The ins and outs of a race car driver, as told from my seat.

You race cars?  that's pretty cool, is it like out at Deer Creek? ( a local dirt track)

yeah I race, but not on the dirt, it race on road courses around the country in the Pirelli world challenge, well, when funding allows me to.

What do you do in between races?

I coach other drivers at Brainerd international raceway, but still have a 8-5 job for a health care company, working from home. I try to stay in shape by hitting the gym, and I use a driving simulator at home to drive tracks I might be racing at.

You mean like gran turismo?

No its a program called iRacing, it is a pretty accurate rendition of a real track that I normally would compete at, but I just use it to learn the turns. lefts and rights, hills, etc....

So when is your next race?

I have no idea, I am currently working on my marketing proposals for next year. I hope to partner up with some companies willing to give me a chance to drive.

Where is your race car?

It's near Miami with the team, and I'm here in Minnesota, I heard they started it up the other day, and refilled the tires with air. I get to see the rest of my team go to track after track each weekend. they have been doing this longer than I have and have a pretty solid foot in the door. truly proud of their hard work....

Who is your favorite driver?

Besides myself? I have a bunch of favorites because they have in some way helped out a friend that is a driver, or something like that

Well hey, let me know when you will be racing next, I will look for you on TV!

yeah, I will let everyone know, trust me!!

This would be a conversation that I have one to a couple times a week. From people on social media, to people in person, to people from work. Fans, friends are amazed at how much a racing weekend costs. I recently took a look at my first set of proposals that I sent out two years ago after getting approved for an IMSA ST license.  All I can say is that I have learned a ton of things over the last 2 years. Including learning on the track, competing in 6 Pirelli World Challenge races, all of which were on TV!

let's go back for a minute though:

Epic track outfit

I attended Road America races throughout the 80's and a little of the 90's. When I was a little kid, I'm talking cowboy boots and shorts type of outfit for midsummer  type of kid, I would watch the racers, on the track, off the track, how they interact with the fans, how they carry themselves, how they dip away from a crowd even, but mostly how they drive, the line they took around a corner, the line they took the lap before compared to the line this lap, the next lap etc.  I listened for the car noises, when they started to brake, the blip of the throttle, which gear they went down to, or how many times they shifted in a certain section of the track.

I could tell that a driver was coming in too hot to a corner, before it was evident that they were.  I would usually point it out right before it started to happen. This isn't a " I can see the air from the car ahead of me", Dale Earnhardt Sr type of thing, but yeah, it sounds like it.

Grammar isn't a strong point for me so if you see run on sentences, or lots of commas, please just roll with it for now....

I am worried about the drivers like myself that get a taste, usually by putting themselves in a financial hole. But they get a taste of something that they have been dreaming about, day in and day out.  you see, kids like me have been thinking about this every day since they went to the race track at 5 years old. Now with the opportunities that I could possibly take advantage of, it is very, very tough, confusing, frustrating to not be able to go out and race. The main thing that is holding myself and hundreds if not thousands of drivers out there is funding, the other f word. If a company were to come  on board with  me and trust that I can help them out with promoting their product, I can guarantee you that I would represent that company to the best of my abilities, day in and day out.  But the first a driver has to do besides be independently wealthy, or have a family that is,  is get a fan base, a group of people that have a passion for drivers and racing that are willing to stand behind the product that the driver represents.

You see, I have taken the money from my 8-5 job, purchased all the necessary equipment that I need to wear to be able to get in the car, put my tax return money towards a weekend, taken out loans, added to that loan, used credit cards, consolidated them, paid them off, ran Crowdfunding projects. help build a couple of race cars, paid for entry fees to do amateur races to build my racing resume, fixed cars from the racing during the day so we can run tomorrow, installed safety upgrades, worked till midnight or beyond the night before we had to hit the road, only to have track time shortened by a weld failing, or some other 2 dollar part. I've sent out proposals, by mail, or email. I've talked with potential sponsors, basically telling them I would do just about anything possible to have them come on board with me. I've promoted potential sponsors without them giving me anything but a product discount, I've had people go after the same sponsor that I promoted to try and gain a working relationship with them. I have spent countless hours trying to figure out just the right person at whatever company I thought would be a good fit, only to have my email or letter never responded to. I've had great conversations with potential sponsors only to have them cut short by whichever reason they choose. I've had potential sponsors respond to me proposal with a no, even without me telling them how much each level would be for them to join me....

