We stood in a loose circle in the parking lot of the Kill Boy lodge. The sun, long gone from the horizon gave way to cool mountain air. Jokes and short stories from the day of Dragon runs lobbed back and fourth across the circle interjected by legends of even better driving roads nearby, and the sound of ranom cars doing night runs. Inevitably the conversation turned to introductions and “what do you drive?”
C6 Z06…
NB Miata…
R32 GTR…
I began to slowly back away trying not to set off anyone’s motion detection.
But then… it was my turn. The name part was simple enough. My usual fake would do…”Hardy Nickerson”. But could I lie about my car? Was it dark enough that when we part, they perhaps wouldn’t recognize?
I drew a blank and accidentally I told the truth.

“G35…”
The group grew quiet.
“…coupe.”

Silence…aside from the nervous crunch of gravel under polotti driving shoes and the sniffel of mouth breathing HPDE enthusiasts. The circle melted closed slightly making my failed position of retreat even more obvious.

“Aight I’m gonna call it a night.” The Z06 owner said with a slight tone of disgust. The rest agreed and retreated to their various vehicles bidding each other goodnight. No one made eye contact with me as if they had just learned I was a carrier of a most highly communicable disease. I waited until they had all pulled out the lot before walking across the street to the remote parking space I had left my pride and shame.

The G35 has been going through passenger side balasts and ignitors since I bought the car. That headlight always collected moisture so my guess was water was getting in through the cracks and killing the ignitor. Then I got into a boof with the homie Kwame at Shennendoah and destroyed the mounts on that same headlight. The light out put was so bad I could barely see at night and recently both main beams went out while I was 40 min from home leaving me to drive home with just the fog lights. I had been looking for a deal on the Spec D lights but finally gave in and paid full price. After installing I see why they cost so much. The difference is drastic.

My homie put on an event to promote the next iteration of Gran Turismo. He invited me to see what I could see and possibly network.

Mike Borroughs 288.

1

This is the short version of my original concept for the release video of the SC.

The latest wave on the innanets. I don’t usually participate but I did this time…

Practice for the Formula cars ended. We hung around to watch the GT cars last session hoping to wait out the crowd. This was easily the noisy packed event I’ve been to.

After everything wrapped up we walked out still in a pretty large crowd.

Seeing the old track from the 20’s at the exit was amazing. It was sad to see it crumbling but with things like the Pantheon in the same country something like this must not seem as special.

We stopped to check out some vendors on the way out and bought a few items.

The city was still locked with people trying to get to their various places of stay. So as we walked looking for a bus with space or a taxi/ car service we decided to go find food instead.

We found a promising spot a block away but it seemed a bit fancy for how we were dressed. Thankfully they accepted us and it was a great feast.

My cousin Wesley used to be a chef at a 5 star Michelin restaraunt in Manhatten before his knee issue so he guided us through the menu. He let us know that region was more known for its risotto than pasta so I gave it a try and it was amazing. I’m not a wine drinker but the bottle he selected was the best I’ve ever had.

The steak was good as well although much more rare than I ever have. The flavor of the fresh pepper was so amazing. Everything I had on the trip reminded me of how things tasted when I was a child. I thought my taste buds were aging or something, but this made me realize our gov’t is just poisoning us.

We left and walked to the train station and transferred to the subway. My foot was swollen by the time we got home. It was too late to buy shoes so it would have to wait till the morning.

The next morning I woke up early and set out on the few mile walk to a nearby mall to find more suitable sneakers for walking.

I ended up at JD Sports where I met a plesant Morrocan woman named Stella. I exhausted my Italian before I realized she spoke perfect English. She helped me buy some Air Max and some shoe care and I was on my way back to the AirBNB.

I linked up with everyone and we walked to the train station, then hopped on a full bus.

Hungry we stopped at some of the vendors for some food.  I tried a coffee americano. I’m boy a coffee drinker at all but I wanted to see what theirs was like. It was a small shot served black no cream or sugar. First sip was brutal but by the end I enjoyed it. it felt clean and I could actually taste the fruit. I guess my buds needed adjusting. They also serve their fries with mayo. It seems nasty but their mayo is so good and it works great with fries.

We checked out a few of the cars on display. I had seen a few of them in person before but seeing the ’07 and 2010 McLarens was surreal. Probably my favorite F1 cars of all time. The sound and liveries were etched into my mind.

We made our way to the seats and by the time I sat down I was already pushing 20k steps.

caught the end of FP3 the F2 sprint race which was pretty exciting, then F1 Quali.

The crowd was even bigger so I knew we were gonna suffer getting home.

