Moving on Up By Jesse Lemel A few weeks ago I had my first experience racing a formula racecar. I started out by attending the Skip Barber Three-day school at Laguna Seca, which was an incredible experience. The track is awesome, the instruction was great and the area around the track creates a great atmosphere. So needless to say I had a great time. The following week I attended the Skip Barber Advanced Two day School at Road America. This was also a great experience and again I learned more than I would have thought possible. Which prepared me nicely for my first race weekend in a car. My first race ever in a car took place at Road America Short Course on May 31. I had a great time, the people I raced with were all really nice and were there to have good time, as well as compete. The competition was very good and best off all we had to deal with adverse conditions as it was raining on and off throughout the day. Which is not something that I was happy about at the time, but now I already have rain experience in a car, which is nice to get out of the was so early. I started out driving a little tentative and slowly started to pick up my pace as my comfort level grew. I ended up finishing the race in 9th place out of 15 competitors, which earned me the award of highest placing rookie. Also this was a two-race weekend so I got to try my luck again on Sunday. This time I started to drive much more aggressively and was picking up considerable time, and started to move through the field. However, I started to push it a little to hard in the wrong corner and I ended up putting the car into the tire barrier and I was done for the day. But it was still a great experience and one, which I will never forget. Also I would like to thank Briggs and Stratton for helping me make the step into cars. They are a great company and I look forward to working with them more in the future. Right now I'm looking forward to my next race which will be the SCCA regional race at Road America on the 28th and 29th of June. I will be competing in the Formula Continental class.