conservative strategy in practice and now I’m exceptionally well placed for qualifying.’

Qualifying was run under the midday sun through the streets of Long Beach and was marred by two late yellow flags. Kimball started the session on new tires and immediately posted quick times. By the time he had put on his third set of new tires, Kimball was ready to post a blistering time. As he headed towards the final few corners of the circuit, the Camarillo native was preparing to record the pole time. However, yellow flags were out and Kimball reduced his speed to ensure the safety of the stricken car and on-track officials. Because the yellow flags came out so close to the end of the session, the checkered flag was thrown meaning Kimball ended up third on the grid.

‘I’m really disappointed by this session. We had the car and the pace for pole position, but for the third race in a row, we got caught by yellow flags,’ explained Kimball after qualifying. ‘But I love this track for passing – last year, I passed at least 6 cars so I’m sure I can make something happen from third.’

Kimball spent the rest of Saturday and early Sunday morning hosting his many supporters, fans, friends and family at the track and showing them around his racing world.

‘It’s such a great opportunity to be able to thank everyone who has supported me throughout my career by hosting them here at Long Beach,’ said the Camarillo, California native. ‘I’m honored that nearly 70 people are here to support me in today’s race!’

As the Indy Lights field headed for the green flag, Kimball made sure he was tucked up close behind pole-sitter James Hinchcliffe. The field poured into Turn one and Kimball maintained his position behind Hinchcliffe, boxing out second place starter JK Vernay. The 25-year-old then held station behind Hinchcliffe, pacing himself as the tires and cars fell off the pace. Two yellow flags and restarts offered Kimball small opportunities to grab the race lead however it wasn’t to be. Kimball crossed the line in touch with the leader but in second position.

‘I’m pleased with second place. I gain championship points on points leader Vernay,’ said Kimball at the podium ceremony. ‘I had the pace there at the end to catch Hinch. I was hoping for lots of yellows or green running the whole way but neither worked out. On the parade lap, I saw of sea of red in my grandstand and I’m glad I could honor my fans with a good result this year.’

Kimball consolidated his second place points position by gaining 5 championship points on leader JK Vernay and extending his lead over third place. His next race will be the Freedom 100 run on the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway, May 27th and 28th. Kimball will fill the time until then appearing for Novo Nordisk at American Diabetes Association Expos in Phoenix, AZ and Seattle, WA as well as a Taking Control of Your Diabetes conference in Raleigh, NC.

Hollywood Boulevard, SHUT DOWN!

2010-04-16T01:10:00.000-04:00

Tonight, IZOD took over Hollywood Boulevard and gave it to the Indy Car and Indy Lights guys. They put on a pit stop competition, did an autograph signing, even had Mark Wahlberg and Diddy show up. The event was crazy. There were so many people and it was unreal hearing the engines fire up and reverberate off the Kodak theater. It was really encouraging to see such an amazing event put on by the people at Izod. It bodes well for the future.

But now it’s race weekend. Not just any race weekend, but the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Bring it!

Racing at home!

2010-04-15T10:29:00.000-04:00

This weekend is the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and I am super pumped! Long Beach is one of the more special races on the calendar this year for me. Mainly because the pits are only 75 miles from my house. And when I am racing all over the country (and Canada), 75 miles is practically next door! Long Beach also holds a special place in my heart because I remember coming to this race for years with my dad when he was doing consulting. I would get a ticket and then get to hang around the race track all day and inevitably get sunburned. But I still got to soak in the great atmosphere, the race track, the cars, the drivers and everything else that makes the Grand Prix here such a jewel. Now after years of racing in Europe, being as close to home as Long Beach is means that everyone who supported me abroad can come support me in person. The drive down the 405 is a lot easier (some of the time) than flying across the Atlantic! At the moment, we have about 60 people in the Charlie Kimball Cheering Section of the grandstand. There are a few tickets left if you want to come join us! Message me on Twitter with an email address, or comment here with an email and I will send over some information.

The track itself is pretty special. It is one of the longest straights (Shoreline Drive) we will run on all year and yet it also has the slowest corner (the hairpin) we see as well. Put those things together and it makes for a great racetrack. I come into the weekend sitting second in points behind the Frenchman JK Vernay. I am still confident in the long haul to the Championship because Vernay hasn't been to many of the rest of the tracks this year and has never raced on an oval. Plus, I plan on building on last weekend's second place finish from Barber and working on cutting his points lead!

Time to go racing at the Roar by the Shore!

Podium in the Park!

2010-04-12T00:52:00.000-04:00

Sunday was race day at Barber Motorsports Park and I had high hopes going into the day. I qualified second on Saturday morning and then had a nice relaxing afternoon. The car had been really good since I was quickest in the first practice and while we had to make changes for the heat of the day in practice 2, we still had a really good race car. Race day started very early on Sunday morning with a warm up at 8AM! The track was very cold and even though the Grand-Am cars had run all afternoon on Saturday, the grip was really good. We were consistently quick throughout warm up and at the end of the session, I was happy with the car for the race.

The key to the race was always going to be the start. With a short start/finish straight and a fast blind turn 1, getting a good start would be important. Couple that with the very limited passing opportunities at Barber and the start would be crucial. I had talked through strategies for the race with my race engineer and we believed that tire management would be key for the race. As hot as the track temperatures were and with the sun beating down, the Firestone Firehawks would be consistent as long as you didn't overdrive the car early. And overdriving the car early would be easy to do being second on the grid and shooting for a race win. I had a couple of pace car rides just before my race to scare a couple of my guests from Alabama. Those laps gave me an idea of how much rubber had accumulated offline and would make the start even more difficult.

And then it was race time. And I was ready. My blood sugar numbers were just where I wanted them to be, I was relaxed, confident in my race pace, knew my fitness wouldn't be an issue and ready to fight for the victory. I knew I might be able to get a good start because the pole sitter, JK Vernay, would only be doing his second ever rolling start. He had admitted in the qualifying press conference that he didn't have a good start at the first race and was nervous about the start. We lined up side by side as we came around the last corner to take the green flag. I was waiting for him to 'punch off' before hitting the gas. 'Punching off' is a racing term for when the pole sitter hits the gas and starts accelerating for the start. As the pole sitter, he has the right to set the pace and decide when to 'punch off'. The only rule is that when you do go to throttle, you commit and stay on power.

I was ready for JK to go and when he did, I reacted well and got a good start. We were wheel to wheel when we both went to power. Then JK slid back. After the race I found out row 2, consisting of my teammate, Martin Plowman, and Sebastien Saavedra, had gone to power with the front row. Then as JK either made a mistake, lifted, braked or had a problem, Plowman ran into the back of him. Once I had gone to throttle though, I was committed. When the green flag flew, I was in front and led into turn 1. Halfway around lap 2, my engineer radioed me that the officials had said I jumped the start. The penalty for that would not be a complete restart and give me the opportunity to make a good start again, but to give up the lead of the race. At any other racetrack, it would not have been as big a penalty as I would have the speed to take the position back. However, at Barber the track offers slim to no passing chances. As a result, I shadowed JK all race, never more than 2 seconds behind but unable to mount a challenge for the win. To his credit, he never made a mistake large enough for me to capitalize on. The second place finish moves me up to second in the championship and is my first podium in the Firestone Indy Lights. Still it leaves me wanting for more. We had the speed all weekend and the crew did a great job with not making any mistakes. I did all the right things and I can't wait to get to home turf next weekend. Roll on Long Beach and another chance for Victory Lane!

One last comment on the race weekend. It was the first Indy Car race held at Barber Motorsports Park and I could not have been more impressed. The grounds are immaculate, the facilities are incredible and the people couldn't have been friendlier. I was blown away by the crowd (someone said over 100,000 for the weekend) and am sure this is going to be a crown jewel event on the IRL calendar. George Barber has and continues to do an amazing job. Well done to him and his staff and thanks for letting us come race around your park!

Friday night in 'Bama

2010-04-09T21:24:00.000-04:00

A quick update since I really want to get a good night's sleep. Today went really well at the Barber Motorsports Park. I was quickest in this morning's session but just a small margin over James Hinchcliffe. Then in Practice 2, I was 3rd for most of the session until Niall Quinn put new tires on right at the end. Since we wanted to save everything for qualifying, we stayed on old tires. Still, looking through the data and analyzing the split reports, my engineer and I are happy going into tomorrow. I really think we are good on fast time pace and really good on consistent race pace.

Qualifying is at 8:15 AM CDT. You can watch live timing here.

Barber Preview

2010-04-08T18:58:00.000-04:00

Back at a racetrack and none too soon! I got a taste of racing in St. Pete and am just itching to get back in the car. Not to say that I haven't been busy. I have been in 4 states, 5 airports, 3 hotels and even at home since the race. I got a chance to go back to California to see my family for Easter, rest and beat the cold I picked up in Florida and go cycling for a couple hours with my friends. Then on Tuesday, I got to drive a pace car for media at the Long Beach Grand Prix circuit. It was a blast and I even got to meet a couple of the celebrities and pros driving in the Toyota Pro Celebrity race at the Long Beach Grand Prix. I got to have a cool conversation with Zachary Levi who plays Chuck on TV and even got a photo (I look terribly star struck....And I am so glad he is repping a Dodger hat....Go Blue!).

But now it is back to business. I am down in Birmingham Alabama for the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at the Barber Motorsports Park. We had a good test here back in February and I can't wait to see how tomorrow shakes out. At the open test, I was third quickest, just 0.2sec off the quickest time (even with an engine problem that cost us 2 hours of track time!). My engineer and I have a few good ideas about how to improve from the test and I hope we can be setting the pace from the outset. I can't wait. I hope I can sleep tonight!

Also, here is a great article from the AP as it was posted on SportsIllustrated.com and CBSSports.com.

Quick Post Race Update

2010-03-28T22:03:00.000-04:00

A quick update on the craziness that was today's race in St. Petersburg. We knew all weekend that the weather would be a bit sketchy for the race, but we had no idea it would be that bad! There was a huge thunderstorm cell hanging out in the Gulf just of St. Pete and it was headed on shore. With all the guess work on weather calls, who knew when it would hit the race track area! Still, we had to prepare for both wet and dry and then see how it shook out. As we rolled out to start the race, the skies were dark and it was starting to sprinkle. But the rain wasn't hard enough to make us stop for wets, or even slow our speeds. I had a good solid start and after avoiding a spearing Philip Major, I was fourth after the first corner (up from my 7th starting spot). Then after a full course caution to clean up a couple of crashes, it was raining harder. The track was pretty slippery and Sebastien Saavedra ahead of me was tip- toeing around. His super slow pace caught me by surprise and we made light contact in Turn 4. There wasn't damage to either of our cars, and we both continued although we (and my teammate) were delayed and I slid down the order to 10th. Then, the rain was heavy enough that the series red flagged it and allowed everyone to change to wet tires. We struggled a bit with the set up on wets, but I really focused on keeping off the walls and the car in one piece. It was a smart strategy as I passed a couple of cars up to 8th and then picked off 2 more as they slid wide and spun. After a yellow for Saavedra in the wall (one more spot), I had one last chance to move up. I got held up behind a backmarker and couldn't make in roads into the front four. However as we finished our 60 minute race, I moved up one more spot to 4th place!! Summerton had spun into the wall just before the last corner on the last lap. After our checkered flag, the true deluge started and they had to evacuate the stands because of rain, lightning and wind!!!

I promise to get a full report of the weekend from media interviews to hospital visits and the on-track activities (Pace Car Team included!) soon. Like hopefully tomorrow while I watch the postponed Indy Car race!

The Wait is Over

2010-03-23T17:50:00.000-04:00

I’m on the plane headed down to St. Petersburg, Florida because the wait is over. The 2010 season is getting ready to start! Not the unofficial start with the safety meeting, or even with testing, both official and private; but the first race of the year. I grant you that it is only the first of the season and the champion won’t be crowned on Sunday afternoon. But, when the green flag drops, the nonsense stops. And hopefully, when the checkered flag flies, I will be heading into Victory Lane!

And I do feel particularly positive about the start of this season. Coming to St. Pete last year, I had done a couple of days testing with the team, had no idea how Indy Lights race weekends worked, wasn’t sure what to expect or how I’d do. This year, I know and am friendly with all the people running the races, I have a full and great sponsorship partnership put together, I am running with a Championship caliber (technically double Championship caliber) team and am more relaxed and confident than at the start of any season in the past. I really like the character of the track at St. Pete. I know that when we unload on Thursday, we will already be miles (so to speak) ahead of where I was last year. And that is before I turn my first lap.

This winter has seemed especially long. Not because I have been bored, in fact it has been the opposite. Since my last blog nearly a month ago (shock, horror, I know!), I have tested in Alabama, Texas, and Florida; moved (and drove through a snowstorm in doing so) to Indianapolis; was in 12 states in less than 7 days (these links are to photos of the state signs on the road trip); went to two ADA Expos (Portland and Salt Lake City); went to my first TCOYD of the year in Kalispell, Montana (first trip to MT and loved it!); and even got some time to train with Jim Leo at PitFit in Indy. Some of the smaller accomplishments of the last month include furnishing my new bedroom (I do love IKEA) and even attempting to decorate with drapes, photos and lamps. I have cooked a few meals and was even called ‘quite domesticated’ by my engineer.

But now, all that matters is this weekend’s race and winning. The wait is over. The 2010 Firestone Indy Lights Championship is here. Let’s go racing!

Sponsorship Announcement

2010-02-24T23:20:00.000-05:00

Here is the press release regarding my 2010 sponsorship:

Press Release

Charlie Kimball Secures Partnership with Novo Nordisk, Maker of the Levemir® FlexPen®, for 2010 Firestone Indy Lights Campaign

Indianapolis, IN and Princeton, NJ (February 24, 2010) -- California native Charlie Kimball has secured sponsorship from Novo Nordisk, a world leader in diabetes care. Kimball will pilot the No. 26 Levemir® FlexPen® car for AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport and will run a full 13-race schedule on the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights series.

Kimball, 25, is the only licensed racer with type 1 diabetes in the history of the Indy Racing League. Diagnosed in 2007, he monitors his blood sugar before, during and after each race, and uses Novo Nordisk insulin Levemir® (insulin detemir [rDNA origin] injection) and NovoLog® (insulin aspart [rDNA origin] injection). The partnership with Novo Nordisk includes primary sponsorship of Kimball’s race car, racing suit and helmet. Kimball also will make appearances on behalf of Novo Nordisk throughout 2010.

“Charlie Kimball is the perfect example of how people living with diabetes can successfully manage their disease without letting it get in the way of their dreams,” said Camille Lee, Vice President of Diabetes Marketing at Novo Nordisk. “We are proud of our association with Charlie and we look forward to a successful year on and off the track in 2010.”

Kimball will be competing in his second season in the Firestone Indy Lights series. In 2009, he finished 10th overall, posting a season-best fourth place at Watkins Glen and finishing the 2009 campaign with eight Top 10 results. The 2010 season includes the following race events in 13 cities across North America:

• March 28: Streets of St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg, Florida)
• April 11: Barber Motorsports Park (Birmingham, Alabama)
• April 18: Streets of Long Beach (Long Beach, California)
• May 28: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Indianapolis, Indiana)
• June 19: Iowa Speedway (Newton, Iowa)
• July 4: Watkins Glen International (Watkins Glen, New York)
• July 18: Streets of Toronto (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
• July 25: Edmonton City Centre Airport (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
• Aug. 8: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (Toledo, Ohio)
• Aug. 22: Infineon Raceway (Sonoma, California)
• Aug. 28: Chicagoland Speedway (Chicago, Illinois)
• Sept. 4: Kentucky Speedway (Louisville, Kentucky)
• Oct. 2: Homestead-Miami Speedway (Miami, Florida)

“This is a big year for me and expectations are high,” Kimball said. “I am fortunate to not only be part of one of the top teams in all of racing at AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport, but to have the support of Novo Nordisk, one of the world’s leading healthcare companies that is committed to helping me live my dream.”

Kimball launched his single-seater racing career in 2002 and has raced in several international series since then, highlighted by a five-win effort in the 2005 British Formula 3 Championship. At that time, Kimball established himself as the first American to win a British Formula 3 race in 11 years.

Prescribing information for Levemir® and NovoLog® is available by contacting Novo Nordisk at 1-800-727-6500 or visiting Levemir-us.com and NovoLog.com.

About Levemir® and NovoLog®
Levemir® (insulin detemir [rDNA origin] injection) is a man-made long-acting insulin that is used to control high blood sugar in adults and children with diabetes mellitus.

NovoLog® (insulin aspart [rDNA origin] injection) is a man-made insulin that is used to control high blood sugar in adults and children with diabetes mellitus.

Important Safety Information for Levemir®
Do not take Levemir® if your blood sugar is too low (hypoglycemia) or if you are allergic to anything in Levemir®. If you take too much Levemir® your blood sugar may fall too low.

Check your blood sugar levels. Ask your health care provider what your blood sugars should be and when you should check your blood sugar levels. Alcohol, including beer and wine, may affect your blood sugar when you take Levemir®.

Do not change the type of insulin you use unless told to do so by your health care provider. The amount of insulin you take as well as the best time for you to take your insulin may need to change if you take a different type of insulin.

Never mix Levemir® with other insulin products or use in an insulin pump.

Needles and Levemir® FlexPen® must not be shared.

Tell your health care provider about all medicines you take and all of your medical conditions, including if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Your Levemir® dose may change if you take other medicines.

The most common side effect of Levemir® is low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Other possible side effects include reactions at the injection site (like redness, swelling and itching), and allergic reactions. Get medical help right away if you experience signs of serious allergic reaction such as body rash, trouble with your breathing, fast heartbeat, or sweating. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for further information.

Important Safety Information for NovoLog®
Do not take NovoLog® if your blood sugar is too low (hypoglycemia) or if you are allergic to anything in NovoLog®. If you take too much NovoLog® your blood sugar may fall too low.

NovoLog® is a fast-acting insulin. You should eat a meal within 5 to 10 minutes after using NovoLog® to avoid low blood sugar. Do not inject NovoLog® if you do not plan to eat right after using NovoLog®. Check your blood sugar levels. Ask your health care provider what your blood sugars should be and when you should check your blood sugar levels. Alcohol, including beer and wine, may affect your blood sugar when you take NovoLog®.

Do not change the type of insulin you use unless told to do so by your health care provider. The amount of insulin you take as well as the best time for you to take your insulin may need to change if you take a different type of insulin.

Do not mix NovoLog® with any other insulins when used in a pump or with any insulins other than NPH when used with injections by syringe.

Needles and NovoLog® FlexPen® must not be shared.

Tell your health care provider about all medicines you take and all of your medical conditions, including if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Your NovoLog® dose may change if you take other medicines.

NovoLog® has not been studied in children with type 2 diabetes or in children with type 1 diabetes under the age of two.

The most common side effect of NovoLog® is low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Other possible side effects include reactions at the injection site (like redness, swelling and itching), and allergic reactions. Get medical help right away if you experience signs of serious allergic reaction such as body rash, trouble with your breathing, fast heartbeat, or sweating. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for further information.

FlexPen®, Levemir®, and NovoLog® are registered trademarks of Novo Nordisk A/S.

# # #

About Charlie Kimball
Kimball, who began racing go-karts at age nine, was accepted into Stanford University and chose to bypass admission to follow his dream to become a racecar driver. Prior to his diabetes diagnosis in 2007, Kimball shattered the European stereotype that “Americans are not fast” by becoming the first American in 11 years to win a British Formula 3 race. He went on to secure two track records and several F3 victories in both Britain and Europe. Kimball has also raced in the Formula 3 Euroseries and the World Series by Renault. This year, Kimball will be competing in the Firestone Indy Lights races throughout the year.

For additional information about Charlie Kimball, visit www.charliekimball.com.
Follow Charlie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/racewithinsulin, on his blog, www.CharlieKimball.blogspot.com, on YouTube, at www.youtube.com/charliekimball, and via the Charlie Kimball Fan Club on Facebook.

About Andretti Autosport
Based in Indianapolis, IN, Andretti Autosport is led by racing legend Michael Andretti. Andretti Autosport, which is the winningest team in Indy Racing League history, fields multiple entries in the IZOD IndyCar Series and also campaigns multiple cars in Firestone Indy Lights in a joint venture with AFS Racing. Andretti Autosport boasts three IZOD IndyCar Series championships (2004, 2005 and 2007), two Firestone Indy Lights titles (2008 and 2009) and has won the Indianapolis 500 twice (2005 and 2007). For more information, please visit www.andrettiautosport.com.

About Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare company with more than 87 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care. The company also has leading positions within hemophilia care, growth hormone therapy and hormone therapy for women. Novo Nordisk's business is driven by the Triple Bottom Line: a commitment to social responsibility to employees and customers, environmental soundness and economic success. Headquartered in Denmark, Novo Nordisk employs more than 29,000 employees in 81 countries, and markets its products in 179 countries. Novo Nordisk’s B shares are listed on the stock exchanges in Copenhagen and London. Its ADRs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NVO). For more information, visit novonordisk-us.com.

About Diabetes
In the United States one in 13, or 23.6 million people, have diabetes, a condition in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, the hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. Poorly or untreated diabetes can lead to a long list of health complications such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, high blood pressure, blindness, nerve problems and amputations.

For further information please contact:

Media:
Al Larsen
Andretti Autosport
317-872-2700
al.larsen@andrettiautosport.com

Ambre Morley
Novo Nordisk
609-514-8400
abmo@novonordisk.com

Investors:
Hans Rommer
Novo Nordisk
+45-444-24765
hrmm@novonordisk.com

Transcript from IZOD Indy Car Teleconference

2010-02-18T14:40:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I took part in the weekly IZOD Indy Car Series Teleconference. Here is the transcript from my portion of that! Thank you to the IRL PR/ Media department for having me on the call.

Charlie, thanks for joining us.

CHARLIE KIMBALL: Thanks for having me.

THE MODERATOR: Charlie finished 10th in his rookie season in Firestone Indy Lights last year with Team PBIR, but moves to AFS/Andretti Autosport, the team and car that won last year's title.

