Behind The Wheel With Brett Smrz
Today was the day that Connor and I had to step up our game. It was qualifying and the heat race today. The weather was fairly well in the morning, so we were looking to have some pretty decent times in the qualifying session.
My setup came in a little slow in qualifying, and I was P7 for quite a while. Sure enough though, the setup came in, and I dropped 5 tenths of a second to put it on the pole. I held that lap for about 3-4 laps or so, and then Scott Malvern took the top spot from me by 3 hundredths of a second.
I was happy with that, and was ready for the heat race. I got a very good start, but got held on the outside of turn 1, so I came out of turn 1 in 3rd place. I was having some massive trouble getting around Fischer, as...
I am quite happy with my last day of practice. I am running times fast enough to win the main event. I was even quick in the rain.
It rained for the first session of the day today. I was very excited to be able to drive in the rain. Connor and I ended up being the two quickest drivers in the session by quite a bit. We were both dead even on the lap times, and we had 6 tenths of a second covered on the third place driver. After him, we were a second ahead. I would say we are in good shape if it rains here, but I don’t think it is going to rain this weekend. It should definitely rain at Silverstone, from what I hear. That track is much more slick in the rain as well. It should be a whole new experience again.
They are going to split...
The start of today was great. I had a great night of sleep last night, and after spending some time thinking about the track I dropped quite a bit of time. At the end of the day, I was only 1 tenth off of the pace.
We threw new tires on straight away in the first session, which was very nice. The car had much more grip than it previously had. Scott Malvern was running on old tires, and was still the quickest, but it turned out that his new set of tires didn’t make him any quicker.
Every single session I kept learning new things about the track. It is a very tricky circuit. I could compare it a lot to Infineon Raceway. Infineon has a bunch of little tricks that take some time to learn, and it seems that Brands Hatch is the same...
Today was a very, very, very interesting day. It was probably one of the most eventful testing days I have ever had.
The day started off a little rickety. The first session out, I got about 7 laps in, and then I started feeling the car surging. I came into the pits just for them to check the car out. They couldn't find anything wrong, so they sent me back out onto the track. I immediately felt the surging again, so I came into the pits a second time. They changed out all of the electrical wires to see if that was the problem, and they send me back out again. I made it a full lap this time, and the motor just cut out on the front straight away. I had to have the officials move me into the pit lane, and that is when the team had realized...
Hi everyone!
Yesterday was a very eventful day. I started work on Wichita (The Movie) at 5:00 AM Eastern time. It was a bit sad saying goodbye to all of my friends that I was working with. We had a bunch of fun working on the set together, and I look forward to working with them again soon.
I left work around 1:00 PM Est. and headed out to the airport. I went through the baggage and security with my parents, and then I said my goodbyes. Although I love having my parents with me at the track, it should be a great experience traveling to a foreign country and doing some racing on my own.
I met up with Connor, my team mate, after I went through security, and we waited at our gate until the plane was ready to take off. We both...
Today got going really quickly. We hopped into our cars, and started off with some of the usual stuff that we have been doing.
I personally got to meet Tom Cruise today. He is a very nice man, and to top it off, he even likes racing! We were chatting for a little while, and then we had to get back to work. It's always nice to meet actors, or a well known person in general, who don't act like they are better than you are. Tom has actually been doing all of his stunts so far, and it looks like he is enjoying it.
Ended the day watching Tom climb on top of a van as he was hanging on the side of it.
Tomorrow I am going in to work, but I don't know if I am doing anything. If I do something, I will update again.
Brett...
Today we did some more exciting stuff. Tom Cruise was on the hood of an SUV, and they were driving down the street. All of the ND Stunt Drivers were swerving out of the way of the SUV at the last minute.
I got some tickets to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play tomorrow night (Thanks Rob). My dad is working really hard, so I am going with Dane Farwell, and the Croughwell's. It should be a bunch of fun. Haven't been to a baseball game since I was about 10.
Just finished working out, and heading to bed right now. I'll update again tomorrow.
Brett...
On the set of Wichita:
It was my first day on the upcoming movie Wichita. I arrived in Boston, MA last night, and the town is really awesome. At night time, the skyscrapers in the city light up, which looks nice.
My day consisted of me driving down the street in a couple of different cars. Cameron Diaz was running across the street in between traffic, and we were just keeping heads up.
After that, I went into a back parking lot and started practicing some e-brake slides. It is a lot different than driving a race car at its limits. I will have to work on perfecting it a bit more. In the e-brake, you want to slide the car around, rather than carry max speed in. Just a habit I will have to break when I am working. Shouldn't be a...
Hey Everyone,
I want to thank everyone who played a part in making the Team USA Scholarship happen this year. This will be an amazing experience for Connor and I, and we are both excited to see what it is like to race in Europe. To have my name on the same list as Jimmy Vasser, Bryan Herta, A.J. Allmendinger, Andy Lally, Memo Gidley, etc. is an amazing feeling. My goals are to do as well as Conor Daly and Josef Newgarden did last year in the scholarship, and I feel that I have a good shot at the win.
I will be running with Cliff Dempsey in the Dempsey racing pit at both the Formula Ford Festival and the Walter Hayes Trophy. I got to meet him this week at the Petit Le Mans, and he is a wonderful person. I am looking forward to...
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