I still have the belief that motorsports value to a company is huge, we have the most loyal fans. I can't tell you how many people are sporting a certain pair of socks that I bought to help promote my Crowdfunding projects. These people have also gone ahead and put their own orders in for additional socks, hats, shirts etc. The power of motorsports marketing is bigger than you may think.

So why hasn't a company jumped on board? I can think of a few reasons, timing, questions about exposure, economy, budgets fulfilled for the year already. It could be just about anything these days. What I do know for the next potential sponsor that is willing to see the passion, excitement, and willingness to promote in me, I will not disappoint.   you see, I am over the story that started out this blog entry, had enough with watching the races on TV vs. going to the track and competing. I know that is not enough to convince a sponsor to jump on board for 2016, but let it be my starting point for now.

I have always believed in the saying, " you must live through the questions, because without questions there are no answers."   So I live through the questions, and you will find the answers.... let's just work towards the answers that I am looking for.

For potential sponsors, people that wish to get involved, I have a proposal with your name on it, I have spent a better part of my life thinking about the opportunity to send it to you. This isn't a packet that I whipped up in a weekend, it is the thoughts of a 5 year old kid all grown up and ready to take on 2016.

If you have got this far, please comment below, and thank you for reading.

Chris Holter

Holter has a strong run at Circuit of the Americas in the Pirelli World Challenge

Holter has a strong run at Circuit of the America's in the season opener of the Pirelli World Challenge Series 2015!

The Pirelli World Challenge series kicked off the weekend of March 6th - 8th in texas at Circuit of the Americas. COTA is a 3.4 mile track with dramatic natural elevation changes, including a 133-foot climb up to its signature Turn 1. the 20 turn circuit incorporates some of the best loved and most challenging turn from other iconic Formula 1 tracks. Pictured to the right is the iconic snake tower, or as some call it, the worlds largest mullet, tower. It has a glass floor, while up top you can see the whole race track, for a fee of course....

I arrived on thursday morning during the promoter test day. I could not participate in the test day because of the additional

cost that I would have had to pay. But I drove straight to the drivers meeting, and after that went to get my gear checked, and the car properly set up with sponsor decals. 

For this race I had 1 sponsor that wrote a check, www.amberthrives.com  which is a health wellness company that I currently use for sustained energy and vitamin nutrition. If you are interested in Thrive, please let myself or Amber know. She is a wealth of knowledge about this product. 

I also used a crowdfunding platform from indiegogo. Through this platform I was able to introduce Fuel Clothing socks to a vast group of people. I think I sent out about 40-50 pairs of socks throughout the campaign. check them out at Fuel Clothing In addition I had 

Go Puck and Spy Optics represented on the car.

Practice/Qualifying:

 The weekend started with a couple practice sessions, the 2nd session turned into the qualifying session. COTA is a tricky course to learn. I kept messing up on turn 6 in the beginning. We had a 8am session and the sun was rising right above the horizon, straight in my view of the corner. First practice i wound up in 10th, about 9 seconds off the fast pace that was set by Johan Schwartz. This was my first time on the track so I wasn't too worried about the time. 

Between practice and the 1st qualifying, I knocked off 4 seconds to qualify 7th out of 15 cars. 2:53.6 So mid pack, and I was ok with that. Between getting used to the car again and learning the track, mid pack was alright with me. 

Race 1:

In race 1, I started 7th as mentioned above. I was more concerned with just getting faster, smoother and more comfortable with the car and track. Finished 8th, but during this race I ended up running the 4th fastest lap, 2:51.9 which was actually 6/10ths away from the fastest lap of the race by Pirelli Veteran Glenn Nixon 2:51.3 . While the finish was a spot past where I started. I felt more comfortable with the track, and with the car. The fast lap capitulated me into 4th on the grid for race 2. 