Q. Do you feel much pressure entering the season going into that car and that team?

CHARLIE KIMBALL: Well, I think I always put more pressure on myself than I feel externally. Obviously, jumping in the No. 26 car means that I know I've got some of the best equipment out there. At the end of the day, it comes down to me to perform. I think that testing has been going really well. I'm really excited. The crew is a lot of fun to work with. I can't wait to get to the open test next week and the first race at St. Pete.

Q. You mentioned you tested with the team. What have you learned about yourself and the team going into next week's test at Barber, which is essentially like a race weekend?

CHARLIE KIMBALL: You're right, going into Barber, we're sort of treating it like our first competition. There's no prizes or rewards for results at Barber, but it's a chance for us to unveil the new paint scheme for the No. 26 Levemir(r) car. We have a line item list of stuff to test. Hopefully we'll end the day near the top of the charts.

I've learned a lot this year just about how a professional team works. Stepping into Andretti, having someone like Michael Andretti with his hand on the tiller, giving me the benefit of his experience has allowed me to learn a lot more quickly than I have in the past.

Q. The test is at Barber Motorsports Park. Have you been there? What are your thought on that facility?

CHARLIE KIMBALL: I actually did a test day at Andretti/AFS Racing last fall down at Barber. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was surprising how much fun it is. It's very technical and pretty quick in places. It's got a really good mix. I think it benefits a driver that's on top of it as well as a good car.

So not only am I looking forward to the test next week, but also to the second race of the season.

Q. You mentioned your sponsor. You're the first Indy Racing League driver to compete with Type 1 diabetes. Does being diabetic affect the way you go racing?

CHARLIE KIMBALL: Having diabetes definitely affects how I prepare to get in the car. From the moment I get up in the morning, before a test day or a race day, I'm preparing. I'm checking by blood glucose levels. I'm injecting Levemir(r) and NovoLog(r), the two insulins I use as needed. Everything is getting ready for the moment I put my helmet on. I check my blood glucose level 15 minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes before I get in the car. It's the last thing I do before I put my gloves on.

That management routine allows me to go out and compete on a test day or race day equally and not have to worry about the diabetes.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about what your sponsor does using your car as a platform?

CHARLIE KIMBALL: A lot of what Novo Nordisk, the company that makes Levemir and NovoLog, the two insulins on the car do, the at‑the‑track promotion, telling my story as the first driver in the history of the IRL with diabetes to compete. But we also do a lot of at‑event appearances, the ADA, the American Diabetes Association, expos, where people come and are there to educate themselves about diabetes and hear my story, talk to me, interact with me.

I'm there proving that diabetes doesn't have to slow you down. It doesn't slow me down on the track or off the track. Together, partnering with them allows me to get that story out there and be proof that you don't have to have diabetes in the drivers seat; it can be in the passenger seat while you drive your life.

Q. Charlie, how did all of this come about with Andretti Racing?

CHARLIE KIMBALL: Well, funnily enough, it started with a phone call at 4 in the morning on a Wednesday before a race weekend in October of 2008. I was here in California at home. I got a call from Andretti about their program in the A1 GP, the Team USA car. They asked if I would come to Zandvoort, in The Netherlands, for a last‑minute drive in the race that weekend. Like five hours later, I was on a plane from LAX headed to Europe. I had a great time. It was a really good opportunity to work with them.

We just sort of kept in contact. After my results last year, developing the team, the results throughout the season, we kept in contact. As my commercial package fell into place, the discussions with Andretti led to a ride.

Q. How is Michael to work for?

CHARLIE KIMBALL: He's a brilliant guy. His experience all over the world in racecars everywhere allows me to learn a tremendous amount. He is always there with a word of encouragement, a word of advice, and very helpful for a young driver hoping to make it to the Izod IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500.

Q. Charlie, did you have to convince people when you were starting out in racing that you could do this with diabetes and still manage it? Also, the notes say that you're able to monitor your blood sugar during the race and adjust it if necessary. How does that work exactly?

CHARLIE KIMBALL: Well, I'll hit your first question first.

I was diagnosed in October of 2007, so in the middle of a race season. I'd already been racing. The road back to recovery, it was about six weeks before I got back in a racecar. In that time, you know, I sought out the best medical care. I work with an endocrinologist here in LA, Dr. Anne Peters, who is Gary Hall, Jr., the swimmer's, endocrinologists, as well.

So her experience with athletes gave me the confidence to get back in the car and be able to compete.

So I have found a huge amount of support in the racing community. The IRL, the medical staff there at the IRL and IMS medical team, has said to me, Look, you obviously know a lot about diabetes and diabetes management. Pardon the pun, but we'd love for you to be in the vehicle for you to tell your story, being successful with diabetes.

As far as managing my blood glucose and monitoring that through the race, I wear a continuous glucose monitor, which is a sensor injected in my body and has a wireless transmitter on my skin that looks like a pager‑like device that's Velcro'd to the steering wheel right under my dash. It graphs might blood sugar every five minutes and gives me a reading so I can keep an eye on that while I'm driving. If I'm getting lower than I want to be, I can drink orange juice that runs through a drink tube that runs through my helmet. Orange juice is very glucose rich so it brings my sugar levels back up to a range where I can compete at optimal performance.

Q. What is some of your background? Where have you been racing?

CHARLIE KIMBALL: Well, I started karting in Southern California when I was about 10, in '95. Got into cars at the age of 16. After I graduated high school in 2003, at the end of the 2003 season where I competed in the USS 2000 championship, I delayed entry or deferred admission to Stanford University to move to Europe and race, where I competed in British Formula Ford, British Formula 3. I was the first American in 13 years to win a British Formula 3 race, was Rookie‑of‑the‑Year. 2006 I stepped up to the Formula 3 Euro Series, where I won a race at Zandvoort. In 2007 I was racing in the World Series by Renault when I was diagnosed with diabetes in October of that year. 2008 I did a partial season in the Formula 3 Europe Series. And last year I competed in the Firestone Indy Lights Series with Team PBIR.

I got started in karting because my dad is a mechanical engineer. The car he designed won the Indianapolis 500 in the late '70s. I was in Europe as a kid because he was race engineering for a Formula One team.

Q. I wanted to know if you have, stepping into big shoes at Andretti, is there a timetable before you make the next step to the Izod IndyCar Series and what would you be looking for in terms of what you would call a successful season this year in Firestone Indy Lights?

CHARLIE KIMBALL: Well, I think I have to judge this season by the same yardstick that any good driver does. A good season would be one where I sit on pole for every race, have the fastest lap, win every race and win the championship. Obviously that might not be completely realistic.

But, like you said, I have some big shoes to fill in the No. 26 car. I think I can step up to that. My experience last year, I learned a huge amount about racing on the ovals, learned a lot of the tracks. So coming back to them, it will be my second year seeing them. I'll be able to leverage that into solid results.

As far as the timetable stepping up to the Izod IndyCar Series, obviously it comes down to partially commercial, partially on track. If I can provide the results this year and sort of prove my worth, Novo Nordisk believes that we can be the first driver on the grid at the Indianapolis 500 with diabetes.

THE MODERATOR: That's all the time we have today for Charlie. We appreciate you taking the time to join us today, Charlie.

CHARLIE KIMBALL: Absolutely. If anyone has any follow‑up questions, have them get in touch with you.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Charlie.

Meeting up in Mammoth

2010-02-15T08:33:00.000-05:00

I have been very remiss in blogging recently. I have been busy, but that is not a good enough excuse! Here is a blog I wrote about a week and a half ago from a snowboarding trip to Mammoth.

A couple of weekends ago, a few friends and I went up to Mammoth Mountain for a few days of snowboarding and skiing. One of my high school friends is working as a lift operator at June Mountain and since the schedules worked out, I was looking forward to hanging out with him. The first of California’s ‘El Nino’ storms had come through the week before and Mammoth got a lot of snow. Like 10 feet of fresh powder! It was a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed the three days on the mountain. I thoroughly enjoyed some time ‘disconnected’ from the racing world especially as we get towards the busy time of year.

There was however a really interesting chance encounter at lunch on the first day of skiing. Two friends and I headed to Main Lodge to grab some food, warm up and check the score of the AFC Championship game. I had just gotten my food and was sitting down to eat when I grabbed my blood glucose meter to check my blood sugar after a morning of riding and before lunch. As soon as I tested, I heard from a little boy, “do you have diabetes?” I responded with an affirmative and he said he did as well. Then his mom came up and we started a conversation. Turns out they are from the LA area as well and she is head of the local JDRF chapter. He was the coolest little boy, wears a pump and was getting a medal for a competition in the snowboard half pipe school. In the course of the conversation with his mother, it came up that she had heard my endocrinologist, Dr. Anne Peters, speak at a conference. We talked about what I do for a living to which she replied, “wait, you are her racing driver with your CGM on your steering wheel?! What are the odds!”

 There are times when I feel very alone with diabetes and it can be a real struggle. Remembering conversations like that one with the little boy in the Main Lodge of Mammoth really helps remind me that I am not alone. Having diabetes makes me a part of a great community full of amazing people. It is a great way to remind myself that while I am racing because it is what I love to do, it is also a great inspiration to a lot of people.

Successful Start to 2010!

2010-01-20T11:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a very successful start to my 2010 season. While I had tested with the crew at Andretti Autosport late last year, this was my first test as an 'official' driver for the AFS Racing/ Andretti Autosport Firestone Indy Lights team (say that 10 times fast!). It really is an honor to be a part of a team that has such a history in Indy Lights as well as being led by a driver with the heritage of the Andretti name. I remember growing up with Mario Andretti being a household name as a success in both Indy racing as well as Formula 1. Now with Michael (Mario's son) being involved in my team for this year, it has come full circle. I will also be exposed to all four of the Andretti Autosport's Izod Indy Car drivers: Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Hopefully I will get a behind the scenes look at how a top level Indy Car operation is run and will be able to use this knowledge in the future as I move up the ladder.

But back to yesterday's running at Sebring. Sebring is a great track to test for street circuits. With the hot summers, lots of rain and soft ground of central Florida, Sebring is a notoriously rough track with lots of bumps, road crowns and low grip. All of these mimic a street circuit and make it a great place to tune for 2 of the first 3 races of the season (St. Petersburg March 28th and Long Beach April 18th). Our day didn't go perfectly as the shift cable broke on my second lap of the day and we had a niggling problem with the starter motor , but we got plenty of laps in and made some good progress on the car. The mechanics were on it all day and even though it was my first official day driving with the team, it felt like we had worked together for a lot longer. I am developing a good relationship with my engineer both at the track and away from it. A lot of the changes that my engineer and I made during the day were to tune the car towards my personal driving preferences. Since AFS/AA has won the Lights championship the last two years and sat on pole for every street/ temporary location race last year, their street circuit car is already pretty good. The engineers had done some hard work over the winter and wanted to try some things on the car to see if they could make progress. The track grip wasn't as high as when I tested there last year, but my time was within 0.3 of a second of their best time there. My teammate, Martin Plowman, was within 0.1 of my time which bodes well for a strong competitive season for both cars and the whole team. In conclusion, it was a great day, a perfect start to the 2010 season and it felt fantastic to be back in the cockpit and back at the racetrack. My fitness held up well, but I need to keep pushing my training with Jim Leo at PitFit in Indianapolis. Never know when that call from an Indy Car team is going to come!

First Test of the 2010

2010-01-18T20:38:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow will be the first time in 2010 that I will be in a racecar and I am really excited! It has been a long off season and I can't wait to get going again. There were a lot of fun times during the break, but being back in the car has added a spring to my step.

I had a good trip from LA down to Sebring, Florida. Dinner with the team to go over the plan for tomorrow and we are all good! With the forecast for good weather tomorrow, I am going to get a good night's sleep and be up early. We will spend most of tomorrow settling back into the swing of things and tweaking the car to my driving preferences. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow night!

2010 Announcement!

2009-12-10T11:50:00.000-05:00

AFS RACING/ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT SIGNS CHARLIE KIMBALL

TO 2010 FIRESTONE INDY LIGHTS LINEUP

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Dec. 10, 2009) – AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport announced today it has signed driver Charlie Kimball to the team’s 2010 Firestone Indy Lights lineup.

Kimball, a 24-year old native of Camarillo, Calif., ended his 2009 rookie campaign with a ranking of 10^th in the Firestone Indy Lights standings. Kimball posted two top-five and eight top-10 finishes in 15 starts.

Kimball is the second driver signed by the team for 2010. Englishman Martin Plowman was announced as an AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport driver on Oct. 10.

An announcement regarding the sponsorship program for Kimball’s entry will be made in early 2010.

Kimball launched his single-seater career in 2002 and has raced in several international series since then, highlighted by a five-win effort in the 2005 British Formula 3 Championship. At that time, Kimball established himself as the first American to win a British Formula 3 race in 13 years. Two years later, Kimball was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and is the only driver in the history of the Indy Racing League to compete with the disorder.

Kimball made one previous start for Andretti Autosport at Zandvoort in 2008 as part of the team’s A1GP effort under the Team USA banner.

MICHAEL ANDRETTI, CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT:

“We’re excited to bring Charlie on board with AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport for 2010. He is a great guy and a driver that has a lot of potential. He was a pleasure to work with at Zandvoort back in 2008 and we’re looking forward to watching him develop next season.”

GARY PETERSON, OWNER, AFS RACING:

“We’re looking forward to working with Charlie next year. AFS/Andretti Autosport has been privileged to win the last two Firestone Indy Lights championships. We’ve seen the competition rise each year since the inaugural race in 2002, and Michael and I would very much like to set our place in the history of this series with a third-consecutive title.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL, DRIVER, AFS RACING/ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT:

“I’m very excited to be joining AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport for 2010. This is a great step for me to take and I want to thank Gary and Michael for giving me the opportunity to drive for them. I learned a lot about the Firestone Indy Lights as a rookie this year and am looking forward to leveraging that experience into a run for the championship in 2010.”

- END -

Racinginside.com Interview

2009-12-08T13:19:00.000-05:00

Here's an interview copied from RacingInside.com. Enjoy!

Interview with Charlie Kimball

dinsdag, 08 december 2009 11:13

There are a lot of fast guys, all over the world. Most of the drivers that are well known are coming from Europe, but there are also some very fast guys coming from the United States of America. Charlie Kimball is a fast American guy, living his American dream. Unfortunately, not every thing is gold in his life. Diagnosed with diabetes Charlie Kimball had to struggle to make his comeback, but during the last seasons he is fit as hell. Racinginside.com spoke to Charlie Kimball in an exclusive interview.

Charlie, you are a talented American driver and most of our visitors will know who you are. But could you please give a short introduction about yourself to the visitors that do not know you?
Well, I started in go-karts in 1993 as a way to spend time with my dad on the weekends. I then got into a Formula Ford at the age of 16 and have worked my way up through the junior formula ladder system. I spent time in Europe after graduating high school in 2003 before moving back to the US this year.

How did you get involved in racing? Have you always wanted to become a racedriver yourself? Did your parents always support you?
I got involved in racing, because I grew up watching it. My dad is a mechanical engineer and worked in both Indycars and Formula 1. When I was exposed to racing first hand, I really fell in love with it.

You have started your career, like many other drivers, in karting. Did you enjoy your period in karting and do you think karting will be an essential step in the career of a race driver?
I did really enjoy my time in karting and feel that it taught me a huge amount about racing. I still use the lessons I learned in karts to this day. While it may not be a requirement for successful racing drivers to spend time in karts, I do believe it helps a tremendous amount.

You have raced in different formula cars throughout the years. You have started with Formula Ford and also driven in Formula 3. During 2009 you drove the Indy Lights. What are the main differences between those cars? Which car, do you think, is the most exciting to drive?
The biggest difference between all the cars is the power and the weight. There are some cars that brake better than others, the World Series by Renault cars were amazing with their carbon brakes, and others were great handling cars, the Formula 3 car with a good set up was unbelievable through a fast corner. The Formula 3 car is a very good all around car and rewards a lot of different driving talents. The Indy Lights car is very exciting on an oval. Overall, I have enjoyed each car I’ve raced for their various strengths.

Every race driver has good and bad moments during his career. Being diagnosed with diabetes is probably one of the bad moments in your career. Or, what are really the best and worst moments in your career?
Getting diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes was probably the most shocking moment in my career for sure! The nice thing about the diagnosis was that it answered a lot of questions about my performance in 2007. It also helped me get back to full health and get back in the race car. Some of the best moments in my career include winning the Formula 3 Euroseries race at Zandvoort in 2006, getting to race at Monaco in 2007 and racing at Indianapolis this year. While there have been tough moments, moments of doubt and indecision, the rewards from racing always outweighs them.

During your career you have made the step from the USA to Europe and in 2009 you came back to the USA to drive Indy Lights. What are your expectations based on your further career?
My future career expectations are to contend for the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights championship and from there move up, either into Indycar with an eye to winning the Indianapolis 500 or to Formula 1 or GP2. My experience in Europe would be extremely beneficial if there were opportunities to race in F1.

If you could change your life with another racedriver for just one day, who will be the one you are changing with?
I am extremely happy with my life as a racing driver. If I could, I would love to be Valentino Rossi for a day. I never foresee myself riding, let alone racing, motorcycles, but Rossi is an absolute maestro on the bike. It would be fun to be that good on something so different to my racing.

Although the racedriver is the one that really scores the results, there are always a lot of people on the background that also have a big influence on the results and career of a racedriver (sponsors, mechanics etc.). Is there a special person in your career that you would like to thank, and why is that person special to you?
I have been very lucky to have a strong family behind me throughout my career. My dad has always lent sage career advice, my mom has always supported me and my sister has been invaluable when it comes to marketing. My sponsors this year, Novo Nordisk, have been great about getting my story out there and being very supportive of me. The fact that they make the 2 types of insulin I use, is just an added bonus!

Many people think that the life of a racedriver is all fun and just a dream. But if you take a look to the ‘inside’ of racing, what is the hardest part of being a race driver?
There are a lot of difficult parts to being a racing driver, but I would say the biggest one is the struggle to find sponsorship. The cost of racing is so high and the return isn’t always easy to see. Convincing a company to become a partner in your dream is always difficult. But once you do that, you can go back to focus on racing and winning! As it is the off-season at the moment, I am focused 100% on my fitness and training which is never an enjoyable part of the job.

What would you like to say to everyone that is dreaming of a career in racing?
Racing is a very fulfilling sport filled with amazing people the world over. If it is your passion and there is no place you would rather be than at the racetrack, it is a great environment. It takes a lot of hard work to drive or be a part of team, but it is always worth the effort!

Thank you RacingInside.com for letting me tell my story and re-use this on my blog!

The Anti-NaBloPoMo

2009-12-01T15:51:00.000-05:00

So in honor of November being National Blog Post Month, I celebrated the anti and didn't blog at all for November. And while I would like to say this was planned, it wasn't. I got busy and didn't really have anything interesting to say! I am a little less busy now, but still don't have a whole lot to say. There will be some fun and interesting things coming in the next few weeks hopefully, but until then a quick run down on what I have been doing.

I went testing at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama early in November. The track is really fun with a fair bit of elevation change, some fast corners, some blind corners and some hard braking. It is missing a good overtaking place, but that is all. I went quick and am looking forward to going back there in April for the race. Since we didn't race there this year, I am glad I got to see the track before the race weekend.

Since it's the end of the season, I have made a concerted effort to start training aggressively. I have been doing 'two-a-days' 6 days a week. While it is definitely hard work, it isn't killing me like it did a few years back. It is a good reminder to keep up the hard work during the season and then the off season isn't so miserable.

I also got a chance to go to the TCOYD event in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was a great event, lots of good media, great people and a wonderful environment to interact. I then got a chance to spend a couple days out at my aunt and uncle's place in Abiquiu. I loved it! It was really quite brisk and downright cold overnight, but the views were amazing. I got to meet my aunt's horse- talk about a beautiful animal!

Finally, I am getting ready for a ski trip with my friends. We are heading up to Salt Lake City on the 11th and staying for a week! Having never snowboarded in Utah, I am really excited. It will be a great vacation and a nice chance to 'unplug' for a week before the holidays. I haven't been boarding in a few years and am sure it will take me a while to get back in the swing of it. Should be a great time though!

Oh, and I am writing this post from my new laptop- a Mac. I have converted and for the most part, I am extremely happy with it. There have been a few headaches, most of which have been me over-thinking the problem. Things really are more user friendly on a Mac. But then any new computer would be a huge upgrade from my 4 year old Thinkpad!

The City of Brotherly Love

2009-10-26T20:29:00.000-04:00

I am currently on a plane headed to Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. I will be attending and speaking at the ePatient Connections there tomorrow. I will be talking about how, as part of my partnership with Novo Nordisk, I use Twitter to interact with fans, other people with diabetes, and other interested parties. There was a lot of ‘chatter’ online earlier this year about the RacewithInsulin page. Getting to talk about it to healthcare professionals, influential health bloggers, and healthcare social media organizers will be a lot of fun and a great chance to talk about what I love to do. One of the big reasons that we started tweeting was that I was already using twitter, I enjoy the ability to quickly update friends, family, and fans on what I am doing/ where in the world I am/ how my race weekend is going, and I felt it might be a good way to connect with other PWD’s (people with diabetes) in another forum. I have enjoyed connecting with people all over the country that ‘follow’ me on twitter and come to autograph sessions or speaking events because they saw it on twitter. Keep an eye out for my tweets from the conference on both RacewithInsulin and my personal twitter, CharlieKimball.

I know that I haven’t been doing a great job keeping my blogging up to date and to be fair I don’t have a great excuse. I have been doing a lot of behind the scenes preparation for my 2010 race season. I am hoping to return to the Indy Lights Championship and fight for race wins and the title all year. Taking all that I learned this year and applying it from the first laps next year, I believe the results will be strong from the first green flag. I even got a chance to go testing last Thursday at Kentucky Speedway. It was good for me to turn some laps there away from a race weekend because during the race there this year, I hit the wall on the first lap avoiding another spinning car. To go back, be reasonably quick and have a productive test day exorcised those demons. Also, getting back in the car helped me get over being grumpy.

