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Written by:
James Hunt
11/10/2008 - 11:29 AM
Charlotte, North Carolina
James reflects on his successful 2008 rookie professional season. (Hilary Fox Photography) ยป More Photos
The 2008 season marked my professional debut as a race car driver after 15 years of dreaming. Taking time to reflect on the last year, I find a sizable smile on my face and a sense of great accomplishment. This has been the hardest, yet most rewarding Blog entry to write as I have re-read it about 30 times. Every time I finish the last sentence I genuinely feel as if I have just ridden "Tatsu" at Six Flags Great Adventure (Tatsu is a wicked roller coaster in California where you assume a flying position and hold on for dear life).
It was a year filled with triumphs, sacrifice, extreme highs and extreme lows. On the high side, I starred in a racing reality television show on SPEED called "Setup" and finished 2nd overall, tested with multiple professional teams, raced at Daytona, got hired to professionally drive a race car, started my own company, had people that wanted my autograph (I just think that's the coolest- thanks to all my fans out there and I will ALWAYS have time for you!) and made some incredible new friends. On the low side, I lost a very serious girlfriend, lived out of a suitcase on a friend's futon for 8 months, fell out of touch with friends and learned firsthand the definition of "that's racing". Sleeping on hotel room floors, in airport terminals and in rental cars while eating food with a quality rating so low the FDA would classify it as "nuclear waste", if eating at all, that is the "Rock Star" lifestyle of a race car driver.
The season started with my participation in SPEED's racing reality TV show called "Setup". I was in first place on the final episode with 1 ½ laps remaining to win the $100,000 and test with the Banner Pontiac Factory racing team when I made a slight mistake under braking (no rear view mirror in the car) and handed the victory over to a good friend, Chris Prey. You want to talk about everything happens for a reason! In retrospect, I couldn't be happier that I took second overall. Had I won the show, every team I talked to would have jumped at the opportunity for me to hop in the seat of their race car for the 08 season, for a mere $100,000. In taking second you got nothing, other
Following the show, I reached out to a friend of a friend, Eric Powel, via cold call for some advice on "how to make it." Eric is not only a superb driver, but has become a great friend. As a result of our conversation I was invited to test with Team Cobalt California, a great Chevy Cobalt team that runs in Grand-Am KONI ST. Following a successful test, I was invited to drive for the team at Daytona International Speedway in the first race of the 2008 Grand-Am season.
I will never forget the feeling I had walking through the underground tunnel into the track for the first time. I thought to myself, "Holy S#$@, welcome to the big show". You have to realize, I went from club racing my Acura Integra that I built myself during college, to essentially taking several years off from racing, onto a TV show and then to race at THE Daytona International Speedway! I also very distinctly remember hitting the banking for the first time and saying out loud in my helmet, "Am I going to stick!?!?!.... I made it!.... That was AWESOME!"
While at Daytona, I reached out to an old friend that worked for SPEED to catch up on what he had been up to and WHAMO. The whole thing broke wide open. In my last Blog titled, "Networking At Its Finest" I talked about how simple introductions and/or someone believing in you can change life's course unexpectedly. Well, this was it for me. I was telling him about my recent participation in the TV show "Setup" on SPEED and he replied, "We have an idea to run a year in the life driver feature on SPEEDtv.com and you are perfect for it!" I vividly remember sitting in the SPEED toterhome at Daytona when the offer was extended, heart racing and excitement building, trying to maintain a level of calm professionalism to utter the words, "Thank you I would love to".
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