Dave Gran
Editor-in-Chief
Even as a little child, Dave was always found running at full speed regardless of what he was doing. He has taken his passion for driving cars onto the track where he regularly instructs at High Performance Driving Events and races a 1987 Honda Prelude si within SCCA’s competitive Improved Touring B (ITB) class. In the North East where he races, he consistently runs at the front of the pack, and has earned multiple race wins and track records.
Hometown: Newington, CT
Street Cars: 2004 Chevy Tahoe, 2001 Honda S2000
Current Racecar: 1987 Honda Prelude si, races in SCCA’s Improved Touring B (ITB). New project for 2012 – 1999 Mazda Miata in SM.
Home Track: Lime Rock Park
Kai Noeske
Editor
Kai is a staff astrophysicist for a space satellite telescope, hence his nickname “astrophysathingy”. He grew up in Germany and had his first contact with fast driving on the Autobahn, and on winding country roads where he drove ambulances for his national service. In 2003 he moved to the U.S. where he eventually rediscovered his love for racing that he had as a child. After finding Dave’s book, it cemented him in becoming hooked.
Kai has been actively participating in motorsports since July 2009. In addition to participating in autocross, and high performance driving events, he also earned his SCCA racing license in 2010.
Hometown: Baltimore, MD
Daily Driver and Occasional Track Rat: 1993 Toyota Corolla
Current racecar: 1999 Honda Civic Si, races in SCCA’s Showroom Stock C (SSC)
Home Track: Summit Point Raceway
Additional Interests: Kai lives and works in Baltimore, MD and enjoys traditional Karate, skiing, photography and racing.
Nathaniel Lichaa
Editor, Real World Road Tests
Nate grew up in Connecticut and has a passion for driving and learning about new cars.
He also participated in autocross, and high performance driving events. In his spare time, he loves spending time with his wife and two sons.
Hometown: Rocky Hill, CT
Daily Driver: 2007 Mazda3
Jake Gulick
Editor
Jake’s love for cars and all things mechanical and moving dates back to his Hot Wheel days. He studied design at RIT in Rochester NY, and The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena Ca, and has been dabbling in one form of motorsports or another since the day after he graduated from college. He did a stint in the automotive prototyping business in SoCal (show cars for GM, Ford, etc) with a design firm that served the automotive and products industries, and currently works in the residential design industry doing design/build work, in Fairfield County CT. When he’s not working with wood, he can be found welding and fabricating parts for his race car, or restoring his weekend car, a 1973 Porsche 911E. He’s raced at tracks from New Hampshire to San Francisco to Atlanta and many in between and holds lap records at a number of them in SCCA’s Improved Touring 7 class.
Jake has been involved in may volunteer roles for a number of motorsports clubs, and just finished a 7 year stint as a member of the Improved Touring Advisory Committee. (The ITAC) Within SCCA an advisory committees is charged with forming strategy and direction along with rules making and car classification for each of the categories of cars that SCCA sanctions. The AdHocs report to the Competition Racing Board, which approves and finalizes their work for the National rule book, the GCR. Another aspect of volunteering finds Jake instructing with several groups that provide track time as well as race instruction. When not behind the wheel, Jake is often found in the pool, working out as a Masters swimmer. He’s done the Swim Across the Sound charity swim for nearly a decade. He hates running but will pedal his Specialized, or, for longer rides, straddles his Ducati instead.
Hometown: Black Rock, CT
Home Track: Lime Rock Park, CT
Current racecar: Mazda RX-7, races in the Improved Touring IT-7 class. (Subset of ITA)
Daily Driver: 2003 M3 convertible, 1973 Porsche 911E fair
Weather/Track Car: 2005 Ducati St4
Greg Amy
Airplanes, boats, trains, cars: if it moves, Greg’s interested in it. Holding undergraduate degrees in engineering and mathematics and a Masters in Business Administration, Greg is an over-25-year veteran of amateur and professional motorsports and a long-time licensed private pilot and light-aircraft owner. Starting his automotive interests as a teenager in the early 80′s building hopped-up air-cooled Volkswagens, he has progressed up the automotive enthusiast’s ladder to a passion for all things automotive. Greg’s also an established driver development coach, on-track instructor, and data acquisition engineer (having worked in the background with some very well-known teams and drivers) and has won several amateur club racing championships. Currently competing part-time in SCCA’s Super Touring Light class, he is also a member of the Super Touring Advisory Committee.
Greg is happily married to his wife Thea, and they usually have one or more German Shepherd dogs hanging around. Full details on Greg’s racing experience can be found here with a self-edited (and rarely-updated) chronology of cars ownership here.
Hometown: Middletown, CT
Daily Driver: 2011 Volkswagen GTI
Others: 1996 BMW R1100RS, SR20VE-equipped Nissan NX2000
Current Racer: 1995 Acura Integra GS-R, SCCA Super Touring Light
Favorite Track: VIR or Road Atlanta, can’t decide…
Additional Interests: Aviation, computer networks, studying American
History and history of Invention and Technology
Kelly Evans
Contributor
Kelly Evans and cars were just meant to be. It started when he attended his first F1 race at the age of three months. From there it has been a blur of slot cars, LEGOs, RC cars, autocrosses, mountain bikes, the occasional track event, and cars. Unusual for a car nut, he still own my very first. It’s a VW Beetle his grandfather bought brand new in 1966.
Kelly’s interest in cars and curiosity of all things led him to Clarkson University where he studied Mechanical Engineering. After college he did a stint in the automotive business working for the Torrington Company building steering assemblies and VDO building engine management sensors. Today he does research and development in the medical device industry.
Hometown: Meriden CT
Daily driver/autocrosser: Porsche 914-6
Other cars: 1966 VW Beetle, 2004 Chevy Silverado
Jodi Fore
Web Guru and Programmer
If you were to ask Jodi specific questions about racing, she may give you a blank look. But if you ask her about web design, creating a mentor program, and other technical aspects of this project, her eyes will light up and begin developing creative solutions. So while Jodi might not be a racing guru, she’s been instrumental in developing and growing this resource.
Birth date: May 20, 1978
Hometown: Rockville, CT
Current Hardware: Intel Core i7 Processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX570 Card, 6GB RAM, 1TB Hard drive
Gaming Addict of: World of Warcraft, Rift, DCUO and many more
Daily Driver: Toyota Camry 1999