Renting a ride works for him
Paul Saunders was a golfer and a skier. At 18, he was a national bowling champion. When he turned 45 a few years ago, he took up karting and racing two-stroke karts at the Cameron Speedway in Mount Hope. He said he was not the best, but wanted to improve.
“I loved it but I was bad at it,” admitted the West Mountain resident recently. “I was going to quit but I started going to practices, and I really started to love it.”
But he left the karts for bigger race cars, taking road circuit driving courses at Laguna Seca in California and then at the Skip Barber school in Connecticut in 2012. Before the Barber school went out of business two years ago, Saunders did more training on the Lime Rock course, gaining confidence in his ability.
“I was getting good feedback, and was more comfortable. I was now pumped up,” adding he raced at several eastern U.S. courses but realized he still had a ways to go.
He continued with driving school sessions, and started racing in the World Racing League’s Spec MX-5 Challenge Series, a series using stock Mazda roadsters. After some sessions with trainers who took up the void of the Barber school, Saunders said his efforts came together.
“Finally something clicked,”
he said.
The WRL is a Texas-based amateur endurance racing series, filling the gap between entry-level and professional road racing. The races last between eight and 24 hours, and provide a way for drivers such as Saunders to pursue their interests in racing. There will be 12 races on the WRL card for 2019, all in the U.S., and Saunders, who took a podium finish in the series last year and was fourth in his class, has teamed up with car owner Casey Carden of California for a fourrace deal this year.
Saunders believes this fills his love of racing without the costs of owning and maintaining a car. While a car in this series can cost about $65,000 to compete on a winning level, Saunders paid $20,000 for his four-race deal, and takes his holidays from his employer
around his racing trips. He heads off to Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama next month for his first events, and has his helmet and driving suit packed.
“I’ve invested in this season,” he mentioned. “I’m doing what I love. It’s a dream.”
NASCAR recently announced some competition changes for its upcoming season which starts this weekend with the Daytona 500 Busch Pole Award Qualifying and the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona.
Among the changes are teams of dedicated officials and series specific inspectors at all races, the debut of the next generation Cup car for the 2021 season, and a shortening of periods between qualifying sessions.
The biggest update announced is the new procedure for postrace inspections. Rather than provide these inspections at the NASCAR R&D facility in Concord, N.C., these inspections will take place at the race track immediately following each national series race. The first and second-place winning vehicles will be subjected to this new inspection, as well as a vehicle chosen at random.
If a vehicle fails post-race inspection, it will be disqualified, resulting in a last-place finish and the loss of all benefits from the win/finish, as well as any stage points.
All other vehicles would move up in the finishing order under this scenario.
Tim Miller is the author of several books on auto racing and can be reached at timmillerthecarguy@gmail.com.