My Brother And I Both Made It Into Car and Driver!

Well, kind of. We made it into C/D's online coverage of last weekend's LeMons race. That's Mark driving the 560SEL above. He got maybe ten laps before some mook who'd been vaguely involved with the build of the thing demanded to step in.

The article has a photo of me looking horrifyingly sweaty and disgusting, trying to fix a bamboo-covered Jetta. I'm not even that fat --- there's something going on with the oil-soaked shirt hanging in a very I'm-so-fat way.

I wore that same basic outfit for nearly 36 hours. My running shorts, which I usually wear beneath my racing suit instead of Nomex underwear, gave me a rash. I put more miles on Texas Dave's bike than I did on any car.

And this car apparently ran two laps. Without us. There aren't words for how angry everyone on the team is. More to come on this as it develops.

But I want to talk about my brother for a moment. He didn't make it to MSR Houston in time to drive the track in the daylight. Instead, he made his wheel-to-wheel racing debut:

* At a track he didn't know * In a car he'd never driven * That was an utter and complete piece of shit * In the dark * With pretty much no headlights * Surrounded by seventy other cars

Racing at night is terrifying if you've already raced in the day on that same track. Mark faced the worst combination of conditions I could imagine... and he went out and turned brilliant laps. Every lap he ran was faster than the previous one. And when a car spun right in front of him, he avoided the accident, saving himself and the other driver from some potentially serious injury. A few hours later, after the sun came up, he went out and ran some great laps in the SEL despite rainy conditions.

I'm proud to know the guy. I'm proud to call him my brother. I'm proud to call him my teammate. And I'm happy that the prayers I said while I stood in pit row and he took his first laps were answered: Bring him back safe, and let him be the same courageous, successful guy that he's always been.

It was a bullshit race with a bullshit couple of cars, but I'm still smiling.