Grumpy, you say? Why yes, even I get grumpy. It is pretty standard that after the last race of the season I get very grumpy. It is a big let down at the end of the year and I definitely need to catch up on sleep, relaxing and touching base with friends. I haven’t quite accomplished all of those things yet (as you can guess by the fact that I am on a plane again after spending all of last week in Indianapolis and a busy weekend at home….but I digress). Doing a couple hundred miles at over 180 miles an hour in a racecar worked wonders on the end of year letdown though! I came home smiling and in very good spirits. I am hoping to get a couple more test days in the books before the winter sets in and I have to focus on my physical training program. I spend the winter trying to build fitness and then the season trying to maintain it. As a result, the first few days of ‘two a days’ destroys me and it is all I can do to stay awake past 7 at night! Once I get used to it, I get a big influx in energy. And all that exercise helps me manage my blood sugars a bit more.

And I will finish with a couple ‘Throttle Linkages’:

I use my iPhone to help keep the diabetes monster at bay and not slow me down.

2 Year D-Versary

2009-10-16T20:55:00.000-04:00

Today, October 16th, is my 2 year anniversary of being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I was going to write a really nice, longer blog post about the diagnosis, the doors that diabetes have opened for me, the neat people I have met in the diabetes community and that while I would give it back if I could, I am enjoying the things it has allowed me to do. I had planned to write more than that until the Dodgers game was so good. Until I found the Angels game on TV and until a fierce low snuck behind me and threw my plan off. I do find it ironically apropos that a low would affect my plan on my D-versary. Meh.

At least I get to go to Wood Ranch for dinner tonight. I am so looking forward prime rib and the Oreo cookie dessert. I may have to take photos of the dessert. I love it that much. Glad I went swimming this afternoon. And that's probably where the low came from.

Homestead Recap

2009-10-15T11:58:00.000-04:00

It seems I have been starting all of my recent blog posts with apologies about being delinquent with keeping up to date. So I am NOT going to do that here. I am not going to say how busy I was during the race weekend with meetings, events and racing. I am not going to say how I totally unplugged on Sunday and went for an airboat ride in the Everglades before spending the afternoon by the pool. I am not going to say that my to do list on my desk has been growing faster than I can accomplish anything. I WILL say that I am going to do my best to recap my Thursday night practice, Friday's race events and then my thoughts from the Indy Car race Saturday afternoon.

Thursday night's practice was very important because the conditions were the most like the race. The temperature was still really hot even though the hour long practice started at 6PM. In the first few laps, I knew the car wasn't perfect. The team and I made lots of changes to the car and ended the session in 10th place. I was pretty sure we finished the session with a better car than what we started it with. Then it was time for a quick debrief, dinner and an early night back at the hotel. We had a nice early start on Friday with another practice at 8AM.

Morning practice went well and we did a new tire run that confirmed we had made significant progress with the car in the evening practice. My time on new tires was done completely on my own and with no tow. When I did the time, it was good enough for 7th and I was confident we could be within the top-6 in qualifying. Since most people went quicker at the end of the session running in a pack, I dropped to 12th by the end of the session.

Going into qualifying, we were pretty confident with our set up and as a result, we went reasonably aggressive. It really paid off! My warm up lap was pretty quick and my first timed lap was exactly the same. On my second lap, I had felt the car scrub the front end in turns 1 and 2. I made a small adjustment in the cockpit coming up to 3 and 4. As I got to the exit, the car moved at the rear and I had to slide up the track to catch it. As a result, my second lap was just over a tenth of a second slower. I still ended up 5th on the grid, my best oval qualifying and the team's best oval qualifying position as well. It also equaled my best qualifying from Watkins Glen.

I was pretty excited for the race as I knew that if I could convert my qualifying position to a top 6 result, I had a good shot at 8th in the championship. And for it being my first year with a new team with the added challenge of ovals thrown in, I would have been pleased with a top-10 in the points. Anything higher would just be a bonus. Then the race started and I got really busy trying to keep the car under me! The set up wasn't good from the green flag and while I worked really hard with the tools I have in the cockpit, I couldn't make it too much better. I did get in front of the set up for about 5 laps and I passed a couple of cars. Then the tires were done and, as my spotter said, I had my dancing shoes on and started doing the moonwalk! I ended up finishing the race in 13th place which was very respectable considering the car and how hard it was to drive. I still ended the year 10th in the points standings and with a huge amount of experience.

On Saturday morning, I spent a couple of hours starting the Miami-Dade ADA Step Out to Fight Diabetes. It was a lot of fun and a great event. I really enjoy the chance to meet kids with diabetes, their parents, friends, and other supporters that help them fight diabetes day in, day out. It helps to remind even me that I am not alone in this!

Then it was back to down to the track to watch the Indy Car season finale. Heading into the last race, there were three drivers who could win the championship and they had qualified 1-2-3. It was going to be a very interesting race. And believe it or not, but it stayed green the whole race! It turned into a very exciting battle between pit strategy, on track speed and the ability for the top-3 to work through traffic because by the end of the race, everyone but the championship contenders had been lapped. When the checkered fell, it was Dario Franchitti who won the race and the championship. He didn't take the lead until 4 laps to go as he had been saving fuel the whole race so he didn't have to make a final pit stop for a 'splash' of fuel! Standing in pit lane watching the race and seeing the two different strategies develop was very neat and a lot of fun to watch. As I told someone later- it was a true barnstormer. And congratulations to Dario, Chip Ganassi and all at Target Chip Ganassi Racing. With Dario's win and Scott Dixon's third in the race, they finished 1-2 in the championship. I think that's the first time in IRL history.

Here are links to two articles from the last week:
Miami Herald
Information Week

To wrap this last race recap up, I want to thank my team for all of their hard work this year. Kane Williams, Dave, Dave, Don, Mike, Chris, Trey, Tracey, Daren, Bob, Cuz, and everyone else at Palm Beach International Raceway. And my spotter, Chris Wheeler, for keeping me out of trouble on the ovals. Without your endless hours, this year would not have happened let alone be successful and fun. I also have to thank your families, wives, girlfriends, fiances and friends for being so understanding and supportive. My 2009 season was great for me in so many ways and I can't wait to get back on track in 2010. There are lots of things happening behind the scenes and I hope to be able to announce things in the coming weeks- so stay tuned!

The Finale Already?

2009-10-07T12:58:00.000-04:00

I am here in Homestead, Florida and am getting ready for the last race of the season. The last race?!?! Where the heck did this year go? Last thing I knew, I was here in Homestead in February scrambling to pass my rookie test and putting together a ride for this year, plus working really hard behind the scenes to work out all the details that a new season brings. And now this season is nearly over? I want to say that my 2009 racing season has been swallowed into an abyss of airports, hotel rooms, airplanes, racetracks, rental cars and snippets of days off. But that's not exactly true. Yes, I have traveled a lot this year and yes I have stayed in some awesome hotels (and some not so awesome hotels). I have had some easy flights and some flights I was very very happy to just stumble off the plane in one piece. I have had some really nice rental cars that I enjoyed driving (usually for only a day or two) and some rental cars that were shaking themselves to pieces under me (usually for the longest stay in one place!). And I have had some incredible days off- hiking in the back country of Ventura County, driving through the Finger Lake district in upstate New York, relaxing by a pool in Orlando, Florida, jet-skiing near Homestead, mountain biking in Sycamore Canyon and road biking down the PCH.

But the best days of this year have by and far been at the racetrack. I have really enjoyed the opportunities I have had this season, the results I have worked so hard for and the chance to bring my European racing experience to bear on my first season back home since 2003. It has been so neat racing in front of friends and family across the country. The two races in California were amazing having huge support in the grandstands and I can't wait to go back next year.

Now, it's time for the last race of the year. It is my last opportunity to go out and prove that diabetes doesn't have to slow you down! I am really excited about racing here since I have tested here for a few days and I know that the car is going to be competitive from the first laps. I have practice tomorrow evening from 6-7PM and then Friday is a rich and full day with practice at 8AM, qualifying in the heat of the day at 12:15 and then the race starts at 6PM ET. The race is going to be covered live on Versus TV and streamed live on Indycar.com.

BIG Catch Up!

2009-09-30T15:01:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't blogged in over 2 weeks. My Web Site Angels would not be impressed. So here goes with a major recap.

My last blog was from the Indianapolis Colts game. I wanted to write a recap of the Pittsburgh ADA Expo as well. Pittsburgh was amazing! I had only been to the city once before and there was a lot of snow on the ground when I was there. Luckily the weather cooperated a lot more this time. I was staying in a hotel right next to the convention center which is right next to the river. Out of my hotel room window, I had a pretty good view of the steel bridges and flowing river as well as the surrounding hills. But it wasn't the view that brought me to Pittsburgh. It was the local ADA's Diabetes Expo. Diabetes Expos are events that bring a lot of information about diabetes into one venue. There are booths with health screenings, product information, Divabetic makeover programs, inspirational stories, kid's zones, and workout equipment. All of it is completely free to the public and is targeted to inform, empower and help people dealing with diabetes- type 1's, type 2's, pre-diabetes, family members and friends. Alongside all of this was me standing next to a racecar signing autographs, answering questions and taking photos. I was there from 10-3 and we had almost 1100 people come by and say hello! It was really a neat event and a lot of fun. At the end of the Expo, I got a chance to walk down by the river, see the Pittsburgh Pirates stadium as well as Heinz Field (home of the Pittsburgh Steelers). Then it was off to Indianapolis and the Colts game.

The following weekend, I was in Detroit for another ADA Expo and with it being my first trip to the Motor City, I was very excited. There is so much automotive history and industry in Detroit, I felt I was in hallowed territory. Once again, I was by the showcar and took lots of photos and signed lots of autographs. I got to meet some extraordinary people with incredible stories. And with the car history in the area, there were a lot of people very familiar with Indy racing, the difference to Nascar and the race at Belle Isle. There were a few less people than in Pittsburgh, but it was still a very busy day. I was fighting through a pretty strong cold and so when I got on the plane home, I went sound asleep!

After Detroit, I spent the whole following Sunday on the couch watching football and TV. I was kept company by my dog, Kona. Although I did have to kick her out in the 4th quarter when her snoring was louder than the announcers. The rest and relaxation did wonders for helping me to beat my cold and get back to full speed. Good thing too as that Thursday, I was back on the road flying out to New York City. There was another Diabetes Expo on Saturday and I had some meetings in the City on Friday.

Before my meetings though, I had the opportunity to meet a sporting icon. I got to have breakfast with Billie Jean King. Billie has battled with type 2 diabetes and does a lot of outreach work with my sponsor (and insulin producer) Novo Nordisk, the Be the Face of Change exhibit as well as her own World Team Tennis program. As she lives in NYC, it was a great chance for us to meet each other. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Billie Jean King is one of the most down to earth, positive, easy to interact with people I have ever met. Factor that into all that she has done in her career in tennis and then her life after it, makes her larger than life!

After breakfast it was back to a meeting (not really exciting enough to write about!), lunch and an hour in the gym. It had been a while since I had done a serious weight lifting workout and my muscles were sore for the next three days. I have been training, but doing a lot of cardio workouts. Running and cycling mainly. Saturday was spent at the Javits Center in NYC at the ADA Diabetes Expo. Once again, it was really big! The biggest yet in fact. We had nearly 1200 people through the booth and I even had a chance to go up on stage and speak for a few minutes. Such great events and a whole lot of fun. There are some truly amazing people out there with diabetes!

Now it is back to office work and training. I went cycling yesterday and am going mountain biking in Sycamore Canyon this afternoon. It is a beautiful day here in Ventura County and I plan on enjoying it as much as possible!

First Game

2009-09-14T17:22:00.000-04:00

So I was in Pittsburgh last weekend for a Diabetes EXPO with a showcar and had a great time. I plan on writing a full recap to that before this coming weekend's showcar event in Detroit! However, it also meant that since I was planning on being in Indianapolis today, I would travel to Indianapolis on Sunday morning. Also, as it was opening Sunday for the NFL, the Indianapolis Colts were playing at home, I had never been to a football game and Lucas Oil Stadium is such an imposing part of the downtown Indianapolis skyline, I decided I would go to the Colts game. And so I picked up a ticket and headed into the stadium. And WOW! It is really, really big. I could have sworn that the field was smaller than normal, but it was just that the stadium was so large! They had the retractable roof open and it was a perfect afternoon at a football game. I really enjoyed myself and it was a great introduction to a live NFL game. I can't wait to go to another. I would love to see the Chargers play in San Diego, or the Broncos at Mile High Stadium. And after having visited Pittsburgh on Saturday, I want to see the Steelers play at Heinz Field. It really was a nice break from my hectic schedule and busy lifestyle.

Here's a photo from kickoff:

And the final Scoreboard:

Busy Day, Busy Race, Great Result!

2009-08-30T11:08:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a very busy day for me at the Chicagoland Speedway. The Firestone Indy Lights had everything on one day (kind of like Iowa- but that one was because of rain delays). Our practice was from 9:30-10:30, qualifying starting at 1:30 and then the race at 5:15. Chicagoland is a really fun track to race the Lights cars on because while it is a 1.5 mile, D-shaped superspeedway, the banking is high and the back straight has a bend in it. This means that it is reasonably easy to run two and even three wide through the corners flat out. And side by side racing is exactly what everyone got to see! But practice first.

We started practice with the first intention being some running in clean air (not around other cars) to get used to the set up, get up to speed and learn the line. I also spent some time running the high and low grooves so I was comfortable in both places. Then, because the car was handling well on my own, it was time to find some traffic. I had to rely heavily all day on my spotter, Chris Wheeler, to get me in a pack of quick cars and then give me all the information I needed about what was going on around me. The spotter stands right up at the top of the grandstand and talks through everything he sees on the radio to me. All of the spotters are up in the same area and so they talk amongst themselves. This means that if I see something I don’t like on track, I can let the other driver know through my spotter to their spotter. But usually before I can say anything on the radio, Chris has already informed the series tech official or the other driver’s spotter! Working in traffic in practice was a lot of fun and in the hour long session, I ran more laps than I would in the race. I got out of the car a little dizzy, but with a huge grin on my face!

Then it was a mad dash to get ready for qualifying. We didn’t feel we had the right gears in the car, so the mechanics made hay and got those changed. Then it was some quick set up adjustments and on our way. My mechanics time was especially short since I would be 2nd in line for qualifying. On an oval qualifying, it is the aggregate time of two laps done completely by yourself. You get one warm up lap and then it the clock starts. At Chicagoland, we went straight out onto turn1 and put your foot down. You only lift off full throttle after you have seen the checkered flag. I was reasonably happy with my run, but knew that if we had more time to prepare, we could have done more to the car and gone a bit quicker. I ended the session in 11th which I wasn’t too worried about since it was going to be pack racing and there would be plenty of laps to move forward.

After the morning’s practice, I was really comfortable with how competitive my car was going to be in the race. I had a good jump and when the green flag flew, the pack formed! It was a little bit chaotic into Turns 1 and 2 but things settled down as we headed to 3. Then in the middle of Turns 3 and 4, Anna Beatriz, who was trying to pass me on the outside, moved down on me and pushed me onto the apron (the flat, non-banked dirty bottom of the track). I had to get out of the throttle massively and catch the car from spinning. As a result, I lost all my momentum and fell out the back of the 16 car field. I caught my breath, restarted my heart, and set about chasing down the pack. I wasn’t a long ways behind and soon I had caught the group with a massive run in the draft. I passed about 3 cars in one go and was looking to keep moving forward when I saw contact ahead of me, wing parts flying around and the yellow flag came out. We got to turn 1 and Pippa Mann spun ahead of me. I stayed low and was fine. At that point, I had moved back up to 12th or so. Then as we restarted, the #5 car of Mario Romancini blew his engine and I moved past him.

Then it was back into the pack until after about 30 laps, there was big contact in turns 3 and 4 involving Mike Potekhen, Anna Beatriz and the innocent James Hinchcliffe. The three of them made big contact and I was lucky to avoid the spinning cars and all of the debris. When we got restarted, I had a good restart, but had to lift heading into turn 1. As a result, I lost the draft of the lead pack and dropped behind the lapped Mann. I then drafted off her and ran some very fast lap times to catch back up to the front group. I then had about 20 laps to find a way to move forward through the tight group. I got a few big runs on the group of 7 cars, but got balked each way I went it seemed! When I had a run on the outside, someone else went high. When I went low, another car went before me! I still picked of Martin Plowman as his car faded and crossed the line in 7th, right next to 6th place Sebastian Saavedra. I struggled to crack into that pack and move forward, but I was extremely happy to have finished with the lead group and with a car that was as fast as the leaders. I was comfortable running up and down the track all afternoon and can’t wait to get to the last race of the season in Homestead. Homestead won’t be as chaotic a pack as Chicagoland, but it will still be a fast close race. I have a month off of racing for September now, but will be busy traveling the country to diabetes conferences with a showcar. I am looking forward to blogging about my experiences at those really neat events.

Now though, I am in a car very early on a Sunday morning headed to downtown Chicago for an in-studio interview with ABC 7. Should be fun! Then I get to spend the day in town wandering around, shopping and relaxing before flying home to California this evening.

(Here's the link to the TV interview I was on my way to when I wrote this blog! And I have tried to embed it below.... Just ignore the advertisement before the segment :) )

The Carneros 100

2009-08-23T21:20:00.000-04:00

Today's race at Infineon Raceway went very well. The morning dawned very cool with lots of cloud cover and it was even misting at the hotel. For our warm up at 8:30, my engineer and I had made some changes to the car. My first impression was very positive and some of the other drivers struggled with the cool track temperature. There were four spinners on the out lap! We ended the session in 10th, but I knew there was more to come in the race.

I had qualified in 9th, but the #27 AFS car of Sebastien Saavedra had to change an engine before qualifying because he had crashed. When he crashed, gravel got into the belts and a new unit had to be put into the car. Because the engine wasn't out of miles, he got sent to the back. I would roll up to the green flag in 8th, on the outside of row 4. I had a decent start, fought off Plowman and tried to take advantage of moves ahead. I couldn't make any progress though and finished lap 1 in 8th. Then as we came around to finish our second lap, a full course yellow came out for the stranded car of Gustavo Yacaman. It took a few laps for them to clean up the incident and then it was back to green flag racing. I was following Mario Romancini and trying to take advantage oh him being held up by a train of cars. Then after about lap 15, I made a late braking move into turn 5, the second gear right hander after the fast left-right combination of turn 3-4. I then pulled away and up to the gearbox of my teammate Richard Phillipe. I ran most of the race in the back of the train of cars ahead and couldn't make a move stick. There were some overtaking ahead of me, but I couldn't take advantage of the chaos to move forward. Once, as I tried to overtake James Hinchcliffe ahead of me, I had to avoid Romancini trying to pass both of us. We went into turn 11, the last hairpin, three wide and all managed to come out in the exact same positions as we went into it. On lap 34 (out of 40), I was struggling with a slightly sticky throttle pedal, I lost some exit speed and Saavedra, who had worked his way through the field, made a very late pass into turn 11. I ran wide so that he wouldn't run into the side of me and had to settle for 8th. I was pleased to finish in the top 10 and with the progress my engineer and I made with the car over the weekend. The points I got for 8th put me back up to 9th in the points standings. It will be tough to catch 8th with only two races remaining, but I am sure I can solidify my 9th place in the next races.

My family and I have stopped at Harris Ranch in Coalinga alongside the 5 for dinner. It is about halfway home and they do a very tasty steak!

Top-10 and Progress

2009-08-23T00:20:00.000-04:00

Today was practice and qualifying at Infineon Raceway. The weather was perfect with sun all day and, unlike yesterday, it didn't get too hot. The Indy Lights first practice was at 9 this morning and I was focused on learning the track, evaluating the car set up and getting ready for qualifying in the early afternoon.

Practice didn't go exactly to plan as I spun off in Turn 2 after about 6 to 8 laps. We didn't have the greatest balance or grip in the car and I was just pushing hard. I lost the back end and lightly brushed the wall. The car was fine, but we did have an electrical problem. The mechanics got the problem fixed and I was back out on track quickly. There were a couple more yellow flags that disrupted the session. My lap time only put me 13th, but I knew that I could go better for qualifying.

My engineer and I worked hard to come up with good ideas for qualifying and we must have done something right! The car was a lot better in qualifying and I could really push the limits. We made the right call on when to put new tires on the car and the yellow flags actually worked in our favor this weekend. I ended the session 9th and I am really pleased to qualify back in the top 10. Watkins Glen and Edmonton are the only other two road courses where I qualified in the top-10 this season. I finished both of those races in the top-5. I am not sure that a top-5 will be possible tomorrow as it is so hard to pass around this track, but I will be doing everything I can to make it happen.

We have a quick 30 minute warm up in the morning to make some more progress and the Carneros 100 rolls off at 11:15 PT. I have a lot of family, friends and sponsors supporting me this weekend and I can't wait to go racing tomorrow!

Pre-race in Wine Country

2009-08-21T21:26:00.000-04:00

Today was preparation day for this weekend's Carneros 100 at Infineon Raceway (what that actually means is I am racing at Infineon, used to be Sears Point, right near Sonoma, San Francisco, and wine country galore). I had a good talk with my engineer and got some ideas ready to go for the first practice. I will be spending the first few laps getting comfortable with the track and learning the line. Then we will make some changes to the car and hopefully make some forward progress before the qualifying session at 1:30. I am really excited for this weekend as I have a lot of family and friends here and the track looks like a blast to drive. I have driven it before, but it was over 6 years ago! There is a lottttt of elevation change and a good mix of high speed and slow speed corners. The weather looks to be nice, a bit warm tomorrow and really good on Sunday.

You can follow my race day updates on my Twitter or on Novo Nordisk's Twitter set up for me.

Here's the schedule:

Saturday:
Practice: 9-9:45
Autograph Session: 12-1
Qualifying: 1:30-2:10

Sunday:
Warm-up: 8:30-9
Pre-Race: 10:15
Race: 11:15 Carneros 100 (40 laps/ 100 miles)

Now my family are gathering in my hotel room to head out for a group dinner!

Memory Lanes (Interstate Lanes that is!)