Race 2:

On the grid, I was stoked to learn that I was starting 4th. TCB class is a momentum class, if you start up front, there is a good chance that with some skill, you will generally stay up front. Something happened to the 3rd place car so on the grid, I was pushed up to start 3rd. Holy heck! THIS WAS SO RAD!!! On the start, for a brif moment, I got the jump on the field and stck my nose to the inside of turn 1, and my nose was in 1st place! I was able to hold my own for the most part of the race as I am aware that I am faster with less fuel in the tank, I bounced between 5th and 3rd. Speaking of 3rd, With 12 mins to go, I found myself making a few mistakes and not focusing 110% as I should be. While riding in 3rd, I remember myself talking to myself and saying, "you are running in 3rd place, this is a podium position, this is prize money that you really need, this is a dream come true, you have been driving your ass off, you have 11 mins to focus, its just 11 mins, that is all you have to focus for, handle your business, hit your apex's, acceleration points, braking points, you know what the car can do! FOCUS!!!!!"

5 mins left, a lap and a half, maybe 2 laps. Coming out of turn 15, Chevy on my right, I was in 3rd, next thing I knew, I was sideways. Dumped on the exit of turn 15. A fellow Mazda2 got into my left rear, not once, but twice! Once to turn me, and another time to make sure I was going to get out of the way for him. You can watch the video to see who it was but personally I don't care that the car drove from Kyle, Texas, a 26 mins drive to the race track. I race clean and I hope that my fellow competitors will also. My hopes, dreams, anticipation, and wallet took a giant turn for the worse. The announcers said that I struck the wall, but I didn't. Twitter blew up, my fans were outraged, my friends were texting me offering words of encouragement, family called and texted. The car that hit me, his hood popped up and he had to come to a rest around turn 16-17. Personally I was glad to see that he couldn't finish. Sorry... The hit could have been avoided, and there is also a reason why he hasn't released Race 2 footage on the internet from his car. 

I waited for the driver to come over and explain, more so apologize for taking me out. I know that if I was in that situation, I would go over to the drivers pit after the race, and talk with them about it. But there was nothing.  Finished 9th after running 3rd....

A hug from my girlfriend, and we were off to dinner at Salt Lick for some BBQ.

Race 3:

This race began late in the afternoon, the weather was rain and overcast all day. So with rain, you have to get rain tires, which is an added cost. Thank You to my team for working with me on that. I start 9th, the finishing position from race 2. Racing in the rain, for me seems to be something that I cannot escape, amateur to pro races, it always seems to rain. There is this weird grip level that you don't think will happen with rain tires but the Pirelli P-Zero rain tires are amazing. 

For this race, the goal was to bring the car home with no more damage than was already incurred for the weekend. I certainly didn't need to have a damage bill tacked onto the rest of the weekend. On the start I gave it a few laps to get my footing in the rain. As the car got lighter, the track started to dry, and my lap times started to improve. The car was safe, and i was driving quick, but more so riding around. I didn't have to, but the car that took me out, I let by without contact. The way it should be. I ended up finishing 7th. 

After the race I parked the car, got on the pit bike and went down to talk about race 2's incident. A conversation that should have taken place a day before.  It's good to have a talk about it. 

Summary:

Overall it was a good weekend. Was great to run up front, to have the ups and downs of a race weekend. Great food and it was great to have my girlfriend with me. I hope that she enjoyed herself. I cannot thank my Breathless Performance Team enough. Ernie, Billy, Adam my crew chief who busted his ass on my car, Dave, and driving teammates Ernie Jr. and Jason Fichter. Thank you everyone for being top notched! 

Next:

Next event is at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park ( Mosport ) on the weekend of May 15th -17th. I am currently looking for sponsors in the area. The only way that I will be able to participate in this weekend is with heavy sponsorship support. Please get a hold of me if you feel that we can work together for exposure of your business. I will make your business my priority. 

I am sitting 8th in points, and with a strong run at COTA, i am poised to make a serious run at the championship in the TCB Class. I have what it takes and my team would really like to see me in Canada. Plus, I love Poutine, and have never been to Canada.... Even though I live about 9 hours away driving....Lets get it on!

Thank you for reading, thank you to Amber from thrive, Fuel Clothing, Spy optics, and Mazda for the support!

A little delayed article about my race weekend with the Pirelli World Challenge

Well here we are, A week after my 1st and 2nd Pirelli World Challenge race weekend at Brainerd International Raceway with the Breathless Performance Racing team. Welcome to part 2 of my article about my experience of living out a dream of mine.

