Adam’s Auto Advice Turns 2 Years-Old Today Along With This 200th Post!

Me and My Dog Cody!

I thought I would share an important milestone with all the fans and readers of my humble blog, Adam's Auto Advice. This blog is now 2 years-old as of today.  Happy Birthday… to myself I guess! 🙂

It's amazing to think that my blog is 2 years old! Honestly it feels like I have been blogging and writing about cars forever, but it really has not been that long.

I look back at all the amazing posts and articles I have written. The articles and posts range from the fun and whacky Charm City Pedal Mill, the interesting Baltimore start-up ParkingPanda, attending the Baltimore Grand Prix, and breaking news about RelayRides. I have even tested automotive products and gone to a few car and auto shows.

Probably the best thing I have written about on this blog was my road trip from Irvine, CA to back to Baltimore.  It was an amazing trip and I hope to do many more road trips and a cross-country road trip again soon.

You know, I started this blog and didn't have set high hopes for my writing but look at me now! I am a full time auto journalist and blogger. I was able to go from writing as a hobby to writing about cars professionally.

Looking back at my first post, and some of my early writing such as this Top Gear editorial my writing has come a long way and fast. I am fortunate to be able to be doing something creative and love what I am doing.

I feel proud of everything I have been accomplished with this blog and other writing I have done.

As well sharing my experience when I appeared on Anderson with Anderson Cooper for the TV show's New Year's Special. I performed “Auld Lange Syne” with my singing dogs, Cody and Sierra, which was an amazing experience which I shared on this blog. (Of course it had nothing to do with cars, but I did drive up to New York-City with my dogs.)

I am glad to have had all these interesting and varied experiences. I hope to share more auto news, advice, tips & tricks, product reviews, with everyone via Adam's Auto Advice. I know I will continue to grow and experience more amazing automotive experiences in the future.

I also appreciate all the people with a shared passion for cars I have meet along my journey. We have exchanged web advice, writing tips, and personal stories of “Auto Awesomeness!”

Someone who deserves credit for my blog is my brother Jason. He helped me get this blog up and running and switch from Blogger to WordPress. He's also helped keep this blog going and updated. Thanks Jason!

I certainly have not crossed everything off on my automotive bucket list. I know I have a lot more great experiences ahead of me.

This is actually my 200th post! I didn't plan that, but it is a happy coincidence.  There will be hundreds of more great articles and posts along the way. I am going to make an effort to post more and most likely shorter articles in the future.

I hope all of you continue to follow my writing and work. Please Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest to keep updated.

I look forwarding to writing about cars and on this blog for many more years.

Watch it in Wet Weather!

I am sure everyone in the Baltimore area and Maryland experienced the rather quick switch in weather from sunshine, to heavy rain, some sunshine, light rain, sunshine, heavy rain!  It was a little bit ridiculous.  It's a good reminder to be prepared for anything when driving and to stay alert.  You need to be constantly aware of the driving conditions you are dealing with, espicially in wet weather.

A few weeks ago when I was headed to the Baltimore Grand Prix Economic Press Conference, it was raining like nobody's business!  Not far from my house these was this accident.  It was pretty serious as you can see from the pictures.  These two small SUVS did a lot of damage hitting each other, at what I assumed was relatively low speeds.  This was most likely due to the fact that one of the drivers did not adjust their driving for wet conditions.  Since they were relatively the same size and type of vehicle, it seemed nobody was seriously injued. (Actually both were Honda CRVs).  Consider if one of the vehicles was a truck hitting a compact car.  Not good!

The Inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix, a Successful Racing Weekend for Everyone

Pits next to Camden Yards at the Baltimore Grand Prix

Baltimore had an amazing 3-day Labor Day weekend with the Inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix.  It had everything you could ask for. huge crowds, good food, checkered flag-girls, tons of media, and a whole lot of fast cars.

In the Izod IndyCar series Will Powers won the Baltimore Grand Prix in a stunning victory. He came out early in the race commanding the track over his rivals and won with 10+ second lead. The win wasn't a complete surprise as he lead the pack during practices.  Second place runner up was Oriol Servia, who felt his name helped him in the humble city of Baltimore (Oriol translates from Spanish meaning Oriole.  Passing Camden Yards must have been good luck!)  He came from a 14th place start.  Third place runner up was Tony Kanaan, who rallied from a 27th place start and recovered from an interesting accident where he flew over Helio Castroneves during the warmup session.