2009-08-20T23:53:00.001-04:00

This morning (very early in the morning, I might add) I drove up from home in Ventura County to Sonoma. I took the 5 freeway which runs into the south end of the Central Valley in California and hugs it's western edge up towards San Francisco. Once you get into the Valley, the scenery stays just about the same until you turn over to the Bay Area. However, I know the road from my house up to the Lerdo Hwy exit on the 5 very well. See at Lerdo Hwy is a racetrack by the name of Buttonwillow Raceway Park.

Buttonwillow is a great track, especially for testing. However, it holds an even more special place in my heart because it is the racetrack where I turned my first laps in a race car. I remember that day very clearly. I had been racing in the go kart in Santa Maria the weekend before my Monday- Tuesday test day at Buttonwillow. As a result, my dad and I drove straight over to Buttonwillow and headed out to the track early on Monday morning with the go-kart trailer in tow. It was a nice day- cool in the morning, but the sun was shining and it soon warmed up to be perfect testing weather. I helped my dad unload the go karts so he could work on them during the day and then I got focused on learning what I had to differently to drive a racecar as compared to a go-kart. I remember my first few laps being a bit of a blur but soooo much fun! I came into the pitlane the first time and told the team (and my dad who had borrowed a radio) that 'that was the most fun I have had in my life. Ever. Period!' Apparently, my smile was big enough to see well before I had taken my helmet off.

There were a few other big impressions from those two days of testing. The first was that I needed to really work out if I was going to start racing cars. By the afternoon of Tuesday, I was exhausted! I know I had been racing the go-karts all weekend, but still I remember taking a nap in the car during the second afternoon while the team made some changes to the car. I also remember that the mechanic who strapped me into the car (Big Mike) got the belts so tight that I was sore for a week. I have never had a mechanic be able to strap me into the car that tightly since! The Buttonwillow Ranch brought lunch out the track and we went there for dinner on Monday night. The food was pretty tasty. So if you are ever cruising along on the 5 near Buttonwillow and are getting hungry- stop in for a bite. Although it has been quite a few years since I have eaten there, so no guarantees! The final thing I remember from that first two day test of my racecar career is that I was fast. I ran a lap of 1:06.5 (it might have been a .4) and that was one of the quicker laps the team had seen around that configuration of Buttonwillow. That fact really helped me convince my parents that I should pursue a racing career. Well my love of racing all helped I'm sure. As I drove past Buttonwillow, the Buttonwillow Ranch, the Lerdo Hwy exit and the Buttonwillow buildings next to the freeway, I remembered that first test in a car (and the thousand of miles of testing I did there after that first test).

I spent some time at Infineon Raceway (the site for this weekend's race) today doing a TV interview and then headed out to my hotel for the weekend. Since I have a lot of guests and family coming up this weekend, we have organized a group of rooms at the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country. They have been really good about shuffling room reservations around and when I arrived were extremely hospitable. The hotel is beautiful and I am really looking forward to the rest of the weekend. Not to speak of the racing! But that is for tomorrow's blog. I don't drive until Saturday so tomorrow is just a prep day.

Delayed!

2009-08-18T17:55:00.000-04:00

So this post is a short one to apologize for my delay in posting anything. I have been pretty busy and when I have had time off, I am working hard to relax and enjoy what is left of summer. Since last weekend was my only weekend off in August, I went to the beach, surfed, kayaked, swam, hung out, and then went to a big BBQ on Sunday. Sunday night I was in bed by 8:30 and asleep by 8:40! I don't think I have gone to sleep that early since I was 10.... (I don't count jet lag).

I head up to Sonoma for this weekend's Carneros 100 at the Infineon Grand Prix early on Thursday morning. I have a TV interview at the track for an evening news show in San Francisco around midday. And tonight I get to talk with the DJ's on ESPN Radio San Francisco about the weekend's race! There are a lot of my family, friends, supporters and sponsors coming this weekend. It should be a lot of fun with great weather, great racing and hopefully a great result!

Mid Ohio Practice and Qualifying

2009-08-08T20:19:00.000-04:00

Today was practice and qualifying at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course in Ohio. Practice went alright, but not perfectly. The track was really cool and slippery to start with and it took a long time for the tires to come up to temperature. When the tires did come in, I was fighting the car more than I should have been. I ended the session in about 11th or so. We had some ideas on what to do with the car before the qualifying session.

Between practice and qualifying, a rain storm came through the area and thoroughly doused the track. It would be a gamble on whether the track would dry out, stay wet, or be somewhere in between! As it turned out, it was a pretty simple call. After the first 15 minutes of qualifying, the track was dry enough for slick tires. I came in and we put the first of my two sets of new tires on the car. I was running laps on the slippery track that when I did them put me in the top 5. As the track was improving every lap, by the time I had finished each lap, I had been dropped down the order to 10th or 12th. This sequence went on until I stopped with about 10 minutes left to go and put the second set of new tires on the car. The tires were just coming in and I was getting ready to put a strong qualifying time in when a full course yellow flag came out for a couple of cars off course. Unfortunately, the timing was less than ideal as my second set of tires were going to be an improvement on my first set. As a result, I was classified in 12th. Starting on the outside of row 6 will present a challenge tomorrow, especially on the start. We have made some big changes to the car for the morning and I am sure that we will have good pace in the race. Hopefully I can make some passes and move up the order!

The weather looks good for tomorrow and it may even be a lot hotter with more humidity than we have seen all weekend. It should be a perfect day for a race!

Getting to rock and roll at Mid-Ohio

2009-08-07T09:05:00.000-04:00

After my tough race last weekend in Kentucky, I am really looking forward to getting back onto a permanent road course. The last time I raced on a non-temporary road course it was the 4th of July and I had a solid 4th place result. Coming off a poor showing last weekend at the Kentucky Speedway, the team and I could use another top-5. Last weekend, we sat around waiting for the track to stop leaking water and then for it to dry up again after it rained on Saturday afternoon. Then we had a quick practice on a very dirty track and straight into the race. I started 11th because of entrant points. I moved high into Turn 3 on lap 1 to try to get past my teammate. As we got to the apex, Gustavo Yacaman ahead of me on the high side as well spun. When I lifted and tried to turn more to avoid him, the back of my car came around and I slid up into the wall. My day was done. It was very frustrating after standing around for a day and a half. But moving forward I am excited about Mid-Ohio.

I raced here in 2003 in the US Formula Ford 2000 championship and finished 2nd to my teammate. Having some track experience will help me get up to speed quickly and tune the car for what the track needs. Mid-Ohio is one of the stalwarts of American race tracks. It presents a lot of different challenges throughout the lap. There is a lot of elevation changes and a variety of technical corners. Here is a lap rundown:

The pit straight is pretty short and leads up to a very interesting sight picture. Turn 1 is a fast left hander with the turn in point just at a bridge over the top of the track. With the concrete bridge abutments, you can't see the exit as you approach the entry of the corner. Then it is the second longest straight on the track uphill up to the 'keyhole.' The keyhole is a long right handed corner that drops away significantly on the exit. The exit is critical though as it leads to the longest straight on the track. It is downhill most of the way with an easy flat bend in the middle. Then it is into a section of linked corners that lead almost the whole way back to the pit straight. Turn 4 is a right hander that has some camber at the apex and exits up the hill directly into turn 5. Turn 5 is a slow 180-degree left hander over the crest of the hill. The exit is difficult because it falls away downhill pretty aggressively and so traction is a problem Turn 6 is a 90-degree right hander that leads directly through a flat out kink into the entrance of 'Thunder Valley.' The entrance to Thunder Valley is a 3rd gear right hander with a big crest at the apex. Once again you can't see the exit of the corner when you commit to power. After the crest, the track falls away and the wall close in to narrow the sight picture. You go down into a valley and then climb back up before a fast left hander to exit 'Thunder Valley.' As you come out of the fast left hander, you drop over a crest into the 'Carousel'. The Carousel is a long right hander that leads you into a quick left kink back onto the pit straight. It is a busy, technical and very fun lap. I can't wait to drive it tomorrow!

(Photo from 2003 USFF2000 at Mid-Ohio- Thanks RacePix!)

Firestone Indy Lights Mid-Ohio Schedule:
Saturday-
Practice: 8:30-9:15
Qualifying: 11:30-12:15

Sunday:
Warm-up:8:00-8:20
Pre-Race:10:00
Race:10:15 (40 Laps)

Rained out in Kentucky

2009-07-31T20:20:00.000-04:00

There isn't a lot to talk about in today's blog. I was hoping to give a recap on practice, the changes we made for the second practice, the qualifying simulation, the qualifying result and then how I felt headed into the race tomorrow.

Alas, there were no cars driven on the track today. There was a huge rainstorm that rolled through the area yesterday. As a result, there was a lot of water that kept seeping up through the track today. The water comes up through small cracks and seams in the track and 'weeps' out. As a result, the weepers kept us from running all day. Since they had to cancel the qualifying session, they start all the cars by the car entrant points. Even though I am 9th in driver points, I will start 11th.

Luckily, we will get some practice time at midday before our race. Still, a disappointing day and a lot of waiting around.

Throttle Linkage

2009-07-29T17:50:00.000-04:00

Here's a post with some links. I have been getting some good press from a few places for different things. The top-5 in Edmonton helped that as well. I am really excited to be heading to Kentucky Speedway tomorrow and I should have a race weekend preview up in the evening. In my trolling of the blogosphere, I have read lots of witty blog posts with a fanciful story weaving the links into it, but to be honest, I am not that clever! So here goes:

Video:
Indy Lights Feature played during Iowa Speedway Race
Old Formula Ford video from Brands Hatch (You can skip this one mom!)
My Gluco Story (Don't forget to vote for your favorite story)
This one just for laughs (and because Snowball has way more rhythm than I do!)

Race Coverage:(some mentions are farther into the story than the headline :))
Racer Qualifying
Motorsport.com Qualifying
Crash.net Race Coverage
LA Times Blurb on Race

Charlie Kimball and Diabetes Chatter:
Landing Page on my Major Partner's site
Charlie and the Twitter Factory
More Twitter twittering (Couldn't resist! Some neat thoughts from Manny Hernandez)
North o' the Border
Yahoo! Yes, please! (Not sure I understand the Finance link....Health section, yes. Finance? Not so much!)

Next time maybe I will try to create a story. Or maybe I will just the links in an attempt not to embarrass myself.

Saturday from Edmonton (Delayed)

2009-07-27T11:51:00.000-04:00

Here's Saturday's race day report from Edmonton. On Monday :). I was just a little tired on Saturday night (read: exhausted and my brain would hardly function to brush my teeth!) and with an early flight on Sunday morning, I wasn't much better yesterday. So rather than ramble on through the fog of fatigue and not make much sense, I though I would wait until I got some rest. And I slept 13 hours last night- so I think that counts as rested.

Saturday was another beautiful day up in Edmonton. We had a warm-up at 8am and it was already well into the 70's and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was a perfect day for a race. We had made some changes to the car from qualifying and wanted to see how everything would react with full tanks in preparation for the afternoon's race. We improved the car's handling and I felt pretty confident after the session. I had been in the 3-5th place range all practice and it was only some traffic on my last two laps that moved me down to 7th. Still, either of the Team PBIR cars hadn't been lower than 7th in both practices and qualifying. We were looking strong for the race.

By race time, the day had gotten really hot. It was in the mid to high 80's and the track temperature was right at 110F! 50 laps on the rough, quick track was going to be very physical and quite a challenge for all of the drivers. I was very grateful for the drinks bottle I had in the car. It had a sports drink in it and it helped keep me hydrated (until the bumps knocked it loose from its mounting and I couldn't get any more liquid!). But back to the racing. I had a good start and went into the very open turn 1 in the middle of a three wide sandwich. I got through cleanly and came out in my starting spot of 6th. I was pretty comfortable with the pace of the cars in front of me, and was biding my time. A lot of the race was going to come down to tire wear, temperature and not making mistakes. As the race played out, my Firestones wore out just a bit earlier than 'Hinch' and Saavedra ahead of me. However, they were being held up by James Davison whose tires had gone off a lot more dramatically than anyone elses. We had pulled a big gap from the cars behind us, and when Davison locked up his front tires and slid wide, 'Hinch' and Saavedra snuck through. I then caught Davison very quickly, but couldn't find a way past until lap 38. When I did get through, my lap times dropped three quarters of a second and I pulled clear almost immediately. I had one small scare when I was trying to lap Ali Jackson. I misjudged whether he was letting me through or not and nearly ran into him. I avoided his car but that nearly put me into the tire barrier. I managed to save it, get past Jackson and, because of the gap I had pulled on Davison, keep my 5th place. That is where I would finish and it was a great result for the team as we had two cars in the top 5.

Now I am in Indianapolis for a few days of down time, meetings, training and emails before I head down to Kentucky Speedway on Thursday.

Don't forget the race from Edmonton will be on TV today. The coverage will be an hour on Versus TV at 4PM ET (1PM PT). Enjoy!

Landed 6th at the Edmonton Airport

2009-07-24T20:28:00.000-04:00

Today I had practice and qualifying for tomorrow's 50 laps Edmonton Indy Lights race. I had walked the track yesterday and was excited to see how the circuit actually drove. The first few laps were very very dusty and even at the end of practice, there was dust being cleaned off. However, I managed times throughout the session that put me in the 5th-7th place range. We made some changes to the car to improve a handling issue and were pretty happy heading into the qualifying. I ended up 7th, within a couple tenths of my teammate who has raced here in the past.

As the sun baked the track (and the Indy Cars put a lot of rubber down), I knew that the track I would encounter in qualify would be very different from the morning's practice. Right away, I could see the racing line more clearly with a lot more rubber down. We ran a set of used tires ( the ones from practice) to start with, and then we put on the first set of sticker tires. I made a big improvement on time and when I set that time, I was 5th. Then as people changed tires, I slid down to 9th. We stopped, made a change to the car, and put on our second set of new tires. There was 10 minutes to go in the session and it would be my last shot. I did a couple of quick laps that moved me up to 7th before taking a lap to cool the tires. I had another 4 laps before the checkered and did a time that moved me up to 6th. The next lap, I was pushing hard and nearly clouted the wall in Turn 1. So I backed off to give myself some clean track for my last two laps, figuring others would improve as well and I would get bumped down the order. I did my last two laps, but the best of the tires had gone. I still managed to end up 6th quickest. I am only .1 of a second behind Saavedra in fifth. The top 4 drivers had all raced at Edmonton before. With the rough track surface and the fast flowing corners, having been here before is a big advantage- especially since we only got 1 hour to learn the track. Tomorrow should be a great race. It is really hot and a very physical track. I am sure that people will make mistakes as the tires wear out at the end of the race.

Schedule:
Saturday July 25th:
Warm-Up 8:00-8:30AM
Race (100 Miles/ 50 laps) 2:00-3:00 PM

Thursday Thoughts from Edmonton

2009-07-23T22:58:00.000-04:00

Back at the hotel and very much ready for bed! I had a good day here in Edmonton. Went out to the track and saw all the mechanics. I spent a few minutes walking around and getting the feel of the paddock. Then it was time to put my race suit and nomex away and organize my closet. After lunch, my engineer and I went around the track. It is a typical airport track- wide, fast, very rough and with lots of options. The sight pictures are very unique with wide track width down to narrow track with walls in some places. There are some big bumps and significant curbs that you have to use. It was pretty dusty and I am sure that the first practice tomorrow morning will be slippery to start. With the warm weather, the rubber will get laid down pretty quickly.

Here's my schedule:
Friday July 24th
Practice- 9:30-10:30
Qualifying- 1:30-2:15

Saturday July 25th
Warm-Up- 8:00-8:30
Race- 2PM (100 miles/ 50 laps)

Thursday Morning in Edmonton

2009-07-23T11:35:00.000-04:00

This post is loooong overdue. I should have written some sort of blog while I was home. However, I got distracted with sleeping, digging through the mountain of paperwork on my desk, my email inbox, catching up on rest, training, getting ready for this trip (3 races/ 3 weeks on the road), sleep and friends. I had a really good time at home though and it was a well deserved break. And by break I mean, I appreciated the chance to clear my desk enough to remind myself (very briefly) what color it is. I did also make sure to take some time for me. I played tennis one evening, went for a bike ride on Saturday morning (thought it would be a short hour ride- turned into 3.5 hour half century!), played beach volleyball and BBQ'ed with friends on Sunday. Heading out for this trip, I was well rested and even had gotten a new gadget to make my travel life easier.

Last Friday I ordered an Amazon Kindle. The Kindle is a really neat e-book. It is about the size of a paperback but a lot thinner and a touch lighter. The biggest difference between a regular book and the Kindle is that I can store a lot of books on the Kindle. Rather than carting around a book, a spare in my backpack and a spare spare in my suitcase, I already have three books loaded onto my Kindle. And if I get nervous about not having enough reading material, I can browse the Amazon site and download more books. The biggest impetus for me buying the unit (it's not cheap- but worth every penny so far!) was running out of books on planes. The last few plane trips, I got 10 minutes into the 3 hour flight and finished the only book I had with me. And the movie playing didn't interest me, and I wasn't tired enough to sleep without reading first and as a result I ended up bored and frustrated. Therefore I figured the Kindle would make my life on the road a little bit easier. When I get on a plane, I am totally out of contact and enjoy the chance to do work if I want, watch movies, nap or read. I really like to read and do a lot of it, so I figured it was a solid investment. Also, you can get almost all of the newest books on the Kindle and rather than 20 or 30 bucks for a hardback- most are around 10. I figure the savings alone will cover my costs within a few months at the rate I read. And I am saving the environment- Go me!

So now I am here in Edmonton for the first of three races on the trot (pardon the English-ism). We have the airport track of Edmonton this weekend, Kentucky Speedway next weekend and then the road course of Mid-Ohio after that. Edmonton is quite a ways north. Like the farthest north I have ever raced, I think. The only place that may rival it is Knockhill in Scotland. But so far the weather here is better than Scotland! (As an aside- I googled it and at 53 degrees North latitude, it is the farthest north I have ever raced- and probably ever been!) I arrived in Edmonton yesterday afternoon, the sun was high in the sky (being so far north), it was warm and I had some time to see the city. We are staying right downtown and so my dad and I walked around. And kept walking. And kept walking. We did a full lap of the downtown area, walked through the 'taste of Edmonton' festival, by some neat buildings, and then decided we would walk up to the racetrack- more commonly known as the city centre airport. I thought it was like two major streets. I may have been slightly mistaken! It was more like 4 kms or 2.75 miles (and by Google maps estimation- 50 minutes walking). Still, even at 8:30 at night, the sun was out and shining and the weather was warm. It was a pleasant night for a walk and I enjoyed the exercise. The sun finally set at about 10 or so and it got darkish. It was still a type of twilight. It is very neat up here and I am really enjoying the city. I did an interview with a local sports radio station and everyone is so friendly and enthusiastic about the race this weekend. The interviewer, Dan, mentioned that the racing gods must bribe the weather gods for good weather as everytime the Indy is in town, the weather is perfect! Here's the link to the page with an audio file of my radio interview. I have noticed that there are a lot of big 4 wheel drive trucks, very few convertibles and a lot of cars have an electric plug hanging out the front of the grill. I asked my dad why he thought the cars had plugs on them. His reply was, "well when it's -40 in the winter, you have to heat the block of the car so it will start." Yes, it is a great place to visit in the summer when the temperature is warm and beautiful. -40 degrees? I'll pass.

Now it's off to the racetrack, work with my engineer on the car set up, walk the track, and get ready for practice and qualifying tomorrow. The schedule is a bit condensed with only 1 hour of practice before qualifying. That means it is even more important to do my 'homework' with the data, track walk and 'mental laps'. More impressions of the track and maybe even the West Edmonton Mall. Apparently it is the biggest mall in North America.

Post Toronto 100 Sunday and Monday

2009-07-15T11:24:00.000-04:00

Here is the end of my weekend wrap up blog. (Obviously I am not still on a plane.)

Sunday:
Since the Grand Prix of Germany from the Nurburgring was going to be shown live on Canadian TV on Sunday morning, my parents, my sister and I met in the hotel restaurant for a traditional Sunday morning breakfast. We managed to steal the TV remote and change the channel to the race. It was a great race and I was glad to see Mark Webber win his first Grand Prix. After liberally applying sunscreen, I headed back out to Exhibition Place to watch the Indy Car race. I saw a few people in the paddock I needed to talk to and then it was onto the grid. I talked to James Hinchcliffe, another Indy Lights driver, and thanked him for some really nice comments he made about my racing and managing my diabetes during one of the TV interviews. He thanked me for a pass I had given to him and then it was time for the national anthems, fireworks, a really cool flyover by CAF jets and the green flag. The Indy race was fantastic! There was some really good racing, a couple of bonehead moves and some interesting pit strategies. The Indy Car race had around 5 full course yellow flags in their 85 laps. They had 5 or 6 cars not finish due to damage. To put that in perspective, the Indy Lights race had no yellow flags in 50 laps of racing and had no retirements. That is even more impressive considering that everyone started the race on wet tires, stopped and put dry tires on when the track was still damp and everyone still stayed out of trouble. Congratulations to Dario Franchitti on a hard won race. A special mention has to go out to the two Canadian drivers- Alex Tagliani and Paul Tracy. When they were running 1-2, watching the main grandstand do the wave as they came down the front straight was very impressive. Neither of them got the result they deserved, but they did show why they should be in Indy Car. After the Indy Car race, I fell asleep and took a major nap. Then I headed to downtown Toronto to have dinner at the top of the CN Tower. The CN Tower is a stalwart of the Toronto skyline and the view from up there is seemingly endless. Dinner started in the twilight so I could see how far the city stretched, and by the end of the meal, night had fallen so I could see the Greater Toronto area fully lit! It was amazing. It really gave me some perspective on the whole weekend.