Through the first article, I took you back to when I was a kid watching researching race cars at Road America. All the visions in my head, and watching the drivers from the other side was now flipped. I was a driver, and I was "in the spotlight" so to speak. I travelled up on Thursday and got a good night's rest at a friend's house, set my alarm for 5am and went to sleep.

Fast forward to after I woke up a few times in a panic that I had missed my alarm, and to when I arrived at the track. the crew was busy getting everything set up. We had a 5 car stable at Breathless Performance Racing. My Mazda2, Ernie Francis Jr's Miata and Camaro, another  Camaro, Jason Fichter had his mini cooper, there was a mustang as well. I met the crew and was assigned Les as my crew chief.  He was there to take care of everything on my car, or any needs that came about. Les is a quiet guy, but he is funny as can be, and a very hard worker. Friday was the promoter test day, and it was raining. Not just a light sprinkle, raining cats and dogs. I had raced in a World racing League event a couple of months ago and described it one of the worst experiences I have had in a race car. Rain, fogging windshield, and generally not ideal circumstances. So having the rain this morning was literally my worst fear. Not to mention the fact that I had not put rain tires into my budget for the weekend. We worked out a deal for the rain tires, got them mounted on a set of rims, Les went to work swapping them out from the slicks that were on the car, and I was off to practice session #1 in the rain.

Throughout the next 3 sessions, I managed to learn the car and the tendencies of it in the rain. Saturday was supposed to have a low chance of rain, and Sunday was supposed to be a torrential downpour. For my last two sessions I had a drying track which was comforting. The whole TCB class besides the top 2 who were 3 seconds faster for some reason was within 2 seconds of each other. in racing, that is a lot of time but I felt that I was at least in the ballpark. Friday did exactly what it was supposed to do, give me some time in the car, and prepare me for the rest of the weekend. The main event! 

With Friday over I checked into my hotel, and set my sights on the 1st day of racing. Practice, qualifying and a race at 4:30pm. Saturdays weather was supposed to be the best of the weekend, it was bad but there was a constant mist, or drizzle in the air, nothing like Friday morning's test session. I started the day running 2.11 second laps in the rain, again we were all pretty much running within a few seconds of each other so I felt good about it. Practice ended with me in 11th out of 13 with a fastest lap of 1:57.798, just 3/10ths away from the next driver. ahead of me. Besides the top 2, then rest of the times ranged from 1:55 to 1:58.8.  On to the autograph section of the day, I had my promo cards set up and I sat down in the row of drivers to sign my name however many times I needed to. It was great to see the fans and the kids that showed up to grab a card from me, at one time I was one of those kids walking up to Al Unser Sr, and Danny Sullivan for their autograph. Just like when I was a kid, I watched what the other drivers were doing, just so I didn't seem out of place. It's weird to think that there is a way to sign autographs, but there is. I'll spare you the details on that one...back to racing things. The rain had let up and the track was drying so we switched over to a new set of Pirelli tires, headed out to the track. After our first warm up lap it was go time! Qualifying! I headed down the back straight and as I was exiting turn 2 I hear over the radio my teammate say, " it's raining in turn 3. I was going about 95 mph when the call came in so I slowed up, qualifying was a wash, literally. I ended up in starting 13th, dead last. My teammate Jason started in 12th, so I felt like I had a "friend" nearby, and really for my first race, it was ok to be in the back to see everything unfold in front of me rather than worry about being in the middle of a pack.

there I was, about to start my 1st professional race, it was a standing start and the weather was dry. I had not had the opportunity to practice my starts, but really, the idea is, " just don't stall it. The red lights come on, rev's go up, and they turn off, I dump the clutch and realize that I had a great start! Up the inside to turn 12 I went. I picked off about 3-4 cars leading into the 1st corner which was turn 12. The numbering of the corners is such because there are 2 course at Brainerd. The old school 3.1 Donnybrook course which uses the drag strip, and the 2.5 competition course. So here comes the first corner, a really tight left hander, and we were probably 3 wide at this point. I held my inside line and made it though.  TCB is a class of cars that are so closely matched that if the pack leaves you, your race is pretty much over, well at Brainerd it is. I rode around the track for 40 mins doing the best that I can to pick away at my lap times. I was taking corners that I would normally slow down for flat out, and braking later and later for each corner. Saturday's race ended with me finishing in 10th. A Top 10! And no damage!