In the American Le Mans series Guy Smith won the in LMP1 class, Kyle Marcelli in LMPC, Wolf Henzler in GT.  An accident where he lost one of his tires during a qualifying lap could not keep Jeroen Bleekemolen from winning in the GTC class.  Amazingly he jumped out of his car grabbed the tire put it into his car and drove into the pits to get it installed.  Luckily nobody was injured and nor was Jeroen's Porsche 911 GT3 racing car.  A great win for Jeroen!

It's clear this was a great event for Baltimore.  “We've set the stage to make this a staple event for Baltimore and the region…We had 160,000 fans over the 3 days.” commented Jay Davidson president of Baltimore Racing Development, the private company that oversaw the planning for the Baltimore Grand Prix. “Baltimore has a successful event to build upon for next year and for years to come.” exclaimed Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, The Mayor of Baltimore.  Scott Artherton president of the American Le Mans series added,  “For a first time event.  Honestly it could not have gone better.”

Many drivers commented on how great the weekend went.  Will Powers winner of the Baltimore Grand Prix noted, “That was the best podium ceremony of my career!”  Other drivers lauded the event as well.  “I couldn't believe the incredible number of fans who came out all three days. Street courses are always a good way to draw a good crowd, and the way the circuit was laid out… reminded me of the huge events we've had at places like Surfers Paradise, Long Beach, and Toronto…  I know we as drivers loved racing in Baltimore.” said Helio Castroneves on ESPN.com.  Tony Kanaan, third place runner up, “It's a beautiful track, bumpy and interesting.”  Oriol Servia “This track is a challenge for both drivers and engineers… I think it is fun.”  Scott Artherton on all the positive feedback from drivers, “Race car drivers are the first ones to offer up an opinion.  Normally it is not constructive and normally it is not good.”

Fans were extremely pleased with the event as well.   “It's awesome.  I go to a lot of these races, Long Beach, St Petersburg, Indianapolis.  Top-notch street course for sure!” said Peter Romero, an Albuquerque Lawyer and immense race fan. “This could be the second crown jewel in the IndyCar circuit…This venue is nicer than Long Beach.  It's crazy!  It's a perfect storm for a street course.” referring to all the hotels and accommodations located around the track.  Many other fans and spectators were equally pleased and enthusiastic about the weekend.

Even with all the delays on getting the track open on Friday for practices, issues seemed to get resolved for the rest of the weekend.  “It's part of the growing pains of dealing with a new track and new race.” said an Andretti Autosport team member whom I spoke with about the delays.  The general confusion among the staff seemed to be resolved as the weekend went on as well.  Everything was smoothed out by Sunday.

This was the first big racing event for the Mid-Atlantic region since Washington DC had a Grand Prix race in 2002.  IndyCar and American Le Mans feel this is a market that needed to be tapped and judging from the crowds, they could not have been more right.  It was truly amazing the sheer number of people all weekend..  The energy was sky-high everywhere.  The event was blessed with great weather, as it came after Hurricane Irene and before an immense amount of rain in Baltimore the following week.  The fans, drivers, media, and policy makers of Baltimore have spoken and many hope racing will be here for a long time to come.

Pictures from the Baltimore Grand Prix

 

Verizon's Indy Car, driven by Will Powers who won the BGP

Pictures from the 2011 Inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix!  It was an awesome event.  It made me want to jump in a car and drive fast!  The first day was shaky and not well organized (that is really an understatement) but by Saturday and Sunday the operation was a lot smoother.  You can check out more pictures on my Flickr page.  Even more pictures to come.   I hope to see more great racing next year in Baltimore.

I got a Golden Ticket!

Baltimore Grand Prix Media Pass

It's a gold colored Media Pass!  This gives you access to the pit lanes, media center located in the convention center (where they served lunch and drinks), all of the paddock areas, Grand Prix Circuit, and press conferences.  Maybe there are other benefits I am not aware of?  I also got parking passes for all 3 days of the Baltimore Grand Prix, but I took the Light Rail to get down here today.  Traffic congestion is bad.  Pictures to come!