Monday:
On Monday, I got the opportunity to go to Novo Nordisk’s Canadian headquarters. They had asked me to come tell my story to the employees and I was happy to oblige. I went and spoke with everyone for about an hour. It was a lot of fun and it was neat to interact with more people from Novo Nordisk. At the end of the presentation, they presented me with a beautiful painting by one of Canada's leading painters, David Harrington. It is a numbered print of the Banting Museum with the ‘Flame of Hope’ represented. Sir Frederick Banting developed the theory of utilizing insulin to control diabetes in the house that has been turned into the museum. From what I understand, he was a professor at a university in London, Ontario and the story is that he came up with the idea when he was trying to come up with a topic for a speech at the school. And, now, alongside the house stands a flame that will burn continually until a cure for diabetes is found. I was really touched by the thought and by the history involved in the painting. It was my absolute pleasure to go speak with everyone there and to have been given such a touching gift was truly above and beyond.

Now, back on a plane headed home. Back to the office for a few days, some down time, hopefully some training, and then it’s back north of the border for the race in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Toronto 100 Friday and Saturday

2009-07-14T14:44:00.000-04:00

I am back on another plane and it seems like the only time I have free from distractions enough to concentrate on blogging is on airplanes headed home from a race or to a race. It also gives me a really good opportunity to reflect on things I have done, things I have coming up and my life in general. My weekend recap is going to be split into two posts- I will get the other one up this evening or tomorrow morning. I didn't want to bore everyone with a novel.

My last post was in preparation for the race weekend in Toronto. I was on an Air Canada plane headed from Orlando and Children with Diabetes to Toronto for the race weekend. Not only was a big race weekend, it was also going to be a big weekend in terms of media coverage for my Major Partner, Novo Nordisk. Novo Nordisk’s Canadian HQ is in Toronto (well in neighboring Mississauga, but still close enough) and so they were going to have guests at the race weekend as well as pitching my story to TV and print media. With two practices and a qualifying session on Friday, a warm-up and the race on Saturday, my schedule was already going to be busy. Throw in multiple media interviews, a sponsor dinner (which I thoroughly enjoyed!), and some crazy Canadian weather and my weekend became almost as hectic as my 'home race' in Long Beach.

Friday:
Practice on Friday morning went very well. I had a good feeling with the car and ended the session 8th quickest. I had traffic a bit on my fastest lap and thought there was another few tenths of a second in the car. My engineer and I had some good ideas on how to improve the car for the next practice. The biggest thing about practice on a street circuit is that the track changes lap to lap. The dirt gets cleaned up, the rubber goes down, and the line develops in big steps. The lap time changes dramatically through the weekend. In the second practice, my running was disrupted by multiple yellow flags and it was hard to get a good read on the car. However, going into qualifying, I was confident of a solid top-10 starting spot. Qualifying didn’t go quite to plan. I had a lot of confidence on my first set of new tires, but the lap time really plateaud early and I couldn’t go any quicker. After stopping for my second set of new tires, I had the same problem. I did my quick lap time early, but was unable to go any quicker. I matched my quickest time a few laps, but couldn’t make any in-roads on the fastest times. My lap time only put me 13th on the grid and I was really frustrated as I felt I had done a good job driving. I wasn’t sure what was wrong as the set up felt different but hard to pinpoint the problem areas. When we got the car back to the tent after the session, the mechanics noticed that the front roll bar had broken. After hearing that, I understood why the feeling was so hard to pinpoint. We came up with some good ideas on things to test for the morning and then it was off to the mandatory autograph session inside the exhibit hall. After the autograph session, I headed off to dinner with some Novo Nordisk people. We had dinner at a really neat restaurant at the top of the Royal Ontario Museum. When we sat down, the sun was still out and the view out over the city was great. Then as the sun set and the lights came on, the view only got better and better. I thoroughly enjoyed my conversations as well as the food and was feeling much more positive as I headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep before race day.

Saturday:
The weather for Saturday was more unsettled than for Friday with a chance of thunderstorms up until midday. With our race being held at 12:30, there was every chance of a wet race. The warm up was held under dry conditions, even though the sky became more and more threatening the whole session. The changes we made to the car in race prep gave me a lot of confidence and allowed me to set the 9th quickest time. Just as the checkered flag flew on our practice, the skies opened and it started to rain. It began lightly at first and then became torrential with lots of thunder and lightning. The lightning was so close to the track at one point that they had to stop the Indy Car practice session. The whole paddock and track were thoroughly soaked and so we had to make the tough choices on set up for the race. We could gamble that it would stay wet and set the car up appropriately, or we could gamble that it would dry out and run the set up we had practiced with in the morning. With the skies still dark and it consistently drizzling, we gambled for a wet set up. Starting 13th, we could afford to take a slightly bigger risk than other drivers. I knew we had the pace for the top 10, it was just going to take some luck and some solid passing moves. As it was, the series declared the start of the race wet which meant we had to start on wets. If the track dried enough to put slicks on, it would be up to the driver and team to make the call, stop and change tires. After the pace laps, we thought that if there was a crash and a full course yellow, we would stop for dry tires. However, even with the treacherous and changing conditions, everyone behaved themselves and the race stayed green. After 6 laps, the wet tires were pretty thrashed and most everyone stopped for dry tires. I came into the pits on lap 7. My pit stop wasn’t the fastest and when I came out of the pits, I was already a lap down back in 15th place. I caught and passed Pippa Mann for 14th place. My teammate, Richard Phillipe, was running behind me and I was struggling with the brakes into turn 1. With about 20 laps to go (out of the 50 scheduled), I locked the rears into turn 1 and Richard got a strong run on me down the straight. He passed me into the hairpin and that was pretty much all the excitement involved in my race. I finished in 15th, a full lap down on the leaders. When I compared my times from the pit lane, the in laps and the out laps, I was reasonably pleased with my performance. I had solid in lap times and out lap times. I lost over a minute in the pits to the fastest pit stop. My fastest lap time was in the top 7 as well. My sector times were all in the top 8 which was really encouraging for the pace of the car. After the race, I had another couple of interviews and then it was off to dinner, sans sponsors. When I finally crawled into bed, I was completely exhausted!

Novo Nordisk Canada, my crew, my car and me in front of the Toronto skyline and the CN Tower.

Great Experiences among Great Inspirations

2009-07-09T21:38:00.000-04:00

I am now on the plane headed from Orlando Florida up to Toronto in Ontario, Canada. I had a race last weekend and have a race this weekend, but got to spend a couple of days near the ‘most magical place on earth’. I stayed at Disney’s Coronado Springs resort where the Children with Diabetes- Friend for Life conference was being held. I went for my sponsor Novo Nordisk as they had a booth there and, because I was coming, they also had a racing car and racing games in the booth. I also gave a presentation to a VERY big room of people with slides about my racing, my diabetes and how I make them fit into my life, my dream, and my passion. I also got to spend some time with friends I have at different companies and with a very cool blogger. But let me start from the beginning.

After the great result in Watkins Glen last weekend, I enjoyed some downtime in Corning (and particularly watching my mom and sister shop in the Corning Ware factory store! Note to guys who are trying to convince wives/ girlfriends/ mistresses/ mothers/ sisters/ chef friends to go to a race: Mention Corning Ware factory store and sales and you will be headed to Watkins Glen to see some racing action!). I also got to see some really neat Corning glass. I stopped into a shop called Vitrix in the Gaffer District of Corning and the whole back of the shop was a glass blowing studio. Here’s the photo of the artists hard at work.

Then Tuesday morning, it was time to hit the road again. Caught a flight to Orlando (via Philadelphia- which has much better food options than LAX- mmmmm tasty Au Bon Pain!) and arrived in the midst of a heavy thundershower. At least it was warm. And Humid. Very Warm. And Very Humid. I got to Coronado Springs and remembered why I love Disney so much. Everything is so clean, so manicured and so prepared. After checking in and dropping my bags off in my room (a solid half mile from the front desk no less!), I met up with my sponsor to run through my presentation in the room where I would be in the morning. I walked into the room and was struck by two things. Firstly, it was A BIG ROOM! With lots of chairs for lots of people! Eeek. After the panic had subsided, I turned aorund and jumped out of my skin. I was already standing there. Well a cardboard cutout of me. I was very surprised to see myself already in the room. They hadn’t told me they were going to have a cutout made (or if they did tell me, I forgot-which is probably more likely) but it looked really good. I had to take a photo with me. We ran through the presentation and made some tweaks to the photos I had. I was very happy to have all racing shots with my helmet on, but they insisted there were some where people could see my face! Then it was back to the room, some final tweaks on the slideshow, send some emails and crawl into the very very comfortable bed.

When I got up in the morning, it felt like the morning of a race. I was out of bed before my alarm, the adrenaline was running and I was ready to go. The nerves at the size of the room from the night before were gone. At 9, with a lot of the seats filled, I started my presentation. It went very well! I seemed to be pretty well received and think I managed to get my point across and tell my story. I had a lot of questions asked- both about diabetes management as well as racing in general. I then signed autographs for just over an hour and took photos with some kids. I had a lot of the parents tell me that I was an inspiration and thank me. But looking at those kids with their multicolor pumps, medical alert bracelets, bright eyes, easy smiles and the willingness to deal with their diabetes for the rest of their lives proved to me that it wasn’t as simple as calling me an inspiration. I look at those kids and am inspired- overwhelmingly so sometimes.

After the autographs and photos were done, I headed back to my room to answer some emails, get the press release distributed, tweet, and check in on some sports scores (Go Lance! And Go Dodgers!). Then I actually got some time off! I put on some shorts and went to sit by the pool. I read a bit, listened to music and properly relaxed for a few minutes. As the clocked neared the opening of the exhibit hall at 6PM, it was back to the conference center, have a Superman moment (change into my race suit in a bathroom), and be ready for the opening of the doors. I had to weave my way through the crowd to get into the hall so I knew it was going to be busy. When the doors opened, the kids rushed in screaming and already having a blast. Novo Nordisk had a show car there in their colors and that was an insta-hit. The kids all wanted autographs and photos with me. The hall was scheduled to be open for three hours and I thought that I was going to be bored by 7:30. Boy was I wrong! I never stopped moving and the first time I checked my watch (fully expecting it to be 7 o’clock), it was 8:35! Such a blast. All of those kids and their parents having fun, learning, hanging out with other people with diabetes, being kids was so cool to see. And since this time I had my race suit on when my cardboard cutout was there, I had to do the mirror image picture!

After the hall closed, a few friends of mine from DexCom and my friends from Novo Nordisk headed to grab a drink, sit down and rest our legs. After ordering my Diet Coke (on the rocks- of course), I was thrilled to see my favorite diabetes blogger. Mrs. Kerri Sparling. And yes she is cool enough to get her own sentence when introduced. Kerri is not only a super cool person but she is also a very influential diabetes blogger that does a great job representing the diabetes community. There is no one I would rather have keeping an eye out and trying to influence change on behalf of me and the rest of the diabetes community than Kerri. She is so high energy, fun, and has lived, fought and beaten the ‘betes for over 20 years. We sat and talked and laughed and all in all had a good time. She had never seen my helmet with the drinks tube before so she wanted a few photos of that. I am sure they will find their way to her blog/ flickr/ twitter one day when she stops to catch a breath. Although I don't think she ever really stops. Or slows down! She mentioned that she follows me on this blog and that makes me way nervous. All in all it was a great trip. And even better, I am on a plane on my way to another race!

I am really excited for the race in Toronto. After last weekend’s results, the team’s confidence and my confidence are at an all season high. We left Long Beach with a great race car and since Toronto is a street race like Long Beach, I am sure we will have a good starting point. I get there midday today and will walk around the track this afternoon. It was pointed out to me yesterday that my ‘tweets’ about walking around the track make people laugh because ‘you are supposed to drive around the track!’ Well yes, but having never driven there, it will give me a good first impression to walk the track, look at all the big bumps and sight pictures.

This weekend’s racing schedule (Eastern Time):

Friday July 10th:
Practice: 8:50-9:50
Practice 2: 12-12:40
Qualifying: 3:10-3:55
Autograph Session: 4:30-5:30

Saturday July 11th:
Pre-Race Practice: 8:50-9:20
Pre-Race: 12:15
Race (50 Laps) 12:30

Follow the coverage of the race weekend on my Twitter or on the Indy Lights site. Also the race will be shown live on IndyCar.com.

And one last comment about Kerri and her blog- SixUntilMe.com. She is cooler than she seems online because she can change a set of brake pads and rotors!

Watkins Glen Follow-Up

2009-07-08T15:20:00.000-04:00

Here's the press release covering my results from this past race weekend:

Fourth Place on the Fourth of July for Kimball

Charlie Kimball achieved his season best finish this past weekend in the Corning 100 Firestone Indy Lights Race held at Watkins Glen. Kimball, who is the only driver in the history of the IRL to race with diabetes, came back from a tough practice session to qualify the Levemir® #35 Team PBIR car fifth on the grid. He then translated that into a fourth place finish in the race. The result moves Kimball into the top-10 in the championship battle.

The race weekend at Watkins Glen in upstate New York started out in a promising manner as Charlie Kimball was looking forward to returning to road courses and to a circuit where he had tested. The practice session on Friday morning immediately got off to a poor start when an electrical problem kept the 24-year old racer in the pitlane while Team PBIR tried to get the car to fire up. After about half the session, Kimball was able to take to the track and get to work developing the car set-up. Unfortunately, after coming back into the pits to make a set-up change, the team were unable to get the car to re-fire, ending Kimball’s session after only 5 laps. He still managed the 13th quickest time (out of 20 cars).

“It is a shame to have lost all of that track time,” said Kimball afterwards. “We had some set up changes to try before we head into qualifying. Now I am going to be a bit blind.”

Working through the afternoon, the team were able to solve the car problem before qualifying so Kimball was able to take to the track with confidence to qualify. With fresh tires and determination, the young Californian driver quickly went about establishing pace while still learning the limits of the circuit. Kimball notched up quick times lap after lap and held steady in fourth position. It was only after the checkered flag fell that he was bumped down one place by championship leader JR Hilderbrand.

“What a great result in qualifying!” exclaimed the Camarillo, California native. “I know I got pipped by JR right at the end there, but 5th is still the best qualifying result of the year. From there, a podium is not out of the question.”

On Saturday morning, Kimball had the opportunity to take to the circuit for one more session to work on race set up with full fuel loads. During the practice, Kimball continued the team’s testing program and proved their pace. Kimball set the fastest time of the session, proving the #35 car deserved its qualifying position.

Later that afternoon, on the 4th of July, the Firestone Indy Lights field gridded up for their 100 mile race with Kimball on the inside of the third row. As the green flag was waved and the field accelerated towards the sweeping downhill first corner, Kimball held his position but was pinched on the exit and lost a place to Felipe Guimaraes. Kimball continued to pressure Guimaraes throughout the green flag racing and stayed close through both re-starts. Kimball was promoted back to fifth when James Hinchliffe spun into the wall.

As the final caution came out with four laps to go, everyone knew it would be a sprint to the finish. The green and white flag came out together and the field put the hammer down for one final racing lap. Third place Sebatsien Saavedra fell victim to a hard charging Guimaraes with Kimball pursuing the pair. As Saavedra dropped a couple of wheels exiting turn 6, Kimball closed and looked to the inside of turn 7, “the toe of the boot”. On the exit, Saavedra missed a shift allowing Kimball to draw alongside the AFS car as they approached turn 8, “the heel of the boot”. Saavedra attempted to block Kimball to maintain his position, eventually banging wheels with Kimball. Kimball held firm and won the position holding fourth place across the finish line.

“What a race,” said Kimball afterwards. “We misjudged the track and weather conditions a little, but still had a very fast race car. I can’t wait to get to the next race and fight for that first podium!”

With this third consecutive top ten finish, Kimball continues to lead PBIR to the front of the Firestone Indy Lights field. Kimball narrowly missed out on the fastest race lap, proving both he and the team are worthy competitors in the series just below the Indy Racing League, the pinnacle of US open wheel motorsport.

Kimball heads to Orlando, Florida to continue sharing his story as an athlete with diabetes at the Children with Diabetes Friends for Life conference before heading to Toronto for the next race in the championship July 13th.

And here are some cool links to different articles about this past weekend's race and the team's performance. Crash.net; Scene at the track; and the race report.

Great Day at the Watkins Glen

2009-07-05T11:20:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was race day at Watkins Glen. After qualifying 5th on Friday, I was really excited about the race. I knew we had a decent car and a solid chance for the best result of the year. We also had the chance to improve the car in a half hour morning practice session. After qualifying, we were reasonably happy with the car, but had some changes that we wanted to make. We had originally planned to make the changes to the car in the first practice session but because of a broken battery, we weren’t able to. There is another short anecdote about the battery story at the end of this blog.

So, we had decided on the changes we were going to be making in practice and had a good idea of what we needed to do with the car to prepare for the race. With the race being 30 laps (100 miles) long, there was going to be more fuel in the car than at any other time during the weekend. The practice went very well because the car was pretty good to start with and I was within the top 4 times the whole time. Then with a couple of laps left, I set the fastest time of the practice. That time was only .5 of a second slower than I qualified and I had a full load of fuel on board! It was very encouraging heading into the race. It also made me wonder how much better we could have qualified if we could have made the changes to the car during Friday morning’s practice.

The race began in almost ideal conditions- high 60’s, a bit breezy (gusting up to 15 miles an hour) and only a few clouds in the sky. Starting 5th, I had the inside line headed into turn 1. I had hoped to box the outside line of cars out and pick up a couple of spots. Unfortunately, I didn’t get as good a jump as the outside row and got shuffled back into 6th. As the race settled down and the pace picked up, I knew I had a good race car as I could close the gap to the cars in front of me without a lot of trouble. However, once I got into the ‘dirty’ air behind the group, I couldn’t keep the pace up to pass them. I was running a solid race in sixth, with the lead group, pulling away from the rest of the field for the first 12 laps or so. Then, headed down into turn 6 (a downhill 3rd gear right hander without a lot of run-off area), James Hinchcliffe spun out of 4th place and backed into the wall. There was a full course yellow while the safety team cleared his crashed car out of the way. On the restart, I held my position and settled back into the rhythm of the race. Then on lap 24 (out of 30) I made a small mistake and dropped behind the group of James Davison (2nd place), Sebastian Saavedra (3rd place) and Felipe Guimares (4th place) by about 10 car lengths. I put my head down and closed the gap back to them, setting a time that would be the second fastest race lap and only .1 off of my qualifying time. Then with 3 to go, a yellow flag flew for the crashed car of Wade Cunningham into the tires at turn 11. I knew that there was going to be a one lap dash for the checkered flag and any chance of 4th place (or higher) would happen on the ensuing restart. I didn’t get the best restart and watched as Guimares passed Saavedra into turn 1. I closed up as much as I could while keeping my teammate for this race, Richard Phillipe, behind me. Then on the exit of turn 6, Saavedra dropped two wheels in the dirt on the exit compromising his run into turn 7. I managed to squeeze a nose under him on the entry, forcing him to run a wide slower line on the exit. It became a drag race up the hill out of turn 7 towards turn 8 with me on the inside. Saavedra missed a shift allowing me to pull alongside, wheel to wheel. In a last desperate effort to keep me from passing him, Saavedra jerked across to the right, making contact wheel to wheel. I kept my foot in the throttle and outbraked him into turn 8. I held the car (not knowing if there was any damage from the contact) through the last 3 corners and came across the line in 4th place! It was a great result for the team as a whole because Phillipe finished in 5th (after Saavedra was handed a penalty for the blocking/ contact move). The points from the top-5 finish move me solidly into the top-10 in points and within striking distance of the top 6 or 7. With the next five racetracks either being road courses or ovals I have driven, I am confident I can continue this strong of good results. Going back to Milwaukee, I now have 3 top-10’s in a row and can’t wait for next weekend’s race in Toronto. It is a street race, a la Long Beach, and looks like just as much fun.

Speaking of Canada, after the battery problem in first practice, the team borrowed a used battery from another Indy Lights team for the qualifying session. A special thanks to them is definitely in order (except I am not sure which team’s battery we ended up using! 3 teams lent us their spares to run). And since, with it being a holiday in the US (4th of July and all) the closest place that had the specific battery we needed was in Hamilton, Ontario….Canada. The drive from Watkins Glen to Hamilton is about 4 and 1/2 hours, plus any wait time at the border. Since the team had all their personnel committed to getting the cars ready for qualifying and the race the next day, my dad jumped in the rental car equipped with a GPS and headed off! He made the trip, sat for an hour and a half at the border control, got the battery shop to wait an hour and half for him to get there, got two batteries and got back to the Glen before midnight Friday night. He then got up early to give them to the team so that the mechanics could fit the new battery for the Saturday morning practice! It was a big effort and it helped to remove one of those niggling worries in the back of my mind when the race started. So firstly, thanks to my dad for making the round trip and then thanks to the battery shop in Hamilton for staying there and having the batteries in stock.

5th on the grid for the Glen!

2009-07-03T20:11:00.000-04:00

Today didn't start perfectly this morning. In practice this morning, the car wouldn't start. The dash was going all crazy because of the low voltage in the car. It turns out that the battery had decided to break between the trailer and the pit lane. We managed to get the car started and I did 5 laps. It was very difficult as my dash readout had gone into 'safe' mode and wasn't showing me any information. As a result, I was shifting on the rev limiter, guessing on gears and trying to relearn the track all at the same time. Plus I was worried about the car dying on me during the session. However, even with those limited laps, when I did the lap time I did, it was fifth quickest. I ended the session 13th, but was very pleased with the car. Once we had found a battery to replace the broken one, we were ready for qualifying. We had planned to make three or four changes to the car during practice to improve the set up. As a result, we were going into qualifying a bit unprepared.

Even with the problem in practice, qualifying went very well. I had a solid qualifying run and ended the session 5th. However, it wasn't quite simple and easy. It was more than 15 minutes into the 45 minute session before I could get a real lap time. There were a couple of full course yellows before anyone had done any laps. Once we got going, the car wasn't perfect but was still very competitive. After setting a time good enough for 6th, I pitted for new tires. We changed the tires and then I went back out. The track was rubbering in all the time and getting quicker and quicker. I then set a time good enough for 5th and then was slid back down to 8th. I then set a time that put me 4th in the order. I was setting up for a last lap run at a quick time when I encountered traffic. As I pulled into the pits after the checkered flag, I was told by my engineer on the radio that I had one other driver bump me to 5th. Still, after the morning I had, I am very happy with that!