on to Sunday. With one race behind me and a clearer idea as to how this all goes down, I was ready for Sundays events. Practice and a race. If there is one thing I am good at, it is running consistent laps, Sundays warm up had me at 1:57.7, good for 9th in the morning warm up, and  1second separated 4th through 9th. Again, In the ball park! I started the race in 11th spot, based on lap times from the previous race. oh by the way, the weatherman in Brainerd should be fired, a torrential downpour forecast was scrapped for a beautiful day, much to my liking. We swapped the rear tires to the front and went out for the warm up lap. Once again we were doing a standing start, red lights came on and went out. In the middle of that sequence I took my eyes off the lights at the exact wrong time. The result was not a great start but I moved up one spot by the time the first lap was done, another on the 2nd lap, and yet another on the 5th lap. Progress!  What took place from lap 13 to 20 was probably the most fun I have ever had in a race car.  After a tangle with my teammate the car driven by Michael Ashby was behind me, he eventually caught up. I made the mistake once of not drafting with him in the middle of turns 1 and 3, but wised up the next time around. He drafted me and got by, but every time into turn 3 I would brake later than he would. We swapped spots 5 times in 7 laps! Looking at the Chart for the race, we were pretty much the only two cars in TCB that were swapping spots. The racing was very clean on both of our parts, and very respectful. I wish I had started to draft with him earlier, Rookie Mistake! After a while I realized that I could not hear my pit crew on the radio, for whatever reason, so I had no idea how much time was left. Michael got by me on lap 19, and protected the inside line in turn 3, which was a smart move on his part considering that is the corner that I passed him in a couple of times. After the race was finished, on the cool down lap, we both gave each other a thumbs up through our window nets. I finished in 11th spot on Sunday but one of the best parts was getting to race with Michael Ashby, and having him come over to my pits to talk about our racing and both of us thanked each other for racing clean and hard. Thank you again Michael! My best lap time was down to a 1:56.5, 1 second away from 4th place. It's crazy how close this field is during the race.

Overall the weekend was awesome, I couldn't have asked for a better crew to be with, the SCCA officials were all very welcoming to me. They knew through my story and being 1 of 3 Minnesotans racing this weekend that this was my 1st pro race weekend.  Breathless Performance Racing did everything they could to make me feel welcome. I am sorry that I had to inform them on Friday afternoon that they bought 3.2% beer at the store, and not "real beer," but I was glad to set them straight. ( In Minnesota 3.2% alcohol beer is sold in gas stations, 5.5% alcohol beer is sold only in liquor stores) anyways.... We had a great time, I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. I think I was more nervous in my 1st chump car race in 2012. All the work leading up to this was a lot tougher than driving in the race, once I got to the track all I had to do was drive.

What the future holds, I do not know at this point, but I will be travelling down to Circuit of the America's for the Continental ST series race, and in October I will be travelling to Georgia for the IMSA Continental Series race at Road Atlanta. Hopefully I can secure some seat time in a car in either of those races, chances are slim of course. I would like to thank the 20+ people that came to watch me in my 1st pro race weekend, family, local teammates, family friends, and friends of mine, it was great to see everyone stop by the pits and get in the car to see how it was. Also I would like to thank my sponsors, First and foremost, Go Puck, if you don't have one of these, please go over to www.chrisholterracing.com and click on the Go Puck logo enter code " cholter " at check out for 20% off. this is a great product that will help your phone, tablet, or any other electrical devices stay charged on the go. #whereablepower .  First Gear Project, with Guy Cosmo! thank you for taking me under your wing and providing me the platform to tell my story and get some financial backing for this race weekend. If you have a motorsports financial need, check out www.firstgearproject.com and submit your project and GET FUNDED like I did! Thank you to the American Brain Tumor Association for their support, I hope we can do more in the future! Fuel Clothing for keeping my feet fresh with colorful socks, I love colorful socks....TMI.... Thank you Matt from NASportscar for asking me to write this 2 part blog! and thank you to Ernie Francis and the whole crew for working with me and providing the tools I needed to have a successful weekend!

