By Stefan Rzadzinski on 7/4/2011 8:07 AM

What a great racetrack is the first thing I can say about Road America. Unfortunately, as a driver, you’re never totally satisfied when you don’t get a victory knowing you have the tools and capabilities to do so.

 

Qualifying was my issue, I kept trying to time a lap to get a good run in and something always kept popping up which hurt my run. Should have been more aggressive this session, but I definitely learned from it! Qualified in 5th position.

In Race 1 I had a great battle going in the lead pack. Unfortunately, a driver who had already made contact but failed to take his safety check for 6 successive laps was doing what seemed like everything in his power to cause a collision and take the rest of the field out. It was pretty frustrating as the battling caused us to lose the draft to the top group of cars. On track I ended up finishing in 4th position. However, 2 penalties in front of me were assessed and I was promoted to 2nd position. Some might call it lucky, but I was still pretty...

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By Stefan Rzadzinski on 7/1/2011 9:29 PM

I'll cut to the chase from my last race weekend at Lime Rock since I haven't updated my blog at all. Race 1 on Saturday, fighting for the lead, locked up into Turn 1, blew the corner and fell back to 18th. Fought my way back to 8th place in the end. Race 2, rain on Sunday. Worked my way up from 8th to 4th place in the end. Not a bad race, getting a hang of these cars in the rain now! Now, back to the current event! I'm out here in Wisconsin for Canada Day/Independence Day weekend racing at an incredible track, Road America. After my practice day I'm feeling good and looking forward to the rest of the weekend. The track is one of my favourites already, can't wait for the races. They also celebrated Canada Day here on July 1st with some fireworks. I think they might have some other event out here in the good ol' U.S.A. in a few days, but it's nice that they think of putting Canadians first as our holiday is obviously more important. Ride along with me from my second practice session this morning:...

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By Stefan Rzadzinski on 6/9/2011 7:04 PM

Practice day is over here at Lime Rock, and boy was it a hot one. 100 degrees Fahrenheit and high humidity provided some entertaining weather later in the day for the drive home (more on that later).

It’s a fun little track, just have some work to do in a few spots and I expect we’ll be there! Qualifying and Race 1 of the weekend is tomorrow, should be a blast.

One thing I was not expecting today was a waving yellow flag for a turtle crossing the track. I’ve never even seen a turtle outside of a zoo, never mind out on a racetrack.

On the way home today we stopped to prevent damage from a hail storm, then we were put off course because of a fallen tree in the middle of a road, followed by being put off even more by an even bigger fallen tree in the middle of a road, followed by a 30km detour before we finally reached our hotel. Let’s hope for better luck tomorrow!

By Stefan Rzadzinski on 5/26/2011 11:47 AM

Frustrating weekend for me, but have to bounce back strong! Two 4th place finishes on Saturday, one which was a bad start (down to 8th) and worked my way back up to 4th. Had the speed to challenge for the lead, just was not meant to be. In the second race I wasn't left much room at all when trying to pass for 3rd and battle with the top two guys. Unfortunately, the maneuver cost me the draft and left me to finish out the race in 4th. That's racing though, it happens! I finished 3rd on my race on Sunday. Again I was disappointed because I was leading some laps and trying to pull away with the other driver (we were faster than the rest of the field). However, the draft is so huge in those cars that they were able to keep up and shunt me back to 4th for the start of the final lap. I battled back and just about snuck into 2nd but kept it safe, took home 3rd. Second race on Sunday I started from the pole because some of the other quick drivers had planes to catch (they weren't using this race for points). I dropped to 2nd off the start after a guy drafted by me, I was drafting back into the lead in a 5 car melee down the back straight when the tip of the nose of my car touched the leaders rear tires. Any contact means that you have to go into the pits for a safety inspection in this series unfortunately, even though there was nothing wrong with my car. That cost me about 30 seconds, but I battled back and was catching and would have at least caught 3rd place again by the end of the race. Unfortunately, I pushed too hard and spun, touched the tire wall. With the damaged car, I limped away and did another safety inspection. Somehow I managed not to go down a lap and still set the fastest lap of the race with a car that looked like a mangled hot wheels ramp car....

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By Stefan Rzadzinski on 5/1/2011 7:12 PM

What a crazy weekend. Starting with my flight out after watching some crazy NHL playoff games, meeting Taylor Hall of the Edmonton Oilers in the Toronto airport, and finally arriving in Virginia, I was ready to rock. I posted how testing went on Thursday, so I'll fast forward a bit. Friday gave us some more seat time in the dry, so it was fun to get a couple strong sessions in. On Saturday, we qualified in a wacky session just 0.046 off pole. After so many laps with traffic, I didn't think I was going to have enough time to get a lap in. Luckily, I managed to pull it off and place it just on the outside of the front row. We were supposed to race later that day, but because the National class had so many serious accidents, the day simply ran out of time. Qualifying Results: http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=1856672 Sunday was double race day. In Race 1 I was in the front pack all race until someone ahead...