As a reminder, I have a practice tomorrow at 9-9:30AM and then my race is from 1-2:30PM (30 laps/100 miles). It should be shown live online at www.indycar.com/indylights (sometimes Firefox has some issues running the video- I've found at least.)

Ready for the Glen

2009-07-02T21:20:00.000-04:00

I am here in Watkins Glen and am soooo ready for this race weekend! I had a great weekend off last weekend which included a 2 hour mountain bike ride, some beach volleyball, time by the pool, card games, a Dodger game and I had time to go see Transformers. It was great to get some time to relax and recharge with all the traveling and racing I have been doing.

But now I am back at the race track and raring to go! I am really looking forward to this weekend because it is such a spectacular track set in some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. I tested here a few weeks back and it went very well. Now I am ready to go race at the Glen.

To get ready for tomorrow, I took a golf cart around the track with my engineer and talked about the different corners and how the car handles. We also talked race strategy, qualifying strategy and made a plan for the practice sessions. After the car had been "tech'ed" (to check it's legality) I got suited up and checked the seat belts and pedal positions. Just as I was finishing up, my parents and sister arrived. We headed out of the track and drove up to the village of Watkins Glen for dinner. Watkins Glen sits at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. My race engineer, Dave, recommended the Glen Motor Inn for dinner as it looks out over the lake from a hillside. And I am so glad we took his advice! The food was very tasty, the view was staggering and it was so great to have my family around me. I love travelling and love what I do. Being able to enjoy that with my family makes it that much better! Here is a photo from dinner:

Here is my schedule for the Corning 100 at Watkins Glen International Speedway:
Friday July 3rd:
Practice: 10:30-11:15AM
Qualifying: 1:45- 2:30PM

Saturdady July 4th (Yay Independence Day- and fireworks!):
Practice: 9-9:30AM
Corning 100 Race: 1-2:30 PM (30 Laps/ 100 Miles)

TV Schedule: Monday July 6th on Versus TV at 11PM ET (8PM PT)

Really Cool Feature Video

2009-06-25T16:40:00.000-04:00

During the coverage of last weekend's Miller Lite 100 Firestone Indy Lights race from Iowa Speedway, Versus ran a feature on me, my racing and my racing with diabetes. I have to thank the IMS Productions team as it is awesome and told my story so very well. All in all, I was very happy with it and thought I would share it here with everyone. It is also on YouTube, the Indy Lights website and the Indy Car Media Center.

Enjoy!

Long Day at the Office in Iowa

2009-06-21T00:20:00.000-04:00

Today has been a very long day at the office. It is going on 18 hours up and working!

The day started with a driver's meeting at 7:45 and then practice at 8:15. I had to spend quite a few laps getting up to speed and learning the track. Having never been here before, it is an intense experience early on. It is 7/8 of a mile with some big banking and so flat out, you do a lap in just over 20 seconds. The laps add up fast when they are that short! And you spend almost the whole lap turning so you can get a bit dizzy. The car was pretty good right away though and we ended the first practice 4th quickest. The hardest part about the track is a very big bump between turns 1 and 2. The asphalt has settled where the tunnel under the track is and left a nasty bump right at the apex.

Second practice the day had heated up dramatically. In the first session, the air was about 72 but in the second it was closer to 83 and very high humidity. We ran more laps and did a qualifying simulation. I encountered traffic on my quicker laps and so we were only 5th in our half of the field, about 8 or 9th overall.

Next up was qualifying. I had drawn the 4th spot to go out and qualify. I had a good couple of laps and didn't have issues getting the car started or anything dramatic. We missed the set up and the aerodynamic balance by a little bit. I ended up 8th on the grid of 18 cars. I was reasonably happy as a lot of the other drivers were really pushing hard in qualifying and taking bigger risks. There was no better example than James Davison driving for Vision Racing- he set a track record for his first lap and the proceeded to spin down and across the grass on the exit of turn 4 on his second lap! He managed to not hit anything, but that was down a lot to luck.

So our race was scheduled to run at 8PM and finish by about 8:45. There were rumors running rampant in the paddock that the whole evening had been canceled because of moisture 'weeping' up through the track. The series decided to cancel the Indy Car qualifying and focus and doing what they could to get the track dry for our race. They were also trying to run us early (7:15) because there was a band of rain headed towards the track. It took them a lot longer than expected to get the track ready and it wasn't until about 9PM when we finally rolled off for the start.

Before the green flag, one of the other cars pulled into the pits with a problem. On the start, I made a solid move on the outside of Pippa Mann to move up to 6th. After a few laps of green flag running, it went yellow for Pippa, who had spun coming off turn 4. When we went green again, Pippa's teammate Martin Plowman moved past me into turn 1. I was quicker than Martin, but I couldn't quite get close enough to make a pass. Then as we encountered lap traffic, I moved past Martin. I was trying to chase a group down when I encountered Pippa running slow a few laps down. I moved to the inside of her into 3 and she chopped down on me until we hit. We both kept the car going straight, but I lost so much momentum that 3 cars moved past me. I was easily quicker than Davison and Hildebrand ahead of me, but again I couldn't find a way past. Then with 2 laps to go, we encountered a group of lapped cars that included Pippa again. Hildebrand (leading the Davison and then me) went passed Pippa late into 1. Davison tried to stuff it down underneath her very late and aggressively. I could see where this was going and backed off to avoid their crash. Sure enough, Davison slid hard up into Pippa and then both spun up towards the wall. I slid down the inside and picked up 7th place for my efforts.

I truly believe we had the car to fight for the top 5. We may have been running too much downforce, especially as the evening cooled off. If we had raced when it was hotter at about 8, we might have been a little more racey. Still I am very happy with the result and it equals my best finish from St. Pete. We finished on the lead lap with a fast far with 4 straight wheels and decent points.

I am now really excited about heading to the next three races. We go to Watkins Glen in upstate New York July 4th, and then the street race in downtown Toronto, followed by the airport track in Edmonton. I tested at the Glen and love the track- I can't wait to go back there and race!

Now it is time to head back to California and take my dad out to dinner to celebrate Father's Day. Without him, none of my racing would have been possible. He is a constant source of inspiration, guidance, wisdom and advice. Thanks and I love you, Dad!

The Glen

2009-06-13T17:55:00.000-04:00

I wrote a blog way back in the dark ages of my blogging (so…in March!) about my favorite race tracks all over the world. I have to change/add/ addend that list. Well up towards the top of the list needs to be Watkins Glen. I had the opportunity to test there on Monday as preparation for the race there July 4th. What a track! After my first few laps, I came into the pits and I couldn’t adequately express how awesome, impressive and incredible the track is to drive. I had seen some footage of it before, but until you experience the G-loads, the cornering sight pictures, the whole setting, you have no idea how great it is! The track is set in upstate New York in the Finger Lake district. It sits about 10 minutes outside of the little town of Watkins Glen which in turn sits at the south end of Lake Seneca. One of the biggest draws to the area is the wineries around the lake and the locally produced wine. Also, the change of colors in the fall is supposed to be particularly impressive when mixed with the smell of fresh crushed grapes. There are some waterfalls within minutes of the track and amazing views everywhere you look. Couple that with one of the most challenging and enjoyable tracks I have ever driven, in Europe, Asia, Australasia, or North American and I think I may have found a new favorite track. I can’t wait to come back here and race in July.

The Big Easy and the ADA

2009-06-11T11:58:00.000-04:00

Last Friday I flew from LA to New Orleans, Louisiana for about a day and a half for the American Diabetes Association’s National Convention. It is a big meeting with scientific sessions, exhibit halls, abstract poster exhibits, award ceremonies and various diabetes related malarkey. I was going because my sponsor, Novo Nordisk, had a show car there. Since they are sponsoring my racing program this season, it made sense for them to have a branded car there. The show car was set up in a really cool plaza just adjacent to the river and alongside Novo Nordisk’s “Be the Face of Change” photo exhibit. The car looked great and had a lot of people come by to see it, meet me and get a photo by the car. I was there from 10-2 and not only did I get to meet a lot of the people from Novo Nordisk, but I got to meet a lot of really neat people wandering through New Orleans- either for the ADA or just passing by and stopped to see what the fuss was all about. With my show car commitments, I didn’t get to see as much of ‘the Big Easy’ as I would have liked. I did however get to experience Bourbon Street in all its glory (well maybe not ‘all’ as I wasn’t there for Mardi Gras!). I had dinner on Bourbon Street Friday night and was utterly unprepared for everyone walking down the middle of the street, drinking and having an all around raucously good time. Still it was an absolute awesome day and a half and I can’t wait to go back and spend some time in New Orleans. If for nothing more than the great seafood and Creole cooking!

My Magical Disappearing DexCom

2009-06-04T18:18:00.000-04:00

Last weekend at the race in Milwaukee I tested the durability of my DexCom SEVEN Receiver. It was completely unintentional but still worthy of a good story.

So it was the first practice session of the race weekend and I was building up to speed and starting to push. (Omitting how it happened as I would rather not relive the crash- you can read the whole story here) When all had come to rest after the crash, the safety crew arrived to make sure I was ok. I assured them I was, other than my pride and budget having been dented. When I climbed out of the car, I reached in to grab my DexCom Receiver. What I pulled out was my empty carrier! So I looked into the seat thinking it had just fallen out as I climbed out. Nope. Not there. Not anywhere I could see. At this point I am starting to get a little more panicked that I have lost it. The Delphi Safety Team notice and ask what’s up. I explain that I have lost it and it’s important and it looks like a pager and it fits in here and blah blah blah. They put me in the back of the SUV off to the medical center to get checked out sans DexCom. They look me over, make sure I fine (I was!) and then ask about the sensor on the back of my arm. I then go through the CGMS explanation and the medical team gets very interested and asks to the see my graph. I explain that I lost the receiver in the crash and could they keep an eye out for it. Of course.

So then it was back to the team and my car which was badly in need of some major TLC. We got to work on taking the bent and broken pieces of the car off and putting new stuff on. I was only entrusted to running the vacuum and a rag to get the dirt out of the car and the rubber marks off the bodywork. I am sure that when I pull my seat out, my DexCom will be sitting in the car waiting for me to get in range so it can give me readings. But no…not there either. We get the car finished just in time for qualifying. And by ‘we’, I mean my awesome mechanics and engineer! I just tried to stay out of the way. So after qualifying was over and I had thanked my team as much as I could, I went looking for my DexCom again. I had an autograph session in a couple of hours so I didn’t have long. I checked with the Delphi guys again and nope- they hadn’t seen it and none of the workers on track reported it. Checked with the medical staff and nope they hadn’t seen it either. I checked with the team of the car that had run into me in the crash and they didn’t see it either.

So my last chance (and a slim one at that!) was to go walk around the wall where I had hit it and see if my receiver had flown over the wall. My dad walked along the top of the wall and I looked into the gap between the SAFER barrier and the concrete wall. There is a gap of about 18-24 inches between the barrier and the wall that it could potentially have dropped into. My dad was looking through the fence to see if it had made the one in a million shot through the chain link. We started where I first hit the wall (where there was first green paint) and worked our way around the track. After about 100 feet I figured I was going to be getting a new DexCom.

And then after 150 feet from my first impact, I saw it. It was lying face down in a couple of collected leaves in the corner of the gap between the SAFER barrier and the wall. I jumped in, grabbed and held it triumphantly over my head. I am sure I looked like a complete tool, but it was the first success of a very hard (and expensive) day! I hit the button thinking, ‘Yeah I’ve found it, but now it won’t work.’ But no, it turned on and there was the antenna logo in the corner saying I was out of range (and had been since I so rudely left it out there all on its own!). Within 5 minutes, it was back to reading my numbers and giving me a graph. It has a couple of small scratches on the side of the receiver and that is it!

I can’t think of a better product endorsement- I hit the wall at 160mph, my DexCom went flying out of my car, ended up by the wall and worked when I found it! I’m a fan.

(And yes I was so overwhelmed that I had found it, I forgot to take pictures of it either in situ, or before I had cleaned it off and put it back into service.)

Home from Milwaukee

2009-06-01T03:40:00.000-04:00

I am on the plane from Chicago to Los Angeles and I have had some time to reflect on this past weekend at Milwaukee. I have drawn some interesting conclusions and enjoyed the random musings that those conclusions led me through. Firstly though, I will start with the cold hard facts of the race weekend at the Milwaukee Mile. (I didn’t get a blog up on Saturday night after practice and qualifying for a few reasons. The biggest of these was that by the time I had a moment to myself on Saturday, I was mentally and physically exhausted. And it was late and I needed a good night’s sleep before ‘race day’……Enough excuses yet?)

Saturday at Milwaukee was Practice and Qualifying. We had a very busy day with the driver’s meeting being held at 7AM and then first practice at 8:15, second practice at 11:30, and qualifying at 2:30 PM with the autograph session at 5:30 for an hour. So my alarm went off at 5AM (?!). Practice didn’t go as planned…at all. The morning was cool and on my 4th lap, before the tires were all the way up to temperature, the back end of the car stepped out exiting turn 2. I spun up the track and hit the wall with the back of the car, knocking the rear wing off and bending both rear corners. Then Wade Cunningham, who was running behind me, had nowhere to go and plowed into me. His impact bent the front suspension and knocked my front wing and nose off the car. I came out of the crash physically unscathed, mostly. My pride (and crash damage budget) took the biggest hits. And my DexCom Seven receiver- but that is a very interesting tale for another day. As I mentioned earlier, the schedule was very tight and so my crew and I started frantically working on getting the car ready for practice possibly but more hopefully qualifying. I was only entrusted to cleaning what bodywork remained on the car, taking things off the car and working a pair of safety wire pliers. My crew, however, were absolutely phenomenal! They rocked it getting the car back together and when we pushed through tech and took our place in line for qualifying, they were more than a few impressed looks from other teams. Since I had so little practice, and my confidence was shaken from the crash, I focused on making sure the car felt right for the race on Sunday. I didn’t push and still managed to out qualify another driver. I would start the race on Sunday in 15th. There were only 16 cars at the race, which might make the impact of the crash on the whole weekend slightly reduced. Rather than be at the back of a grid of 25 cars, I would only be 15th. This would also give me a better shot at a top-10 result. And the final excuse for not blogging Saturday night is that I went to dinner with one of my sponsors in downtown Milwaukee. We dined at a great restaurant right by the shore of the lake. It was a great meal with really enjoyable conversation (very little to do with my crash) that helped take my mind of how difficult the day had been. The racer in me didn’t want to relive the day just before I was trying to get a good night’s sleep and prepare for what was always going to be a difficult race.

Sunday dawned clear, crisp and sunny. It was an absolutely beautiful day to be at the racetrack. (Beware: small digression ahead!) I have said to a lot of people that there is no place I would rather be than at a racetrack. My favorite time of the day at the races are in the mornings and evenings when it is quiet and the day either holds the promise of glory or the glow of a job well done. Those are the moments when I only begin to understand how deeply I love racing. (Digression over….for now) Our race was scheduled for an 11:30 start. The track temperature was up quite high and the air temp was still cool. That combination makes for a fast racetrack. My start was good and I immediately moved up to 14th position. I was chasing down my teammate for this race weekend, Pablo Donoso, even as I relearned the car. His car looked worse than mine felt and I worked my way past him. Then as I closed on Martin Plowman ahead of me, his car slowed and he moved to the inside coming off Turn 4- another spot in the bag. They threw a yellow flag to recover Plowman’s car and so the pack bunched back up.

On the restart, Jonathon Summerton spun trying to put the power down. He kept it out of the wall, but it meant we went back to yellow for a lap. Summerton’s car was a lot better than mine and he managed to repass me after we got back up to speed. I was surprised as the race then settled into a very long green stint. My pace was not close to that of the leaders and on an the mile long track, it didn’t take long before the leaders had caught and lapped me. I then not only had to deal with a mentally challenging race track and an ill handling car, but manage my car position to stay out of the leaders way and be considerate of the race they were having. My spotter, Chris Wheeler, helped me immensely with this and without his help, it would have been a lot harder race altogether. I talked about getting used to using a spotter in my Kansas practice report and it really paid off here. Then, with about 50 laps (out of the 100) to go, it went yellow for a crash in Turn 2. Summerton had spun and hit the wall hard. Chris talked me through the debris field and we settled into line behind the pace car. I was now 11th, the only car on my particular lap, and with the car I had, I was focused on just getting it home and taking any points I could get.

We went back to green and I had a whole train of cars on the lead lap stacked up behind me. I worked really hard to let them past me without disrupting their races. Then with about 25 to go, it went yellow again. Daniel Herrington had spun coming off Turn 4 and hit the pit wall quite hard. His race accident was similar to an accident he had in testing at Milwaukee a few weeks back. I was now up to 10th and holding onto the car for all I was worth! That is where I would finish, 4 or 5 laps down. I did however finish and get a top-10 in the process. Not where I wanted to be, but the best I could have hoped for.

The first conclusion I came to after today’s race is that on an oval, if your car is bad, your race feels very long and is not a lot of fun (or it’s a very short race with a big bill). On a road course, as a driver, you can do a lot more about it. But on an oval, you just have to take what you can get and survive to fight another day. I learned more about oval racing this weekend than I had in Indy or at Kansas. The lessons were definitely a lot more poignant.

The second rumination I had was that last week in Indianapolis (and even at our race in Kansas) we had a car good enough for the top 5-8 places and I was classified 13th in both races. Here in Milwaukee I had a car that wasn’t good for much of anything and I got a top 10. Motorsports is a funny old thing sometimes, but there is nothing else in the world I would rather be doing.

I can’t wait to tell the story of my magical disappearing DexCom.

But now I am exhausted and am ready for a good nights sleep in my own bed, spending some quality time with my friends (and my yellow lab, Kona) in the next few days and getting ready for my next adventure.

Thanks to LAT and Novo Nordisk for this great photo of my crew from Indianapolis.

Mega Milwaukee Mile

2009-05-29T18:17:00.000-04:00

I am here at the incredible Milwaukee Mile and am all ready to go for the race here this weekend. I had the opportunity to come test here a few weeks back. It was well worth it! After Indianapolis which was 2.5 miles, flat out at 190 mph, Milwaukee is very very different. The oval here is a mile long with very limited banking. As a result, you have to lift at both ends of the track. The track is part of the state fairgrounds and so there is one big grandstand down the front straight. That is very different to Indy which seats 300-350 thousand people. I am looking forward to getting back on track as it is more like a road course with two 180 degree high speed corners than an oval. Also, my race engineer won this race last year and made everyone else look ordinary. So I know I will have a good car and hope that my inexperience here and on ovals in general (this will be my 3rd ever!) doesn't hurt us too much. Practice starts tomorrow morning at 8:15 for an hour, then second practice at 11:30 or 12:30 for 30 minutes, and the last on track session for Saturday will be Qualifying at 2:30PM. There will an autograph session at 5:30 at the track with all Indy Lights and Indy Car drivers in the paddock. Sunday the pre-race starts at 11 with the Husar's House of Fine Diamonds 100 presented by Charter starting at 11:30. It will be 100 hard laps around this track and tire wear may be an issue depending on the weather. The forecast looks good at the moment, but this near the lake, things can change by the minute.

For a cool online article, check this out!

Weekend of Fun

2009-05-26T12:00:00.000-04:00

I sit here at the desk on Tuesday morning and just shake my head at the weekend I have had. My weekend really started on Thursday morning when my race weekend began. Then on Friday, after my race, I watched the Miller Lite Carb Day concert at the Speedway. It was 3 Doors Down and I like a lot of their music. I had to watch from afar as the crowd was enormous! I was too tired to fight my way to the front of the group and so I watched the concert and the entertaining crowd at the same time. Then I headed to downtown Indianapolis for dinner (Weber Restaurant) with my parents. I was very frustrated with the race result, but after talking through everything with them and listening to their perspectives, I was feeling a lot better about everything.

Saturday, I had lunch with my parents at Panera Bread. It was my first time eating there and I loved it. The only other experience I had with a Panera was through a fantastic diabetes blogger, Kerri Sparling. Her post Employee of the Month was a great story and a good introduction to a very tasty lunch place! We had about an hour to kill before they had to get to the airport for their flight back to CA. My mom wandered into Bath and Body Works while my dad and I soaked up the sun on a bench outside. We commented on the parking meters in the mall (Seriously? Pay for parking to buy things at the shops?) the growing humidity with the heat, the building thunderheads and the possibility of rain during the 500 on Sunday. My dad was happy to let me go to the race while he could watch it from the comfort of the couch from home (and fast forward through all the commercials). My mom came out after finding an appropriate thank you present for the wife of my tire guy (and yes 'tire guy' is an official technical team designation......sorta) who has been putting me up while I am staying here in Indy. We walked into Barnes and Noble as I was completely out of reading material and I found three books I hadn't read on the bargain priced aisle. Score! I tend to go through books like they are newspapers and while some people have pointed out that libraries do exist, my travel schedule makes that more complex. I packed my parents off to the airport and came 'home' and took a nap! I love days off when I don't feel guilty about taking a nap or just lounging around. I went out to dinner with the team principal and then headed in to Broad Ripple to see what the nightlife would be like on the 500 weekend. Also, I was planning on meeting up with some friends I went to High School with who had just graduated from Purdue. They came to see me race and were staying the weekend to experience the 500 up close. As they had been to school here for 4 years and had never gotten to Indy for the race, they figured they should in their last year. I called it a reasonably early night and headed home.

My alarm on Sunday went off early enough for me to watch the Monaco Grand Prix live. I have seen either the 500 or the Monaco GP the last few years, but never both on the same day (because of time differences or TV availability). This year I was determined to watch every lap of both. After the race, I grabbed my stuff and headed out to the Speedway. There was already traffic at 10AM- 3 hours before the race started and parking within 5 blocks of the racetrack was full! Walking through the city of Speedway towards the Speedway I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the event. There were people everywhere! The 5 lane street leading into the track (16th Street) was a sea of people. It was unbelievably cool. I knew the size of the grandstands and knew that they were usually full, but wow! I walked into the garage area and walked around on pit lane. The atmosphere was already electric and it was still 2 hours before the green flag. My team had arranged for some of its guests to be in a suite in Turn 2, right at the track side level. I walked out there and got ready for the start. Then I realized that Peyton Manning (Indianapolis Colts Quarterback and Super Bowl MVP) was in the suite next to us with a group of players and their wives. Very cool!