Here is to hoping that this won't be the last time that you see my name on a racecar, or in the results category of a race. Till next time NASportscar fans!

Link to NASportscar

The week before

Hi everyone, My name is Chris Holter, and I have been asked to write a two part article about the weeks leading up to my first pro start in auto racing and then the aftermath of the weekend. I would like to thank NaSportscar for this opportunity.

So, where do I begin? I'm about a week away from being at Brainerd International raceway in my Mazda2  for Breathless Performance Racing in the Pirelli World Challenge. But in order to tell the story, I have to rewind, maybe too far, but here we go.

I attended my first race at BIR in 1978, I was 3 years old, and yes, you can now figure out my age, but all i remember from that event was that an airplane landed on the front straight.  Fast forward two years or so, and you would be able to find myself and my dad over in Elkhart Lake, Wis at the beautiful Road America race track. My dad Spencer took me to RA every summer, it was quite possibly the highlight of my summer, From 1980 on for many years, I grew up watching the CART Indy Cars back in the hay days of Mario Andretti , Al Unser Sr, Tom Sneva, Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan. As well as the IMSA Camel GT cars, legends like Al Holbert in the Lowenbrau Porsche, Hurley Haywood In the white and green jaguar, Paul Newman in the Nissan, Even Walter Payton from the Bears drove a few times. what an era to be able to witness .  As a little kid we camped nearby which is now someone's yard, and snacked on brats, Corn on the cob and chocolate Ice cream while at RA. Each race I went to, stirred up this desire to want to be on the other side of the fence, driving a car as fast as I could, on this very racetrack, so much that I told my family as a little boy that I wanted to race cars professionally one day.

Fast Forward many, many years, and you would've found me at a local SCCA Solo II competition, I finally had a car that I could "mess with" and finally found a place to drive on the edge legally. This was the base work for my future as a driver, I went on the win the SCCA-LoL Solo II Championship in 1999, and 2000, also Driver of the year in 2000 winning nearly every event I entered in my class. Fast forward again to 2012, after some life altering events I got back into racing. A co-worker asked if I wanted to be a part of a team for some fun fairly local endurance races. So I joined the team and we built a Mazda Miata which raced at Road America, Brainerd, and Iowa Speedway, placing 6th in the 24 hour race at Iowa. The next year we built a BMW, and after Road America I moved over to a team from the Twin Cities, Mn. We ended up 6th in the championship at the end of the year.

After meeting up with Ryan Eversley at Road America, I decided to put in my application for an IMSA Continental Tire ST License. I figured out who to contact, and sent an email to ask what I had to do, compiled the data, and sent it back. Low n behold, they approved it! I was really excited but had no idea how I was going to manage getting a ride. I had met up with Darren Law down in Mesa, Az in the fall and we talked about how difficult it was to get in the seat of a race car at the IMSA level. But the one word of advice he did give me that I thought was the best advice, he said " Go to the races, introduce yourself, shake hands with people, get your face acquainted with your name."  So I did just that, I bought my plane ticket to Daytona, Florida, well Jacksonville Beach to stay with my sister.  And we went to the Roar Before the 24, which is a test session at Daytona  for the IMSA cars. I thought, Cool, I will go there and talk with teams, owners, drivers, and a team will pick me up, right!?!? Not the case. I met a lot of teams, and owners, managers etc, but There was 20 other people that started this process years ago that were standing in line ahead of me, metaphorically speaking of course....I talked with teams and even sat up in a pit box to watch another driver " tryout" for the team I was most interested in.

I flew home and got back to work, all the while getting ready for yet another trip down to Florida to hit up the Sebring race. This is where I learned a great deal of information, mostly from Mikey Taylor, thank you Mikey BTW.... I saw how Mikey handled his business at the track, he had lists of people to meet, lists of friends to meet, and an agenda for the weekend. I guess you could say, "This is how you work a crowd". We had a sweet rental car and a terrible hotel, but the lesson learned that weekend were huge. I also started to get recognized in the paddock area. Team owners waved to me, PR people knew who I was, and some drivers didn't mind taking the time to chat with me. I learned the ins and outs of networking that weekend, another valuable lesson.

