How did You hear about COM?

[SandyClam]

I am loving these stories.
I took my street driven Miata and made the necessary mods and drove to my first ever event at Lime Rock in 2004 (the one where it snowed in the morning and the track lost power due to massive ice buildup on the power lines.) Driving there in the snow from my wife's grandparents house in Fishkill, NY on summer tires in the Miata was an adventure to say the least. My wife, Emily, followed in her WRX (a much smarter vehicle choice!)

My first event - I was such a newb - my first instructor was Chris Connacher, who was fantastic and super helpful- even helped with a small mechanical issue I had with a leaking valve stem - I took a wheel down to this hole in the wall shop near the track to do a repair - they scratched the hell out of my beautiful alloy wheel - but I was able to get out on track and experience LRP at least a little bit. It was brutally cold and the track was intermittently dry. My poor wife huddled in the WRX with the heat on - ever the trooper.

I remember that event; I had my 5 week old STI at that event (which hadn't had the first payment made yet), which was hitting an overboost issue due to the catback I'd put on and the cold temps. Squinty Joe had his even newer STI, as in, he was driving it home from purchasing it and stopped by the track to spectate, which I then raided for the stock exhaust to fix my overboost issue. Got back on track, then some jabronie managed to drop oil on the track, coming out of the downhill. My back tires hit the oil at about 105mph and full throttle. El sliderino ensued, and my 1500 mile old rear bumper kissed the dirt berm between T1 and pit-in. Good times! Apparently I skipped the TT, most likely due to needing clean undies.

[Juiced06GTO]

I purchased my 06 GTO as a graduation gift to myself from college, proceeded to take it drag racing 7 days later and spent 6 or so years doing that with my father. After my Dad passed in 2012, I stopped running the drags and didn't drive the car much and stored it in a buddy's garage. I went to pick it up and found the oil pan cracked and leaking oil, tore it apart to fix, found metal in the oil pan and got real disgusted with it all and thought about selling it. In the mean time my co-worker Rodney had gone with Matt D to ADSI at the Quonset Air Force base in RI and had a blast running his 67 Porsche 912. He convinced me to go the following month, so I tagged along as a spectator and rode along in his car and Matt's Miata, this was October of 2013. The urge to drive my car again set in and I proceeded to toss my motor back together in my basement and drop it back into the car in about 3 weeks so I could run the last ADSI event of the season in November. While at that event Matt was talking about COM and how he used to run with them and was considering it the following season. Thompson opened up and was local so Rodney and I signed up and ran our first event at the end of Sept 2014, my 9 month pregnant wife came down to spectate and hit up Bobs BBQ and 9 days after that my first son was born. I had Lou M as my first instructor and it was awesome, I was hooked after that. I earned my license last year, the wife and I had another son, and I've been fortunate enough to make at least a few events each year since. My soon to be 3 year old loves coming to watch the cars and Dad race so hopefully this is just the beginning for my family's time with COM. The whole crew is great and I can't tell people enough about how well the club is run and how much fun it is.

[TroyV]

So I had been autocrossing with SVTOA Boston for a couple years along with Mick Demopoulos. He moved to COM a year or so before I did. I had what I thought was a reasonable car for this sort of thing.....a 1999 Mustang GT with all the suspension parts out of Steeda Catalog, and some first of their kind aftermarket cams and springs that allowed a 7k rev limit...perfect for doing all of Devens in 2nd gear. Mick convinced me to do a COM event. It was Limerock in November 2002. We drove out the morning of.... There was a mention of snow squalls in central Mass...but we were like "We are invicible...F-the snow...we are going. My Mustang had Nitto 555s in front, and Nitto Drag radials...yes...drag radials in back.

We hit snow squalls in central Mass. During an up hill grade on the pike, I began to spin...I went around three full rotations without hitting anything and got stuck in the left median. Mick pulled to the left median and while waiting for the tow truck to arrive, he got stuck too. 80 bucks and 80 bucks to pulls us out. We got back on the road. I was completely jacked on adrenalin

We missed the drivers meeting.... and I was assigned.....Bill Sarno as my very first instructor. Bill was a hard ass then (I think now too). My car had stock brakes that hadn't been maintained well. He drove the car for the entirety of the first group 4 session....during which he said things like "Oh my GOD these brakes SUCK!!....this car sucks so bad.....why the **** did you put drag radials on this POS?" etc...

Next session, I drove. I was the most awful driver, well....at least that is what Bill told me I was. LOL!!!! During the post session debrief, he asked "So...why were you late?" I explained what had happened out on the Pike and that I was really nervous. He was like ".................and you didn't hit anything?" I drove the next session, and started to get it together, sort of. I left with a smile on my face, with new brakes on my mind and desire to improve.

I went back to Devens doing 20 ax events a year, but also did COM events with the rationale being that each type of driving could help the other. I took over as president at SVTOA (now NE-SVT) a few years later. I still did a lot of COM events and started taking it more seriously. I dropped the Mustangs and bought Will's original #72 car (the car that is now running around in Julie's hands #68) and sucked for a couple of years before I started to get faster. I then joined the COM board and served 6 years...then I ran for prez.

Now I just have to figure out how to be prez and also put down reasonable lap times. It is a work in progress.

[cfossum]

Now I just have to figure out how to be prez and also put down reasonable lap times. It is a work in progress.

Haha!
You're not alone there. I remember feeling tons of pressure as CI to try to win my class at every event! (Emphasis on "try")