Our day started with a morning visit to Ferrari of Washington. Allie Ash (owner) had the pleasure of meeting Jacob for the first time. After a quick review of Jacob's passion for quality automobiles, Allie gave us free reign to tour the FoW facility on our own, wherever we wanted to go.

We started with a quick visit to the race shop in the rear of the building. Both the #33 Maserati and #34 Ferrari 360GT were on their way to Watkins Glen, along with the entire race team. The shop was free for us to roam about. On a lift was a Ferrari Challenge series car in the middle of race prep. Under a Ferrari cloth cover was another Ferrari 360 which caught Jake's eye, as there was damage visible under the right rear corner of the cover. We lifted the nice soft cover half over the top, only to reveal a very badly damaged #35 SGS class Ferrari 360 Modena GT. The car had taken a very serious hit to the right rear and right side. This explains part of the reason SFoW was entering a Modena 360 in the Watkins Glen race this week. The SGS car is in the critical care ward, and may be on life support. As someone else asked previously, yes, the Modena 360 GT for Watkins Glen this week is the Championship GT car from 2003. However, as Allie Ash discussed, it is interesting that SFoW is able to field two Rolex GT class cars with only one professional driver. The thought was that the SFoW has great followers all over the United States who love watching their cars race.

After a full hour reviewing the new and used Ferraris and Maseratis (and the DeLorean on the street corner), we headed up to Watkins Glen. After quickly checking into the hotel and getting Pizza Hut to go, we headed up to the kart track in Watkins Glen. After quickly being met by GreenFlagger & the Mrs., the next person to come up to Jacob and I was J.J. O'Malley. How great that he remembered Jacob from Daytona. We talked for quite a bit, he has been busy but his pet project is still the biography of Geoffrey Bodine (a distant relative of mine). Many of the Rolex and Grand-Am Cup drivers scheduled to compete did not show due to the threatening weather, and who could blame them!

I don't have the names of everyone there, but certainly the presence of people like Roger Edmondson, Joe Sahlen, their wives & family, other GA officials, Juha Lievonen, and drivers such as Chuck Goldsborough and Andy Lally among others. During practice and what was to be qualifying, it was obvious Jacob was the class of the field. Without doubt he was able to combine great driving with a weight advantage to take a commanding lead, and pass anyone and everyone he wanted whenever he needed. His corning and drifting skills were noted by everyone present. During the awarding of his trophy many in attendance offering their congratulations to Jacob. Especially Roger E. who was very gracious in defeat.

(Editor's note...CONGRATS JAKE!! -TB)

Tomorrow we head to registration to pick up our corporate credentials provided by Jan Crawford. We are looking forward to a relaxing day of no racing, just practice & qualifying, and a chance to see all the Grand-Am friends in a relaxing atmosphere. I am looking forward to hearing about preparations to the Maserati, AASCO Motorsports and their plans, plus Jacob seeing all the Crawford drivers again.

Got comments on this article? Discuss it on the message board!