The main thing that I learned through all of this was that it was going to take a lot more than just having a license, and knowing a few people. Funding is key, and a struggle that even the big teams have to deal with. I took a racing marketing class and send my proposal off to people in the racing world that could critique it, and openly share their thoughts on it. I tweaked it, revised it, sent it back out, emailed, cold called, and met up with potential sponsors every time I could. Funding a car for an IMSA race is not cheap, the numbers actually are crazy, I'll spare you the details, but it is ridiculously expensive.

As the season progressed, I didn't have enough money to travel to the other IMSA races out in California, NY, and other venues, but I did what I could. I soon gathered that each team had their set of drivers and there wasn't going to be much shuffling, let alone give a unknown driver a shot. So I thought that i needed to expand my racing horizons a little bit. I applied for a SCCA Pirelli World Challenge license and was granted a provisional one.  A whole new world of opportunities opened up for me. I started to talk with Pirelli teams, some of which run in both IMSA and PWC. I had not planned on racing in PWC this year, I planned on sticking with IMSA, but there wasn't opportunity that I could afford.

I travelled to Road America to meet up with Ernie Francis of Breathless Performance Racing in the Pirelli World Challenge  to talk shop. We had a good meeting and I decided that this was going to be my one shot to get in a race. We worked out a deal, and I took out a loan for it. Every racers dream right?  I figured that it was tough to talk to potential sponsors without having a ride to speak of, so I would talk to them WITH a ride lined up. This has proved to be a better way of going about things, not financially, but we will see about that.

So here I am, the night before I travel to the track, Clothes are in the dryer, race gear is packed, sponsor swag has been delivered, and I am finally grasping some time to finish this. I havent been sleeping very well this week, not really a suprise, but after a talk with a friend, Vickie Miller, she helped calm my nerves down a bit. If you don't know Vickie, it's time you do, she is to a few of us, #trackmom . I have appreciated our talks at various racetracks around the country. She sent me an article, from the Pirelli World Challenge site, I had just purchased some supplies for the weekend and was sitting in my car. My name was mentioned in the article, and my eyes welled up with tears of joy. Relevant in the racing world? not in the least bit. But my name was mentioned in the articles that for the lifetime  of my existence  had always been another driver that has made an impact. Now is my time to shine.

I travel tomorrow with the hopes that this weekend is a great learning piece and stepping stone in my racing career. I am humble enough to know that while I may not turn the world on fire, at least I have the opportunity to showcase my talent that I have been researching since I was a little kid with my dad at Road America. I give thanks to the people that have motivated me when I didn't think it was possible. Some would call them "haters",  to me, they are my motivators.  Thank you to them for pushing me. I thank the genuine people in my life that have stood beside me, helped me, and positively motivated me to keep the pursuit. I thank all of my family, for letting me go after this, even though at times I was extending myself past my means. I thank my new sponsors, Go Puck, Fuel Clothing, and First Gear Project for believing in my ability to represent their company respectfully.  I thank Ernie Francis and the crew at Breathless Performance for giving me an opportunity, and preparing a car for me. This weekend is going to be amazing, I need to make sure that I take a minute to step back and appreciate where I am, because I don't think it has hit me yet. Most of all, I thank my wife Lisa for teaching me what it takes to be strong in the face of adversity, through her life and passing, I learned so many wonderful traits.

I'll end on this thought, the greatest thing that you can use to gauge your life is how well you show up in it, be here now. You can only concern yourself at any moment  with what is at your finger tips, and what is coming at you. Dig Deep.

let's go racin'

Chris Holter 

Auto racing: Rochester road racer Holter to make pro debut at Brainerd - PostBulletin.com: Local Sports

Auto racing: Rochester road racer Holter to make pro debut at Brainerd - PostBulletin.com: Local Sports

Holter make pro debut news article

Friday's local Rochester, Mn paper will have an article here, check it out!

http://m.postbulletin.com/sports/localsports/auto-racing-rochester-road-racer-holter-to-make-pro-debut/article_f9e2a842-d02f-5e1e-909e-9bd0c3db0c07.html?mode=jqm

Holter signs up with First Gear Project

Chris Holter has signed up with Guy Cosmo's First Gear Project to help with funding for the upcoming race in Brainerd! Give it a click here: http://www.firstgearproject.com/projects/active/holter-pro-racing