by Donna Gilio.

Hey everyone, 

Wow, what an eventful 10 days!!

Donna Gilio

The week started off with Ron and I flying out to Houston for round 1 of the pro series on Thursday night. We were racing with Champ Car for the 1^st round, so Our show took a very backseat to them. This race is a street course and for those of you who are not familiar with street courses, it is a lot like the famous long Beach Grand Prix race. The race track is designed around the Houston Astrodome and weaves through the streets and parking lot of this venue. What that means it is CONCRETE WALLS EVERYWHERE !!

Our designated practice session was scheduled at 9:00pm at night on Friday. My teammate Matt Cross and I went out together for practice and by the 4^th lap, I was feeling good, the track was coming to me quickly, so I passed Matt in turn 10. Turn 1 is a long straight away then goes into a very quick, tight small section of esses in turn 2. Well, I brake in the proper braking zone, rotate the car and as I am cresting the curb for the left turn, this maneuver bends the left front tie rod, upsets the car and spins me backwards right into the concrete wall with the right rear panel taking the hit !! Ouch !! Oh, it broke many parts on the car. Tie rods, knuckles, brake rotar, steering column, bent the sub frame. Too many parts to name !! I felt so bad. The entire crew was up all night and the next day putting the car back together for me. They worked their little fannies off for me and I was so grateful to the crew at Hooverspeed.

Qualifying was during the day at 4:00 o’clock. I did what I could since I blew the practice session, so I had to learn the track in qualifying quickly and try to lay down a fast lap. I qualified 17^th out of a field of almost 30 racers. Not bad, but not that great, either.  My teammate Matt Cross was blistering fast as he qualified in the top 3. Way to go Matt.

Race day was at night at 8:45pm under the lights of Houston. Our race is a 45 minute sprint race. Suprisingly, the first turn was clean with no incidence. I got a great start, moving up to 12^th right away. The field started to leave me behind, but my strategy was to stay consistant in my lap times and be patient. By mid way through the race, I was comfortable with the track, so I started to pick up the pace. Now I am picking people off, one by one and by lap 22, I already moved my way up to 9^th place, with the train of 8^th, 7^th and 6^th position  RIGHT THERE !! On lap 23, I go into turn 4 and damn it, wouldn’t you know it, I lost 3^rd gear in the transmission !! Damn, Damn, Damn !!!  All that hard work just drove by, losing position after position. All I could do was shift from 2^nd to 4^th. Wind the motor up, bog the motor down. I crossed the finish line in 17^th place. Oh well, At least I scored points.

Donna Gilio

I forgot to mention our other teammate Bob Mccalien. He had a really good race, finishing in 7^th place. Matt took 4^th. Our team did great.On Sunday, we stayed and watched the champ car race. Oh Man, those cars are so bitchin!!! After the race, we loaded up the toterhome and drove all night to Atlanta Georgia for the Nationally famous Road Atlanta road course. This race is round 2 of the MX-5 Cup and we raced with The Historic series called “The Mitty”  

The early part of the week was spent working on the cars getting them ready for race weekend. On Wednesday a friend of mine, Jeff Altenburg who races speed world challenge, was at Atlanta Motor Speedway doing a promoter day for Marlboro called Hot laps. This is an intivational event and it has 3 parts to it. The first part is you get to be driven on the mile and a half oval course in IROC series cars. The cars were Dodge Avengers and the pros took us for 3 hot laps at speed !! Man, talk about G forces !! That was pretty cool.

The next event was a ride in Panoz race cars on a small road course in the infield. Another friend of mine who was working the event, Johnny Kavanas, gave me a ride in the Panoz. Pretty cool stuff.

Then the 3^rd event was really cool. It was drifting supped up Mustangs around cones that made up 6 turns. You go into each turn, full throttle, the car drifting completely sideways while the tires are smoking wildly !!! Very, very cool. Jeff took me for a ride in this event. He is a great race car driver and a hell of a drifter to boot !!Well, getting back to the MX-5 race. Practice was Thursday and this was an important day because we have never raced there before, so we really needed the track time to learn the track to be competitive. The weather was beautiful with Blue Georgia skies all week, but wouldn’t you know it, Thursday greeted us with a torrential downpour of rain !!! We went out for the 1^st session on a wet track, but the 2^nd session was so wet we decided that it was not worth it to go out on track and take a risk of hurting the cars. So the last session of the day it dried out and this was the only chance we had to learn the track.

Friday is practice then qualifying. This is a difficult track to go fast on right away and not only that, drafting is crucial here. Practice goes ok. Qualifying, we decide to go out together as a team and use the draft so that we all could get a fast qualifying lap. Mark Pombo, a local hot shoe, rented one of our cars for the weekend and drove with our team this weekend. He is fast. So Mark goes first, then Matt, then Me. The three of us together out for qualifying.  Well, on the supposed hot lap, both Mark and Matt go off in turn one !! Shit, Now that leaves me in front with Matt catching up and now behind me. So Matt and I work together. Matt passes me on the back straight for 1 lap and on the next lap I have a screamer going. I get into his draft down the back straightaway and instead of going around him, I stayed behind him. This cost me probably a half second. I qualified with a 1:43.4 which put me in 17^th. If I had done the draft right, it probably would have been a lap time of a high 1:42 which would have put me in the top 7. I was only 4 tenths out of a top ten qualifying !! Oh well. Matt ended up qualifying in 13^th. Mark Pombo qualified 5^th.

Race day. Track goes green and it is a clean start. I move up quickly and by the 2^nd lap, I’m up to about 14^th. Again, my strategy was to be patient and consistent. Let the track come to me and reel them in one at a time. The front runners set a blistering pace and got away from me. But I stayed patient. I work my way up to 11^th and then I get in one of the funnest races that I have ever been in with 9^th and 10^th place. Oh my god, it was great, the three of us were passing each other back and forth so many times in the race !! I was hooting and hollering. I would force a mistake on them then get around. Pass in turn 10 a,b. Pass in 12. Pass in 1. Then on the white flag lap, They were both in front of me, I set myself up for a great turn 10 11 and 12 combo. 9^th place makes a mistake and drives himself out in the grass. 10^th place is slow coming out of turn 11 and I catch him. He tried squeezing me off line, but I have speed going and I passed him on the downhill heading for the checker flag !!!! I ended up finishing the race in 9^th position. Top ten in a pro series. I am pretty happy with that.

Donna Gilio

Matt had a great race going. He was up there in the top 6, but his 3^rd gear in the tranny went out which forced him back. He finished the race in top 15 with all those problems. Mark was having problems with his tranny as well and he ended up finishing 7^th. The trannys are a real weak link in these cars.

After the race, The three of us (the guys who I raced) were so excited, hugging and shaking hands, congratulating each other on a fantastic race. We were so stoked. Absolutely no bad blood or animosity whatsoever. It was racing at it’s finest. We put on a terrific show for the crowd and Speed Channel. We were clean and fast with no body contact. I was told that on lap 16, I posted the fastest time for that lap. My fastest lap time was a 1:42.7 with no draft!! HA HA!

Thank you Ron Carroll for your endless hours of work, making my car the best handling car out there. One day soon, I will put it on the podium for you. Thank you Ron Cortez for your support and belief in me and being my friend. Thank you all the guys from Hooverspeed for your dedication and hard work. And a big thanks for all my sponsors.Chuck, you would have loved the old Nascar cars there. These pictures are for you. We need to take your stock car out and race the Historic series !! HA HA!!

With Love,

Donna Gilio
#52 MX-5 Cup pro series

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