The race was good and the crowd was amazing. In the last 5 laps, you could see the whole grandstand moving as people stood up for the run to the finish. It was like an ocean moving in all these different colors. I have been to great races and neat events, but I have never experienced anything as big as that. The sheer size of everything made the biggest impact on me.

Then I came home, went to bed early and slept over 12 hours! :)

Here's a photo from the suite balcony (and I think the big guy in the black in the foreground plays for the Colts...and if he doesn't he should!). Check out the full Turn 2 grandstand in the background:

Frantic Freedom 100

2009-05-22T17:49:00.000-04:00

Today's Freedom 100 was a lot of fun even though I didn't get the result I wanted. We were pretty confident as a team heading into the race. My teammate was 6th on the grid and I was 7th. I didn't have the greatest of starts and lost a few spots early on. Then I avoided the spinning Martin Plowman and Pippa Mann moving me back inside the top 10 as we circulated under the first yellow flag. Then we went green again and I started to move begin to move through the pack when there was a two car crash ahead of me in Turn 1 involving Ana Beatriz and her teammate Gustavo Yacaman. They hit the outside wall and spun to the inside. I was lucky I could keep the car high and get past them. This put me 9th on the restart. After a short 3 lap stint of green, it went yellow for debris in Turn 4. On the restart, the car ahead of me, Andrew Prenderville, had a car failure and I was lucky to avoid him. This meant it took me a few laps before I caught Mike Potekhen. I then had a big tow down the back straight and went to the low side of him into Turn 3. I was alongside of him and he kept moving down the track towards me. I had to drop my left front tire below the white line and he kept coming. He finally moved so far down the track that he hit my right front tire with his left rear and because he was chopping down so aggressively, he spun across my front to the bottom of the track. The contact bent my steering arm and the car took off towards the outside wall. I managed to get it under control and bring it into pit lane, but my day was done.

I really think we had a car for the top 5 or 6 towards the end of the race. It was a shame but when we get some luck, we will be close to the front consistently at the end of the races. I am really looking forward to Milwaukee next week. It is totally different than Indianapolis and there is much more of a driver talent involved. Plus, we had a good test there and should have a leg up on some of the other drivers.

Breaking the 200 MPH Barrier

2009-05-21T22:16:00.000-04:00

Today was practice and qualifying for the Freedom 100 and the on track debut of the new color scheme. And it went really well! I had the fastest lap of the day in practice 1. The car was really good and felt awesome, especially running in traffic which will be very important for tomorrow's race. I could put the car wherever I wanted and run closely behind other cars at speed. Also, other people were having issues with tire wear on the right rear. But not me! We ran a full race distance on a set of tires and had no wear issues. I had a big tow to do the quick lap, but the fact I could run so close and keep the throttle wide open bodes well for the race. On my fastest lap, the lap time was 46.78 seconds, an average speed of 192.4mph. On that lap headed into Turn 3, I saw a top speed of 202mph!!!! I was telling everyone we had repainted the car into a 'fast' color, and sure enough!

Then we had qualifying in the afternoon. It went well, but wasn't without drama. I had drawn 21st in the order for qualifying out of 22 cars. So when I was ready to warm up the engine, the starter wouldn't work. So the crew guys said they thought they could push me. Well the first attempt- nothing. Second attempt with some engine starter fluid- it kicked over, but didn't start. The third attempt (with one mechanic fully out of breath, the spotter wheezing from an asthma attack and the other mechanic convinced he hadn't run that far since High School!) it finally caught. I kept the revs on the engine up to make sure it stayed alive. Then when it was time for me to take to the track, the crew helped push me to make sure I didn't stall it. I kept it running and had a solid qualifying effort. Two laps full throttle at the limit around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is definitely a great feeling. My times put me seventh on the grid. From there, I can have a really good race. I think that the last 10-15 laps is when it will really show who has a good car and who doesn't. That is when people will start moving forward hard or going backwards hard. It should be a great race and lots of fun!

I then went to a dinner with some people from my sponsor, Novo Nordisk. They launched the new livery of the car and it is great to have them on hand to show them the atmosphere of the Indy 500 up close. And the food was fantastic in downtown Indianapolis. Now I am ready for a good night's sleep and a great race tomorrow.

TV Reminder: The Freedom 100 will be shown live on Versus TV at 12:30PM Eastern (9:30 Pacific) as part of the Carb Day TV coverage.

Fired Up for the Freedom 100!

2009-05-20T21:07:00.000-04:00

I am so overwhelmingly excited for this race weekend. I spent all of today out at the racetrack and I cannot wait to get it all started. I went and looked at the new paint on the car at the workshop on Monday. I was a little afraid it wasn’t the exact right color, but once we got the car out in the sunlight and got the sponsor logos on the car to match, it is perfect. Also, the matching crew shirts showed up from the manufacturer today and they look so professional! They match the car and sponsor’s look perfectly. All in all it was a great day out at the track!

Let me start from the beginning…. I woke up to a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the meteorologists are predicting good weather through our race on Friday. I was whistling before I had left the driveway! I swung by a Starbucks to get a coffee and then out the Speedway. Today was Community Day at the track and so fans were out in the droves to attend both Indy Car and Indy Lights autograph sessions, pay some extra money to drive their own road car around the track, and wander through the garage and pit areas. The IMS museum had pulled a lot of the previous Indy 500 winning cars out to pit lane for display. It made me feel really safe comparing cars from 20 years ago to today! I digress- as I walked in from the car park I could smell the hot dog stand food, sunscreen and hear kids already having a great time. Not only was it a great day to be alive, it was a fantastic day to be at the racetrack…any racetrack would have been good, but since it was Indianapolis, it was very special. Then it was time for my autograph session and as always the line of people were very friendly, appreciative and always quick to wish each driver the best of luck. It always serves to remind me why we put on such a show. Don’t get me wrong- I love to drive for it’s own sake, but doing it for the fans adds another great element.

After the autograph session, it was lunchtime where I was informed the IRL had randomly chosen me for a drug screening. There were a whole group of drivers and crew members chosen and wasn’t a big deal. It did lead to an interesting conversation regarding diabetes, insulin usage and the fact that synthetic insulin is on the IOC’s banned substance list. I remember my endocrinologist, Dr. Anne Peters (a saint on earth!), talking about arguing Gary Hall Jr’s case to the IOC before his Olympic swims. As I understand it, she had to prove that she was only prescribing the insulin needed to bring him back to a level playing field and not an unfair advantage. I am not sure of the mechanics or chemistry in the body, but some people (without diabetes) operating outside the rules use synthetic insulin to bulk up somehow. So after a very interesting conversation regarding that, it was back to the team to oversee the new logos going on the car. And WOW was it looking good!

I headed back to the truck to organize the shirts for my crew. Also, sat in the front office and did a phone interview with for a print article in the next month. Then it was time to change into my suit, check the seat belt fit and make sure I was perfectly comfortable in the car. Then we pushed the car out to the pit lane and the ‘yard of bricks’ for a photo shoot. The emotion of a newly painted car pushing down the pit lane at Indianapolis with my name on the side was almost too much for me. It really was a very special moment.

Then it was back into street clothes and head to Macaroni Grill where I am writing this in the waiting area. My mom and dad have just landed at the Indianapolis airport (I saw their plane on final approach as I was driving out of the track) and are headed up here to eat dinner with me.

With all the work the crew has put in since we tested here a couple of weeks ago, I am very confident heading into the race weekend. We have done the best job we could so far and I believe we should be strongly in the top-10 all race weekend (well 'race week' as we race on Friday!).

Here is a decent photo of the car with me in it from my iPhone:

Headed for Indy!

2009-05-17T19:54:00.001-04:00

(From the airplane yesterday)

I am currently on the plane flying from Los Angeles to Indianapolis (with a quick run through Dallas/ Fort Worth airport- literally!). I had an awesome week at home. I had some really good meetings with sponsors and investors keeping them up to date with my progress, my travel schedule and mostly how I’m feeling about the racing. The biggest talking point was what it was like to drive at Indy. My first impressions have not faded at all- I still think it is one the most special places I have ever driven. In talking about it, I still get goosebumps. I was also lucky enough to spend some time with my family on Mother’s Day, hang out with my friends and get out of the ‘office’. I went cycling and hiking, ate at a few places I had never been before as well as a couple old favorites I really miss when I am on the road. I also got some good rest and am raring to get back to the track.

I have been to ‘big’ races all over the world- Monaco Grand Prix, Macau Grand Prix, Long Beach Grand Prix, a Moto GP race. I have even been to qualifying at the 500 before, but being a part of the whole ‘Month of May’ is a totally different experience. Having a permanent credential that says Indy Lights Driver on it makes you a part of the action and it gives you a true idea of what the Indianapolis 500 is all about. The history, the racing, the spectators, the yellow shirts directing traffic with their whistles, the city getting involved- all of it is a huge part of the ‘the greatest spectacle in racing’. When I was in town for the test, I went to the mall to pick up a gift for my mom for Mother’s Day. In the candle store, the saleswoman asked if I was going to the 500! Now as I head back to Indianapolis for my race, I can’t wait to be a part of it all. My dad has had success at the Speedway with cars he designed and engineered; now I am ready to leave my mark as a driver.

There are a couple of other exciting reasons I am looking forward to the coming week. Firstly, one of my sponsors, American Diabetes Wholesale, is launching a Share-A-Story contest called GlucoStories on Monday. The people at ADW were so inspired by my story about continuing to race after my diabetes diagnosis that they wanted to share that story with the online community and see what other inspirational stories about diabetes are out there. The grand prize is a trip for two to my last race of the year at Homestead in October with airfare, hotel and the chance to see me race. There are some other really cool prizes and I am very excited to be a part of it. Join the race to put the most diabetes stories on the internet here!

The second reason I can’t wait to get this week started is that I will be unveiling a new paint scheme on the race car. The new colors were being put on the car last week and after the mechanics get the car rebuilt, we will be launching the new title sponsorship for the Freedom 100 and the rest of the season. Part of that sponsorship is custom designed crew shirts for my engineer and mechanics. I can’t wait to show it off and hopefully it is as fast on track as it looks on paper!

TV Reminder: The Freedom 100 from Indianapolis will be shown LIVE on Versus TV on Friday May 22nd at 12:30PM Eastern (9:30AM Pacific). For those of you that may be digitally recording it, it will be shown as part of the Miller Lite Carb Day on-track activities. (As a side note, it is called ‘Carb Day’ as it is the last day of practice for the Indy Cars before the Indianapolis 500. Back when the engines had carburetors, it was the last chance to tune the carburetors’ fuel settings. It has nothing to do with the carbohydrates in Miller Lite beer which just happens to sponsor the days festivities including a 3 Doors Down concert after our race.)

Magical Matilija

2009-05-14T01:09:00.000-04:00

So my crazy travel schedule has meant that I haven't been home a lot recently. In fact, before last Saturday, it had been before the Kansas race when I was last home and that was only for about as well week with the Long Beach Grand Prix stuck in the middle. Well this time is for just a week as well. I got home from Indianapolis last Saturday after testing at the Speedway on Tuesday and Milwaukee on Thursday. There were a few good reasons why it made sense to make the trip home this week. Firstly (and most importantly) I wanted to be home for Mother's Day last Sunday. My mom is such a huge inspiration and fountain of knowledge that I wanted to celebrate with her at home. Secondly, there isn't much going in Indy this week and my car would be in the carbon and paint shop (more on that later!). Thirdly, I was missing my dog!

So I got back to Camarillo last Saturday for only 7 days and the mad rush to do things I can only do at home started. Go out to eat at restaraunts that are only here in town, see and hang out with my friends, celebrate my friend Cory's birthday (my mountain biking partner from this video) at Bucca di Bepo, have breakfast and lunch meetings with sponsors here in the county....oh yeah and play with my dog! In amongst all of this, I was determined to take some 'mental health' time and do some fun stuff.

Well I got out of the office this afternoon and did exactly that. I went hiking up in the Matilija area north of Ojai. The weather the last few days have been overcast and kinda gross, but today dawned sunny and warm The temperature was in the low 80's when we started the hike. We walked for about 45 minutes up, found a nice shady place to rest, wading in the running creek and then headed back down. It was only about an hour and a half hike but it really relaxed me! The sage smelled fantastic and the views were amazing. It was an incredible hike and I can't wait to go back when I have 4-6 hours to hike in, have a picnic and hike out. Here are the photos from my phone:

A short note about the allusion I made earlier about my race car being in the paint shop. There will be a grand unveiling next week in the week leading up to my big race at Indy- the Freedom 100. Stay tuned!

Also, I found out today the the Firestone Indy Lights Freedom 100 will be shown live as part of Versus TV's coverage of Miller Lite Carb Day from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday May 22nd.

The Fastest Drive of my Life

2009-05-05T17:12:00.000-04:00

I spent today testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Team PBIR #35 Firestone Indy Lights car. And WOW! It is racetrack I have watched on TV since I was a boy. I even remember talking my mom into letting me stay home from school on the Tuesday after Memorial Day one year to watch the Indianapolis 500 (it had been rained out on Sunday and Monday). The history here is awe-inspiring to say the least. This year's 500 will be the 94th annual and the IMS is entering into it's three year Centennial Era celebration. Tomorrow, May 6th, will be the official opening of Indianapolis 500 practice but today was the Indy Lights practice time.

As a racetrack, the Speedway is very different to all the other ovals. Firstly, it is longer, 2.5 miles long. Secondly, it has two long straights (5/8 mile each), 4 corners and 2 short chutes connecting Turns 1 and 2 as well as 3 and 4. So it essentially is a rounded off rectangle. It seats nearly 400,000 on 500 Sunday. The banking is also very flat compared to Homestead and Kansas. And since it is a lot older than the other racetracks, it also pretty narrow. As a result the sight picture into Turn 1 is like heading down a tunnel with all you can see is a white wall in front of you.

So today is the first time there has been any significant running since the winter. As a result, there was a lot of dust to start with and no rubber down on the track surface. A few years ago, they diamond ground the track and it has a lot of grip, but to start it eats the tires away very aggressively. We only ran 27 laps on our first set of Firestone Firehawks before we got to the canvas (cords) on the tires. Then since it was only 10AM, we sat around for a while until other cars had run and put some more rubber down. For an idea of how much fun it is to drive here, I am full-throttle the whole way around the track. 2.5 miles in under 48 seconds all day. My quickest lap was the last lap of the day. I had timed a big run on another car to catch a tow. As a result, I was in the top of 6th gear and did a lap in 47.25 seconds. That equates to 190.441 miles per hour average. On that lap, I saw 199 mph at the end of the back straight headed into Turn 3. That is the fastest I have ever gone in a race car. The only time I have gone quicker is on an airplane! When you are going that fast, you cover the length of an American football field every 1.05 seconds. That's fast!!! All in all, it was a great day and a wonderful first experience at the Speedway. I ended the day 7th and think that in race trim and even in qualifying spec, we solidly in the top-10.

I can't wait to get back here for the race, the Freedom 100, May 22nd. And to stay and watch the 94th running of the Indianapolis 500 May 24th.

A Quick Hello

2009-05-04T10:55:00.000-04:00

The last week or so, I have been very busy traveling from Kansas to Palm Beach, Florida and then on to Indianapolis where I am now. In that time, I spoke at American Diabetes Wholesale's Diabetes Educator of the Year award brunch at the Boca Raton Resort and Club, made a new seat in the race car, got excited about testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway tomorrow, read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and had dinner with an old engineer friend of my dad's here in Indy. And while that may not seem like a lot, it has kept me super busy! Plus all the flying has been down at awkward times so I have been getting to places late at night and getting on planes in the wee hours of the morning. I don't know why I book flights so early in the morning, other than the price tends to be right to fly at horrible times!

Now on to what I am doing at the moment. I am in Indianapolis as I mentioned earlier. I got into town on Saturday afternoon and went straight to the Team PBIR race shop up in Brownsburg. The shop is in a really neat industrial park with units from Kenny Bernstein Racing, John Force Racing, Pedregon Racing, Tony Schumacher's shop, BEAST, as well as a lot of junior formula teams. Then Sunday I went back to the shop in the early afternoon and trimmed the excess foam from the seat. Making a seat in the race car is quite a process and when I have time, I plan on blogging a rough how- to guide! Then I went and had a really pleasant evening with a friend of my dad's. He is an engineer for an Indy Car team here in town and he has a beautiful farm house just out in the woods. He also has two awesome Springer Spaniels- Katie and Jake. They are both very accomplished hunting dogs and are so much fun to have around. Their personalities are so easy to see!

Now I am heading out to lunch with another friend here in town before heading down to the Speedway. I am so excited about driving there tomorrow. I put it best in this article about Indy being 'hallowed ground.' It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it!

Here's a photo of me mid seat making:

Video of the Day!

2009-04-29T14:05:00.000-04:00

So I finally got the on board footage from the Indy Lights rookie test at Homestead-Miami Speedway. I had an oversteer moment with a catch into turn 1 that is pretty impressive. Enjoy! (and mom: when you watch the video, you will realize it isn't a near wipeout....I hope)

Close Call

2009-04-27T22:32:00.000-04:00

I just watched the race coverage from Kansas and I really did have a close call! I obviously didn't realize during the race that Yacaman had spun and then hit me, not hit me and then spun as I had originally thought. Another 6 inches and I would have been headed straight into the wall. 6 inches in the other direction and I would have finished in the top 8. As it was, all it cost me was 2 laps and 5 positions (and a right rear). Some of the wrecks were definitely scary. I think maybe it is a good thing that the recording didn't work at home. At least my mom will let me race the rest of the year! :)

Thanks to IRL Photo for this picture- practice running in a pack.

Kansas Lottery 100 on TV!

2009-04-27T15:01:00.000-04:00

The race coverage from last weekend's extremely exciting Kansas Lottery 100 will be on in an hour. It will be shown on the cable channel, Versus TV, at 4PM EST/ 1PM PST. It is an hour of coverage and should be quite exciting. I know that my team manager has organized a BBQ at his house to watch the race coverage because he thought it was that exciting. It should be a lot of fun.

A Fitting Name for Sunday’s Race

2009-04-26T21:41:00.000-04:00

Short Story: Started 7th- Finished 13th two laps down after having to stop and change a flat right rear tire. I also recorded the fastest race lap at an average speed of nearly 187 mile an hour.

Long Story (or short book!):Today’s Firestone Indy Lights race was the Kansas Lottery 100. The Kansas Lottery had sponsored the event and since it was 100 miles long (67 laps of the 1.5 mile Kansas Speedway) it was a fitting name. What made it perfect was that it turned out to be a lottery in so many ways! Overnight, it had rained very hard (at one point there was a tornado warning in the area around the track!) and washed off a lot of the rubber the Indy Cars and Indy Lights had built up. Also, the weather was still very unsettled and storms were threatening. The wind was stronger than it had been all weekend and was gusting to over 30 miles an hour. It was blowing directly across turns 1 and 2 (not really an issue) and from inside out in turns 3 and 4 (big issue!). We were scheduled to race at 12 noon after the Indy Cars had their Sunday morning warm up. Because of the threatening weather (and no need for a time certain schedule without live TV coverage) the race director moved our start time up to 10AM. This all contributed to a race that ran almost as many laps under yellow as under the green flag! There were 10 cars that didn’t finish due to incidents- all of them through 3 and 4. There were even a couple of cars that spun and didn’t hit anything- not causing a yellow but still chaotic.

All of these factors made my first oval race quite an experience. I started inside row 4 in 7th. The first start was waved off (not sure why) and so we did an extra lap in formation before taking the green flag. The start went well for me; I accelerated up through the gears, took the green and stayed low through 1 and 2. My line got held up by Pippa Mann directly in front of me and so I had a couple of cars go past me around the outside. I settled into a rhythm and passed back one of the cars that got me on the start as well as Pippa. Then the first of many yellows flew for a really big crash in turn 4. There were three cars involved and it took quite a few laps to clean it up. When we next went green, I had a good restart and was working back into the rhythm. I was setting up Daniel Herrington, the other car that passed me on the initial start when it went yellow again. After they finally got all that cleaned up, we went green again. I had another oval rookie Gustavo Yacaman on my outside heading into 3 and 4 (where all the chaos had been happening!). I held my line on the inside and all of a sudden I hear my spotter, “yellow, yellow, yellow- The guy on your outside spun down the track.” I had seen the tire smoke and was feeling pretty good about myself- I was having a good run, being patient, learning so much so quickly, ready for it to go back to green. Then as we accelerated to prepare for the restart, I felt something funny in the back right of the car. On an oval, the rule is: If it feels funny, stop and check it out! I thought it was the right rear tire going down so rather than risk a lot, accelerate to the green and stick it in the fence, I brought it to pit road and pulled into the pit box with a flat right rear tire. The crew did a good job changing it and away I went back on track- two laps down and in 17th position. I was just getting back up to speed and it went yellow for another big wreck in 3 and 4. What we think happened on the cut tire is that Yacaman behind me tried to come down on me when he was running on the high line. His wing rubbed on my tire, cut it and sent him spinning. That matches what the team saw on the side of the tire and him having to stop for a new wing. I spent the rest of the race racing with my teammate (on the lead lap) and James Hinchliffe (only one lap down). Watching Jay’s driving (and running side by side with him) taught me a lot about how to maximize what you have on the oval. He was really struggling with the car, but kept going and racing smart. There was another really big crash down in turn 3 and 4 near enough to the end that we finished the race under yellow flag. Because of all the chaos and carnage, I finished the race in 13th place. I also had the fastest race lap time. I know we had the pace to run in the top 5-8 all day. Once again, I am encouraged by the speed of the car and the way the team and engineering staff is making progress. Also, on a day when there was probably close to $500k in crash damage, I brought the car home with all four tires (three I started with!) all pointed straight and rolling. I picked up points and learned a lot. Pretty soon, Lady Luck is going to smile on me and we will be on the podium.

