A Racecar for Sale
(Editor’s Note: Below is a great story from Trish Bucci and her husband, Jim, that talks about parting with an old friend while welcoming a new one into the family. If you have a story to share, write it up and send it over to media@scca.com – and don’t forget to include a photo.)
A racecar for sale. A racecar that was just ready to get in and go. A racecar that Jim, my husband, wanted. So, what’s a wife to do but pack some drinks and snacks for a road trip, of course! A lot of drinks and snacks as this turned out to be the mother of all road trips.
I agreed to a new racecar without even knowing where it was, and it turned out to be in Florida … a mere 1,250 miles away. It also turned out that before buying the new racecar we actually found a buyer for one of the racecars we already owned, so now the trip would combine delivery of old and pick-up of new.
We loaded up the truck and trailer and headed south right after the May Mohawk-Hudson Region SCCA meeting. Twelve hours later, we arrived in Asheboro, North Carolina, to unload and leave behind the Ford Focus that got Jim and me into SCCA racing four years ago. It was a bittersweet moment leaving that car, but we left it with a friend and moved on to a whole new adventure.
About 10 more hours of driving brought us to Titusville, Florida, where we finally got to sleep in a bed. Early next morning, we were on our way to pick up the new addition to our stable, a Honda Civic … with a lot of pink on it! The Honda’s prior owners had trouble saying goodbye, but we promised to take good care of it and before long we were headed north again … but not all the way back to New York. Why? Because there just happened to be a race at VIRginia International Raceway the next day, and what better way to welcome our new ride into the fold than to put it on the track?
About 11 hours after loading up the new Honda, we arrived at VIR in the dark to unload. While Jim installed new belts in the car, I prepared the “Ford Motor Lodge” (aka: the back of our pickup truck) for the weekend stay. Barely 22 hours after picking up the car, Jim was taking it on track for qualifying. His qualifying time was better than he’d expected, considering he’d never driven that car and never seen that track except for a few online videos. But during the lunch break, we were able to take a ride around and I got to see the whole track while Jim got some instruction about how to drive it. After lunch came race time, and it was exciting to watch. A full-course caution slowed things down, but there was still plenty of time to race, and Jim finished first in Class! Sunday brought more qualifying and another exciting race with no cautions. Jim made it to Victory Lane again with a second win in two days.
I think we like VIR. Beyond the wins, it’s a very nice track and some of the friendliest people we've ever encountered working and racing there. Several people said we have to keep the pink on the car … and we’ll see about that. But we’re off to a fun and exciting start with our new car and hope to do a lot more racing this year, but maybe a little bit closer to home.
We returned home Monday morning just in time to get ready for work. Sleep? Who needs sleep?! There were miles to drive, cars to buy and sell, races to compete in. We had quite an adventure, logging 2,684 miles through 10 states, ran two races, got two wins and returned safely home to unload our new racecar and start planning for the next adventure.