Max, Lando, Oscar were the top 3 and a new lap record was made.

We made our way home via public transit again. Thankfully my new shoes made it not as bad. I had near 33k steps by bed time.

Wesley made sandwiches for race day and we knocked out early so we could wake up early for race day and beat the crowd.

We scheduled two Ubers so we didn’t have to fight with public trans.

Race day. A short walk after the Uber rides and we were in, beating most the crowd.

F3 race was nuts. Lots of safety cars and crashes. F2 race was decent as well.

Then came the historic cars. Jean Alessi was out in his Ferrari which was a treat. But the best was Team Principal Zack Brown going absolutely nuts in the MP4-22. He was absolutely cooking and the car was screaming.

At this point I was struggling to stay awake so I went and found a tree to crash under.

After a good nap I made my way back for the drivers parade and national anthem.

After that they did a parade lap and lined up.

The race was pretty boring so we left with 10 laps to go.

There was 375,000 people in attendance so it was the right decision. We were able to get on a bus and make it home in decent time.

We got some food and dessert and enjoyed our last evening in Milan.

The next morning I woke at 4:15am to catch my $200 Uber to the airport. I got patted down again and stuck next to some large smelly people. After ages of travel I was back home.

I don’t think I’ll fly to europe in business class again. It’s just too much.

But here’s some of the items I brought back from the race and some of the shirts I bought to wear on the trip.

Fin

I’ve been watching F1 since the 90’s but never thought I’d go to a race. In 2017 I was talking to my cousin and learned he was into it as well and he had a sister in Montreal we could stay by. So we loaded up in my truck and drove to Montreal for the weekend Lewis broke Sennas pole record. An amazing weekend.

I subsequently attended the Mexican and Texas GPs after. FFWD to 2024 and we had a group chat with my cousins two younger brothers and one of my best friends from highschool. After 2021 I had gotten a bad taste in my mouth and got most my updates from the group. In March we learned Lewis was moving to Ferrari, a move I didn’t think was going to benefit his career but I suggested we went to support.

Next thing I know we had an AirBNB booked and tickets to the race.

September 3 I boarded my flight from RDU to JFK where I encountered my first of many searches.

I had planned to land in Milan and take the train 3 hours north to Rome to see some sights I’ve always wanted to check out. Having studied Latin I was very interested in the Roman ancient sites. Thankfully when I missed my flight due to security I was able to change to a flight directly to Rome. The travel would have been entirely too much. I was tired by Frankfurt.

I landed in Italy and took the train to Rome city center. I tried to memorize some phrases on the journey but Latin, French, and Spanish kept melting into each other.

then took the subway to the Coleseum where I met up with my cousins and Jonny. 

Jonny was close friends with Dwayne but I had worked with him years ago at Camp Davis. He had gone to my highschool and college after me. One of the funniest smartest people ever.

Being at the Coloseum was unreal after studying it for years. Just imagining it filled with people, fighters, Christians, water and ships was unreal. It was smaller than I expected but the effect was still impressive.

Then we went to explore a bit and pick up thier bags. We used scooters to get around.

We boarded the train to Milan and knocked out. We hadn’t eaten most of the day but luckily there was a spot open late up the block from where we were staying.

Steve and Eli were already at the BNB so we grubbed and knocked out for the night.

The next day we woke up late. We went to Aldi up the street to get some water, drinks and snacks, then we booked an Uber to the track.

Out of all the tracks I’ve been to this one had the most Aura. Races have been held here since 1922 before F1 ever existed. So much history in one place. The Tifosi are the most notorious F1 fans and there is so much national pride for Ferrari. Even our driver was complaining the new cars aren’t V8 or V12. I could have spent a day just walking around the venue.

I had separate seats from everyone so we split up to watch practice. The last race I went to was about 5 years ago and although the engine formula hasn’t really changed the cars were much louder, especially the F3 cars. I was seated at the outside of the parabolica right at the breaking zone. My feet were killing me.  Adidas Sambas were a terrible choice. 

Hearing the cars backfire and seeing them occasionally spit flames on the over-run was amazing. I could just see about 1/3 of the turn so watching the different techniques of various categories was so cool. The Porsche GT cars trail braked until they were almost out of sight and you could see the back of the cars slide out as the whole thing rotated into the parabolica. The F2 and F3 cars went down 3 gears and seemed to brake right after the 100 ft mark. I could not tell where the F1 cars braked. But they went down what sounded like only 2 gears and their corner speed was insane.

Best guy, best cars.

Scott always cooking up heat.

Took my boy out for a ride cuz he’s been sick and stuck in the crib all week.