Now I am on a plane from Kansas City, Missouri (?!? I don’t get why Kansas City is mostly in Missouri) to Atlanta where I will grab a nice healthy dinner in the airport somewhere before a late night flight down to Palm Beach, Florida. I am spending the week down in Palm Beach doing things at Palm Beach International Raceway before speaking at the American Diabetes Wholesale’s Diabetes Educator of the Year award breakfast, Friday May 1st at the Boca Raton Resort and Spa. I then head up to Indianapolis on Saturday before our test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway next Tuesday, May 5th.

Biggest impression from my first oval race: What a lot of fun! The whole weekend was truly enjoyable- from practicing running in traffic, to single car two lap qualifying to racing in a pack inches from each other at over 180 miles an hour. It’s a real blast!

Kansas Speedway's Saturday

2009-04-25T21:23:00.001-04:00

Today was a day of new experiences for me as a racing driver. It was the start of my first oval race weekend, I had a full race practice session with 22 cars to contend with, a split practice session, a rain interruption in practice and my first oval qualifying experience.

Practice first. As it is my first oval race, my team and I planned to spend a lot of time running in traffic to get used to how the car feels around other cars. With the turbulent air coming off the car in front, not only do you get a big 'tow' or 'slipstream', your car doesn't have as much downforce as you would in 'clean' air. It takes a little getting used to as well as having a spotter in your ear all the time telling you where the other cars are. A spotter is a guy who stands up at the top of the grandstand buildings and talks to me over the radio. He gives me information on where other cars are around me- inside, outside, behind, closing, looking high, looking low, clear behind- those terms. That way I can concentrate on looking ahead and running my line. With that help, it was a lot of fun to run side by side all the way around the track. I am not sure how to explain how much fun it is to be inches away from another car at over 180 miles an hour- for multiple laps consecutively- other than it left me grinning ear to ear! I am really looking forward to the race and seeing how things work when you are in a whole train of cars- rather than just 3 or 4.

Then it was time for qualifying this afternoon. We weren't sure we would get to do the session as there were dark clouds all around the track. On a road course, it is not such a huge deal if it rains as you put wet tires on the car and go run. On on oval, however, you only run in the dry. The wet would just be too fast and too dangerous. Qualifying on an oval is unique as it is one car at a time for two laps. It is the combined lap time of those two laps that set the grid. The order in which you go out is drawn out of a hat the day before the race. I was 19th out of 24 cars. Going later in the group can be a small advantage as the track picks up more grip and the air gets swirling a bit (so there is less aerodynamic 'drag'). You get one warm up lap to build heat into the tires as well as build the momentum in the car. The way to go fast in qualifying on the oval is to go out of the pits, put your right (gas) foot all the way to the floor, turn left as needed, lift of the gas after the checkered flag. :) A lot of the laptime on an oval comes down to minute changes in the racing line and a huge amount about car set up.

Well I went out to qualify and did my two laps. After I passed the line, my engineer said, "Very nice job, Charlie. Excellent......Oh yeah, you are 5th at the moment!" Out of the 5 cars after me, one had a problem, two went quicker and two went slower than me. I ended up 7th in the order meaning I will start on the inside of row 4 for the race. I am ecstatic to have qualified inside the top 10!! After I heard my time, I was doing my 'don't rain' dance on the cool down lap! If the rain had come before everyone had a chance to qualify, we would have started based on championship positions and I would have been 12th. Luckily, the weather held.

The weather for tomorrow is a little uncertain. There have been some heavy thunderstorms and even tornado warnings here in Kansas this afternoon/ evening. It has been raining off and on (sometimes super heavily) since about 5:45 this evening. We will see what the weather looks like in the morning. I am scheduled to race at 12 noon, but they have said everyone should be ready to go by 10 in case it's dry and we can get the race in before the rain.

Here's a good website to read the results. Also, this story came out about me in the Kansas City Star this morning. And finally, here's an article from my hometown paper, the Camarillo Acorn, from this week.

Friday Night in Kansas

2009-04-24T22:02:00.001-04:00

It's Friday night and I am in another hotel room. But I can handle it because I get to drive the race car tomorrow! I am here in Kansas City and getting ready for my first ever oval race. I did all the typical pre-race stuff- get my helmet and race gear checked out for safety, made some small adjustments in the seating position of the car, put a new DexCom Seven Plus sensor in and start it up, wander around the paddock and see what's happening, got to the autograph session, get excited, bother my mechanics with bad jokes to vent of excited energy- typical pre-race weekend activities. An addition to my typical activity list was an on camera interview with Fox 4's morning show here in Kansas City. Although with the help of my sponsors and their fantastic PR company, these interviews seem to be happening more and more! I just watched the video and I came across a lot more relaxed (even if I didn't feel it!) than I did in the interview in Long Beach. On a another note, I met two other people with type 1 diabetes today during the autograph session. One was the son of a race fan (Josh I think was his name) and he was diagnosed about 18 months ago as well. Ed, the other man, has had diabetes for over 35 years and took part in some of the medical trials for an insulin on the market today. I enjoy making those connections- no matter how random.

Now it is off to bed- an early start with the driver's meeting at 8 in the morning. There is some prediction for rain over the weekend- thunderstorms and the like, so we will see how mother nature toys with us.

You can follow me all weekend online at the Indy Lights website. Here's the live timing link- but I'm not sure it works!

Here's the weekend schedule:

Saturday:
8 AM Driver's Meeting
9-9:45 AM- Practice 1 (all together)
11:40AM-12:40PM- Practice 2 (2 split groups of 30 minutes each)
3:30-4:30PM Qualifying

Sunday:
9:00AM Driver's Meeting
11:45 Indy Lights Pre-Race
12:00- 1:00 Indy Lights Kansas Lottery 100 (67 Laps- 100 Miles)

TV Coverage:
Monday April 27th, Versus TV 4PM EDT (1PM PDT)

TV Coverage from Long Beach

2009-04-20T13:40:00.001-04:00

The race coverage from Round 3 of the Indy Lights championship will be shown today, Monday April 20th, at 1PM PDT (4PM EDT) on Versus TV. I will be posting a more in depth recap to the weekend when I get a chance!

A big thank you to my friend Cory Knopes for this picture from the stands in Long Beach. Check out his Flickr.

Saturday in the Sun

2009-04-18T20:43:00.000-04:00

Saturday here in Long Beach was perfect as far as the weather was concerned. The sun was out, the wind was only a light breeze, and the temperature was in the mid to high 70's. An absolute perfect day to spend at the racetrack. I am glad it was warm this morning as I had qualifying at 8:45 and I was in the first group to run.

My qualifying wasn't exactly perfect though. We made some changes to the car overnight and while we made big gains in one area, we really hurt another are of the car that made it difficult for me to push on the new tires. As a result I struggled to get the new tires in quickly enough. Then the session was interrupted. For a crash? Nope. For a medical emergency from a spectator on the outside of the track. The only way they could get an ambulance out there was to stop our session and drive the ambulance across the track!!! That was a first for me. I have never had a session stopped for a spectator medical emergency. I have been at a track when the races were stopped because a helicopter crash landed next to the track ( in England- everyone was OK).
When the session restarted, I had 4-5 laps to go quicker so that I would move up the order from 6th place. My first lap wasn't an improvement and I was pushing quite hard on the second when, at the end of the back straight, the car stepped out under braking. I was pushing the envelope and I just caught the bumps differently (and the change to car made it much more difficult on the bumps). As a result, I nosed the car into the tire wall on the outside. Luckily, I bounced back out, was able to restart the car and drive back to the pitlane. I had broken the front wing, but not bent anything else. However, it was lucky I could drive back to the pits as if I had caused a full course caution, my fastest lap time would have been deleted- moving me back even farther. After I crashed, a lot of drivers improved pushing me down the order to 9th in my group. This means that, just as in the second race at St. Petersburg, I will start in 18th.

I am looking forward to the race tomorrow as I showed in St. Pete that with some luck and chaos ahead of me (Long Beach should easily provide as much carnage as St. Pete) I can still race up and finish in the top-10. I will race smart and take whatever result is available to me, but will still be pushing to put on a good show for my hometown fans.

Now it is off to dinner with some friends and family before a good night's rest and strong race in the morning. My race starts at 9:40 A.M. and will be shown live on Indycar.com.

Here's a photo from Michael Zampelli's Flickr page of me today at Long Beach.

Fun Friday

2009-04-17T22:21:00.000-04:00

So my Friday started of nice and early with an interview with Garth the weather guy from KABC 7 at 6:15 this morning. The morning was nice and crisp and promising a beautiful day. The interview went really well and the PR people and sponsor were super happy with it all.

Then it was into practice! The track is a lot of fun, more like a real street circuit than St. Pete was. The road crown plays a huge part into the car set up as well as the bumps around the streets. I was 13th quickest and we had a lot improvements to make to the car.

After a quick nap and a healthy lunch (grilled chicken with spaghetti and salad), it was back out for practice 2. We made some gearing changes going into practice 2 and it helped some, but didn't fix all of my problems. After sitting down and debriefing, we think we have made some big gains in lap time with the gearing set up. It's good as I was only 18th quickest!! It was a shame because I know I could have been quicker but got a bit blocked on my last laps.

Then it time for another debrief, and then onto a big video shoot for my new sponsor, Novo Nordisk- the company that makes my insulin. We had to interrupt that for the autograph session with all the Indy Car drivers. I was at the table with Danica Patrick and so got the most people cycling through for autographs. I went through probably 200 hero cards!!!

And back to the video shoot- lots of fun though. I am finally done at the track. I am just going to grab a quick healthy bite to eat before a well deserved full nights sleep. Qualifying starts bright and early tomorrow morning at 8:45.

Good Night!!!

Thursday's Thoughts

2009-04-16T23:52:00.000-04:00

My Thursday was slightly more relaxed than my wild Wednesday yesterday. I got to sleep in a bit and build up a sleep excess for the race weekend (and I will need it- more on that later!). Then I answered some calls, wrote a couple of emails, discussed with my sister about passes and tickets for all my friends and supporters who are coming this weekend (she rocks BTW. She is doing this all for me on her vacation!) and then headed out to the track. I met up with the team, got introduced to my new number 2 mechanic, Anna, who seems really on the ball and already has a good working relationship with my number 1 mechanic, Chris.

Then I ran into Bobby Oergel, who ran me in 2003 in Formula Ford 2000 and still is the best driver coach I know. We talked about the track here in Long Beach as I have not driven here before. Then my race engineer, my teammate, Jay Howard, the team manager, and Bobby O walked around the track. The track walk is my first impression of a circuit and gives me an idea of what it will be like when I first drive it. It also helps the engineer to understand things that I talk about later in the weekend, as far as how the car is reacting because of the road, or bumps, or manhole covers or even changes in pavement.

After the track walk, I went and picked up all the tickets for my friends, family and supporters that will be here this weekend. When I saw the big envelope they gave me, I was even more excited. The chance to race almost in my back yard is exciting, the fact that so many of my friends, family and supporters are coming to cheer me on is the icing on the cake.

Now, the reason why I appreciated the chance to sleep in this morning. My alarm is going off before 5AM tomorrow morning! And I am so excited about it. Excited about getting up in the middle of the night? Yes! I have an interview scheduled with the KABC 7 live morning show from the racetrack at 6AM. I believe the interviewer is going to be the weather man who is on site for the race weekend. Still......ABC!!!! Woohoo. A big thanks to my new sponsors Novo Nordisk for working with their PR agency to get this set up. Our story (that I have been using their insulin since the day I was diagnosed, and our partnership is a great way to raise awareness about diabetes) will make for a very powerful message all season. And then I get to go drive my race car through the streets of Long Beach. I can't think of a better day. Except maybe starting it a little later. :)

As a final reminder for those of you in the LA area, KABC 7 at 6AM, live interview with me. And then follow the race weekend on live timing on the Firestone Indy Lights website.

If it's Wednesday, then this is Long Beach

2009-04-16T01:09:00.000-04:00

It is Wednesday, right?

After my incredible drag car experience last week, I feel like my whole life has been run in under 8 seconds at over 160 miles an hour! I stayed in Palm Beach, Florida at the track for Thursday where I took part in a media day and drove a Formula BMW around to show local media all about the racetrack. Then it was off to the airport in the afternoon to catch a flight back to LA in time for some family time at home over Easter weekend and getting ready for my 'home' race in Long Beach. Then things didn't go quite to plan. I had a connection in Dallas and apparently there were strong winds so my plane was delayed out of Florida. When we landed in Dallas, I had 15 minutes to make my connection. I rushed to my gate to see that the in bound plane hadn't even arrived yet! So I went bought a book to read and waited. The second flight of the evening was about an hour late leaving Dallas meaning I didn't get to LA until late and didn't get to bed until almost 3:30 in the morning! Even with all of the drama and the late night, I really enjoyed my weekend. My sister is home for a week from England and I realized how much I missed her insight and perspective. While she is my sister, she is also a huge part of my 'team'.

Also, I had an appointment with my diabetes educator on Tuesday. She is another true inspiration to me! She has been fantastic in all of my diabetes care and is so proactive in how to treat me so that diabetes works into my lifestyle. And she and my endocrinologist, Dr. Anne Peters, complimented me on how things were going. Phew! Big sigh of relief. I feel like I haven't been doing as good a job as I can lately, but after my appointment, I am ready to try harder again. I am still hitting my A1C% goals and still have to go ahead to keep racing.

Other big news, Novo Nordisk announced their partnership with me yesterday. I am extremely excited about this partnership as their insulin, Levemir and NovoLog, allow me to keep racing. Together I know that we can touch a lot of people in the diabetes community and get my story out there. The press release can be read on my website here.

And finally- the race weekend. I am here in Long Beach for some media events already. I am so excited to be racing at home. I know how big a challenge the track is and with the concrete walls, there is no room for error. Still, this race holds a special place in my heart as I am from southern California, I grew up watching it on T.V., I have been to the race a few times, and I will have a lot of support from the stands. I have a few more media events tomorrow, I will spend some time with the team, and get a chance to walk the track. I am so pumped for this weekend! It is going to be a lot of fun.

If you want to come out and show your support, there is a lot of information on the official website of the 35th running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The 8 Second Ride of my Life

2009-04-09T08:19:00.000-04:00

“Hey Charlie, want to drive the drag car?”

“Sure! You know I like to drive anything, anywhere, anytime.”

Plus- going in a straight line- how hard could it be? And it’s just a school car right? They are probably speed limited and not quite opened up……… Nope! Full blown open wheeled drag car experience. The last pass was 1/4mile in 7.97 crossing the line at 163mph. The 8 second ride of a life!

The invitation came through the people here at the Palm Beach International Raceway. One of the coolest things about this raceway is that they have 3 completely separate racetracks- a 2 mile road course, a great go-kart track and a beautiful ¼ mile concrete drag strip. I grew up on karting and have been in road course cars since I was 16. But I have never experienced drag racing except on TV. I have always been impressed by the size of the spectacle, and the fact that Top Fuel dragsters will do over 300 mph and need a parachute to stop. However, I never truly appreciated the acceleration, the g-forces and the whole drag racing experience. Until last night.

Here at PBIR, they have a drag racing school run by US Pro Forward Champion Nelson Hoyos. And it is run not in a dinky little school car, but his actual race car, slightly de-tuned so you can build up and get used to the kick the car gives you off the line. And ‘kick’ is a very big understatement. When the light goes green, it is like have 10 NFL lineman charge into your back at full speed and push you so hard it is difficult to catch your breath. But Nelson doesn’t start you at the OMG launch. To get me comfortable in the car and the differences with my Firestone Indy Lights car, he showed me all the controls, fired it up, and had me drive around the paddock a bit. Then he had me practice lining up on a line, reversing, and then gave me a taste of the launch button (I keep using 'launch' because it is not like starting a car, more like launching a rocket!). The first time I did it in the parking lot, I only had about 2000RPM when I let go of the brake button. WHOA! I couldn’t even imagine what 8000RPM was going to feel like. I was going to have to remember to keep my head back.

So then it was back to the trailer, get my helmet, HANS, and gloves on before trundling up into the staging lanes. There were probably about 100 street and drag cars for Wild Wednesdays drag night. Nelson and I continued to talk about how it was going to work, that on the first pass he wanted me to hold the car about 3500RPM, and lift off after about 300 feet just to get a feeling for the shot off the line. So pull up the water box, do a burnout to get some temperature in the very wide rear Goodyear tires, and then pull up to the line. Hit the pre-stage timing beam, then the staged beam, bring the revs up, the lights on the ‘tree’ (where the yellow and green lights are) go on, hits the bottom green light, finger off the brake button then full throttle…..AND HOLD ON!!!! Wow! That first impression still gives me an adrenaline rush.

Nelson asks back at the trailer, “What did you think of that?”

“I want more!!!! Can we go full power yet?”

“Haha, awesome! Let’s turn it up some and have you run the 1/8mile. Some people come off the line and there’s a wiggle- others come off straight and fly down the track. You kept it nice and straight so we are ready to bring the speed up and the time down.”

He tweaks the electronics in the cockpit and then it’s back to waiting in the staging lanes. Nelson explains to me that the biggest issue with drag racing is that it is ‘hurry up…and wait!’ We are talking about the differences in sight pictures from ‘his’ cockpit and ‘mine.’ The drag car doesn’t have mirrors! And the front tires are sooooo far in front of me. It is good because it helps you look a long ways down the track. He explains to me that this time he wants me to go full throttle and let the electronics keep the engine at the right RPM, when the light goes green, let off the button, make very small corrections to keep it straight, keep it lit until the 1/8 mile……oh yeah and HOLD ON TIGHT! WOW! It really took off! My mind was starting to catch up with my body when I went past the 1/8mile marker. I knew he wanted me to let off and coast through the ¼ mile, but I went a little ways past as I was having too much fun. The sensation after you let off the gas is incredible. You go from having this raging dragon roaring behind your head to floating down this super smooth concrete track with only the wind and your thoughts keeping you company. I hear at the end of the night that even though I let off the gas at the 1/8 mile, I still ran the ¼ mile in under 10 seconds. A very impressive time!

After a few words on the loudspeaker system with the announcer about my racing, the difference to the drag strip and how much fun I was having, it was back into my helmet, into the car and prepping for run three. A full ¼ mile with the taps fully open and the car less de-tuned. Nelson leans into the cockpit and says “This time, I am going to give you full revs for a full pass, full throttle, light goes green, off the button, keep it straight, focus on the timing billboard to shut it down…..Oh yeah and…”

“I know, I know, HOLD ON!”

“Hahaha, no. Enjoy!”

And enjoy I did. A bit longer burn-out out of the water box for a little more tire temperature. Full revs, full throttle, yellow lights, green light, thumb of the brake button. Queue NFL lineman. I have driven race cars all over the world. I have down 0-60mph in less than 3 seconds. I have raced through city streets, by harbors with huge yachts, dealt with snow at the edge of the racetrack, overflowing drain grates and so many weather conditions. Nothing felt like the acceleration for those 7.97 seconds. I have never had a car push me so hard for sooooo long. I passed the finish line and as the car slowed (and I realized how much adrenaline was in my system) I truly understood drag racing. The rush is just like running the perfect line through a set of corners. Like winning. Just in less than 8 seconds.

I have to say the biggest thank you to Nelson Hoyos. His drag racing school, Driven 2 Win, is an awesome experience for anyone who wants a taste of real drag racing. Nelson is a perfect instructor: years of experience, lots of victories, enthusiastic and all around great guy! He builds up to speed perfectly and makes sure you are comfortable with everything each step of the way.

Here’s the video of my last pass:

TV Coverage Reminder

2009-04-06T16:44:00.000-04:00

A reminder that the Firestone Indy Lights races from the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will be broadcast on Versus TV today (Monday April 6th) at 6PM Eastern time (3PM Pacific).

Heading Home after Sunday’s Race

2009-04-05T23:23:00.000-04:00

I am heading down the road back towards Palm Beach and thought I would take the opportunity of a 4 hour drive to update everyone on my Sunday. I had race 2 this morning at about 10 AM and then hung out at the track to watch the Indy Car race.

I started the race in 18th after qualifying yesterday morning. We had made some major changes to the car for yesterday’s race and it made a big difference. Overnight we had the chance to tune the car into the sweet spot a bit more. Going into the race, I was pretty sure it was going to be more disrupted and have more action than race 1. And boy was I right! I had a good start and avoided the first spinning car in turn 1. Then as I got to the apex, I got tapped in the right rear- not hard enough to spin me, but I had to catch the car. That in turn gave me a bit of a gap to the group of cars in front of me which was a good thing when I got to turn 4 (the next big braking zone and passing opportunity). By the time I started braking, there was a car wedged into the tire wall. I finished the first lap up two spots in 16th. Then after a lengthy full course yellow to pick up the pieces of the first lap, I continued to move up, passing 2006 Indy Pro Series champion Wade Cunningham, Stefan Wilson, Gustavo Yacaman, James Davison, Richard Philippe, J.R. Hildebrand and Ana Beatriz. A couple of those passes entailed me threading the needle through the other cars spinning across the track in front of me. One of those incidents was my teammate Jay Howard missing a crash between J.R. Hildebrand and Ana Beatriz. To avoid the incident, Jay had to go around the outside where it was really dirty and slippery. By the time I got there, the inside was clear and so I went past all three of them on the inside and up to 7th. There was a full course yellow that dragged on until there was only a three lap sprint to the checkered. I didn’t get the best restart, but managed to hold onto my 7th place.

I was really really happy with the result especially after the qualifying. The team made huge progress during the weekend. I know that when we unload for Long Beach, we will be a lot closer to the pace and a lot more experienced. I can’t wait for my ‘home’ race!

As a TV reminder, the St. Pete races will be broadcast tomorrow, April 6th on Versus TV at 6PM EST (3PM Pacific).

Edit on Thursday April 9th: Here's a photo of me in the car on the drive home after I had finished writing the blog. I am not sure what is scarier- how deep my sleep was to not realize this photo was being taken or that the team manager took this photo when he should have been focused on driving!