Heading Home for the Holidays!

Last weekend, a surprise delivery came in the mail from my parents.  Inside were some awesome gifts for all three of us!  My mom made some personalized Christmas stockings with candy and New Jersey lottery tickets, and the best part of the candy was some Jersey shore saltwater taffy.  There were also some ornamental stockings and three Santa hats.  We were all very excited to receive that, and that got us in the holiday mood, which has continued through the week.  And, if I wasn’t already missing home, I am now!

Plus two more for the other lads!

Wrapping Up

As I said in my last post, Seb is off to Ferrari.  But before leaving completely, the team had one last hurrah for him at the factory.  You can see the great guy that Vettel is when he lets his guard down.  as speeches were delivered from Adrian and Christian, his emotions were clearly visible.

Christian joking with Seb at his final factory visit

A couple of awesome videos celebrating his years with Infiniti Red Bull Racing and as a part of the young driver program were played, and it reminded us of his fantastic journey with the team and of the passion we all have for motorsport.  It’s hard to not fall in love with moments captured in images like this one:

Seb bows to his car after winning the 2013 Indian Grand Prix and sealing his third championship

Seb was also presented with a gift basket full of cheeky Italian-esque gifts, including pasta, a red Speedo, an espresso cup, and a typical Italian puff jacket.  One last gift was a statue of a bull commemorating his four world championships.

End of the First F1 Season and a 6-Legged Thanksgiving

The weekend following Hope’s visit, it was time for the last grand prix of the season in Abu Dhabi.  A culturally rich city that’s also on the top of my list to visit, Abu Dhabi and the Yas Marina circuit hosts the second of two races during the F1 calendar that are held under the lights.

With Vettel about to depart to Ferrari, the team at the track hosted a warm welcome for him as he arrived to the garage.

Danke Seb has been the theme for his departure from the team.  The team as a whole has lots of great memories with Seb at the wheel, and I'm honored to have been able to work with him!

Hope's First Visit

Now to the personal side of my life for a bit.  My girlfriend, Hope, visited for the first time the week before Thanksgiving.  She lives in Michigan, where we had met in the early summer of 2013.  At the time, I had been interning for SRT Motorsports at the Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills.  I decided to go back to CrossFit, something I had started in 2012, and I found CrossFit Bloomfield, a box relatively close to my hotel with better reviews than others in the surrounding area.  Hope was a coach there, and we immediately got along and built up a good friendship.  We joke about who asked who out first, but we both know it was her ;)

Hope and I met here, at CrossFit Bloomfield

We both love it!

Oh, and she is also a professional massage therapist.  Winning.

Catching up!

Wow, it’s been a bit too long!  I’ve slacked off a bit lately, as it’s been hard to get myself to sit down and write, so I apologize for that.  Time to catch up on November!

Actually, let’s go back to the end of October.  On Halloween Friday, I had race ops support with the team at the factory for the US Grand Prix.  Of course Friday was just the first two practice sessions, but it was great to see the buzzing atmosphere in Austin, Texas.  That’s definitely on the top of my list of cities to get to at some point, as well as to go see the wonderful Circuit of the Americas racetrack. 

How much more American can you get??

The following morning, Will, Jason and I headed out to do a little Halloween party shopping.  The three of us had decided to host a Halloween party at our flat Saturday evening with a bunch of people from Infiniti Red Bull Racing and some other friends.  We ended up at a warehouse with an upstairs office for what seemed to be custom-tailored costumes.  Weird.  Will made friends with this skeleton.

Will's new best friend!