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By Stefan Rzadzinski on 4/28/2011 6:47 PM

I'll do another quick update before heading to bed tonight. Tomorrow I'll be saying TGIF, not because of the end of a work week, but the start of a "work" (okay, maybe not exactly) weekend. Can't wait to head on track again and improve myself from how I was running in today's lapping session. The first session on track was a damp and rather uneventful one for me except for my extreme thankfulness for a football field of runoff after missing turn 1 and locking up under braking. I went too late on the brakes and the wet grass really didn't help slow the car down at all but it did give me enough room to bring it back on track. After that I had a nice 360 spin to show off to all the fans as I was coming onto the main straightaway (you believe me, right?). Honestly, I did keep it pretty cautious and conservative in the session which left a lot to be improved if it does rain again. First session of the season in a new series, didn't want to make myself look too ridiculous! The second session was in the dry where...

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By Stefan Rzadzinski on 4/27/2011 8:25 PM

It's been a while since I've done a blog up here, but it is way overdue. So for now, I'll keep everyone entertained with what's gone on since the start of 2011... Lots of meetings, lots of preparation, and finally my first Skip Barber Summer Series race event at Virginia International Raceway. I'll be doing practice days Thursday and Friday (April 28 and April 29), and racing in two events on Saturday and Sunday. Should be an awesome battle with 15 drivers in my group for this weekend! Off the track, like all of Canada, I've been captivated by the 2011 NHL Playoffs. Super bummed about the Hawks early exit in an incredible 7 games against Vancouver, but I'm looking forward to the rest of the playoffs. I will keep this blog up to date throughout the weekend as much as possible. Here are some pictures of my new fancy helmet by ArtRotondo.com. Check them out! They did an incredible job. We even included Greg Moore's old design on the top with a bit of a twist, and a special memorial on the back. Red...

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By Stefan Rzadzinski on 1/11/2011 11:59 PM

So we're just over a week and a half into the New Year, hope it's been good to everyone. It's been a hectic and eventful time for me. With my little brothers birthday on December 23rd, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day (forgot about that one, didn't you?), Boxing Day shopping at the ridiculously packed West Edmonton Mall, my little cousins birthday, DeadMau5 concert, New Years Eve, New Years Day, going back to school, and finally, my 18th birthday. I have moved into my new basement room in the break as well, very cool! In that time, I've also been managing to find time to be hitting the gym and develop some more progress on my 2011 racing plans. As you can see, I've been kept pretty busy over the last little while. Now that my second semester of University is underway, I'm actually relishing getting back to the old routine again. I definitely feel as though I have an "on" switch to focus on both school and racing as soon as the holidays are over, which is nice. Although the holidays were a nice time to enjoy with friends and family, it's good to feel more productive again since everyone is getting back on track....

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By Stefan Rzadzinski on 12/13/2010 10:50 PM

I had a fantastic time at the 2010-2011 Skip Barber Karting Shootout at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca from December 3-6, 2010. The whole event was very well run and extremely professional, I look forward to working with Skip Barber in the future. Competing for very few prizes in such a talent stacked field of 44 drivers was really awesome. Day 1 started off with highway safety instruction, followed by a skidpad session in Mazda RX8's. I definitely had to use my knowledge of Canadian roads to get the RX8 into a nice slide! The car was a ton of fun to drive and I really enjoyed that session. Following the skidpad, we were sent in to do interviews where I chatted with Jeremy Shaw about the Karting Shootout and a number of other topics. After the interviews, my group went on to do an autocross in Mazda MX5's which were really fantastic. The way they handled I had to ask if they were stock (which they were except for the tires). You always hear about how fun they are, but it's all just talk until you experience them....

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By Stefan Rzadzinski on 11/28/2010 9:52 PM

It's been a while since I've updated my blog and I felt it was a great time to get on it! I've been really busy since the 2010 Ontario Formula Ford Championship last wrapped up in early October. I was the title runner up in a hotly contested season where I just missed out on the championship. Overall, it was still great as I learned a lot and will take it with me into the future! Now, onto the things that have happened since the 2010 season wrapped up: 1. I'm now also in University at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton and I am enrolled in the Bachelor of Commerce program. Hopefully I can learn a few valuable things to apply to my racing programs so I can continue on my path to move up in the sport. Having said that, it has been taking up a lot of my time and I don't have much spare time anymore! 2. I was able to test a Skip Barber F2000 in early November in preparation for the 2010 Skip Barber Karting Shootout at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. That went well and I am looking forward to the Shootout next week, I'll be sure to write about it as well. Skip Barber has a great program in place, and it was great to have a taste of it at my test last month. The next week will be exciting and I'm very excited about the opportunity the Shootout presents....

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