Meeting up in Mammoth

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.