We go down to Daytona with four cars in our Phoenix ProMotions effort. Right now it looks like we will run two Acura Integras and one Porsche.

Although the off season seemed short, we had enough time to meticulously scour over the cars and make sure everything was perfect. When I say we, I am of course referring to our full-time crew here in our shop in Ohio; Mike Thomas, Trevor Whipple, and Bill Hesson.

They first went over all three of our King Motorsports Acura Integra LSs that we campaign under the HRPWorld.com Racing team name. The cars came back from the season finale at Daytona last year with very little damage, but that didn't mean that there wasn't a lot we had to do. We put some new pieces and parts in the #43 Acura Integra, including motor and tranny, preparing it for Will's run at the STII Championship this year. We also went through and replaced a few major components on the other cars that either showed wear or had some hours on them.

On the Porsche side of things, we had to wait until we got the car back from the body shop before we could play with that car here in the shop. We got the car from SpeedSource, but the car had some damage from a wreck John Sturm had at Mont Tremblant. We sent it to the frame shop, and they did a great job getting it done. Longtime crewmember Troy Miller put some of his final touches on it before we got it back in early December.

Back in our shop, we had some work to do to make it right. We put the car back together as closely as we could to the SpeedSource specs. They have developed these cars over the past couple of years, and they know more about these Porsches than anyone else in the paddock.

We ran test days in early January with the Acuras and the Porsche. Will did some fine tuning on the handling of the Acuras and also brought his new co-driver, who will remain nameless for this point in time, up to speed in the front wheel drive Acura Integras. His co-driver did a great job and he will fit in with the team great. We also brought a rookie driver, Mark Swain, from Port Perry Canada in to test the #42 Integra. He did an excellent job of finding speed on the Daytona track, which he had never been to before, and he will make an excellent addition to our team for this season.

Except for a broken shift cable, which we found out we didn't have the right part, the Porsche ran excellent. Both Joe and I had to adjust to the Porsche and its unique driving characteristics. After six sessions we both felt very comfortable in the car and feel that this season could be a very good one for us.

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