The sleep was necessary, slept for 16hrs when we finally got back to Charlotte ! It has been nice to be based for couple of days to catches up with some work and also get better routine on my workout. Even mixed up the workout the other day by supporting my friend who will do a charity marathon, 26miles with 35Ibs backpack this summer ! We did 10miles nonstop with 35Ibs and I can tell you –That’s a good work ! So good that the cold and fever I’ve been fighting, felt it’s time. Been sick for the last couple of days. Unfortunately I missed the American LeMans test days at Sebring, FL this week but the guys keeping me posted and I think ALMS is the series to follow this year !

My 5 days at Daytona for the 50th anniversary Rolex 24hrs at Daytona was really good ! I heard some rumors that it’s around 80.000 visitors and It’s cool to see so many people, teams, media, companies to kick off this racing season. The whole town was breathing racing and especially the infield, amazing fans ! There’s so much to write but I’ll leave it to some mix pictures instead. Now on my way up to Charlotte and in 9hrs I’ll have some well deserved sleep!

One of the stops in Jacksonville we visit this warehouse where they also ship a lot of rare classic cars over to Europe and Sweden. It’s kind of random and they explained to me how crazy we Swedes are about American cars -I know, I’m one of them !!! The meeting in Daytona Beach went great and right after we continued down to West Palm Beach. It’s really nice there and it felt good to stay on a same spot for couple of days. It didn’t last that long because last weekend we went to Miami. It’s my first time there and I did enjoy the city quite a bit. It definitely has a little L.A feeling to it but it’s a money town with some really strong industries located there. And all of them love racing!!! It’s nice to enjoy the great weather between all the work and also to get introduced to some great people ! We got back to West Palm Beach last night and this Wednesday the destination will be Daytona International Speedway!

Yesterday evening we left Charlotte, NC to drive down to Jacksonville, Florida. While driving this enormous thunderstorm came out, I’ve never ever seen anything like that before. Neither in Sweden or in California. I started get flashbacks from when I raced in a 25hrs endurance race, driving a 700hp Ford GT in heavy rain at night. It’s definitely less stressful this time but we did have a heavy packed trailer with sponsor products behind the truck that was a little bit nervous. The meeting and the hard work in Jacksonville went great and now we heading down to Daytona Beach, FL for meeting #2 !!

My three days in Daytona Beach, FL was great and a big success ! It’s fun to meet some old friends I haven’t seen for awhile and to be back to the track after the holidays. We had many good meetings and the car field this year is really impressive. Rolex 24 at Daytona is one of the few events to have such variety of drivers. Everything from NASCAR Sprint cup drivers like Michael Waltrip and previous Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya, several Indycar drivers, extreme sport driver Travis Pastrana. To Hollywood actor Patrick Dempsey and AC/DC led singer Brian Johnson! It’s fun to meet some of them and talk, listen what they think about this race and the industry. It’s hard to complain with a racetrack like that plus the great 72F / 20C weather and the beach. I also kept my Daytona Beach tradition, run on the beach before sunrise, which was pretty cool that morning. Now I’m back in Charlotte, NC again to continue the work and in couple of weeks we’ll be back to Florida.

Today we arrived to Daytona Beach, Florida from Charlotte, one racing town to another! The off-season didn’t last long and the testing starts already for the Grand-Am series. I’ll be there to meet some teams and to introduce a new start-up company that wants to expand their event department through motorsports. With strong B2B relationship together with unique VIP-event ideas from the entertainment industry, I’m very excited about this relationship. Together we’ll start this by attending to most of the Grand-Am, American Le Mans and even some NASCAR Sprint Cup races. To me this is very exciting to combine the racing and the business side of it and develop it to a strong win-win situation.

It feels great to start with this concept so early of the season and a lot of exciting races, events and news to come!

Between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve I’ve been flying to Indianapolis and then drove down to Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s kind of a long ride and I realize how fortune you’re with the California weather. It’s always good to be back in Charlotte, the Mecca of racing, which fits me perfect ! Even though it’s holidays we all have put down 14hrs workdays to try to prepare as much as possible for the next couple of weeks. But we did take a break from everything to celebrate New Years Eve in downtown Charlotte. Which was a lot of fun with great friends, once again I noticed how different it could be between the west coast and the east/south of America ! Feels crazy it’s already a new year but we all have 365 days to try to make 2012 better !!! -Happy New Year

First of all Merry Christmas everyone !! I started the day by running up the five steepest blocks in downtown San Francisco, just to see if my foot has recovered -so far so good !

Unfortunately I’m not celebrating the holidays with my family in Sweden but I’ll still have a great time with some wonderful people ! This year flew by so fast and in one way, I guess that must be a good thing ! The next year will be a lot of changes in my life, both on the personal and the professional level. 6 months after I moved to America I saw and learned a lot and set some very high goals. And next year we will take a big step closer to achieve just those goals. So I’m very excited to turn a new page to a new chapter of my life by entering an airplane tomorrow morning !! I hope it will be great, no we will Make it great !
The new story will be continued…

Till than enjoy the holidays with your love ones and stay tuned for more !

Sincerely,
Marten

The last two weeks has been many, many hours of computer work so I took a half day off to fulfill a dream I’ve had for many years – Surfing ! I don’t know if it was good timing to try to surf for the first time out in a big ocean, during shark season and in the middle of December !! But It’s so much fun and a good work out ! I definitely appreciate even more to live in California and San Francisco, pretty amazing to be in financial district with all the skyscraper. And 7mins of driving and you’ve a great beach and great surfing  !! 

Great friends of mine told me they are filling up a box with gifts for children in need that they will receive as a Christmas present ! I thought that was a great idea and felt of course I also wanted to help, so I did a box as well ! After just celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas is just around the corner, you realize you’ve a lot of things to be thankful for. And there is a lot of people and kids in this world that don’t have much and receiving a box filled with; toys, toothpaste, first aid kit, pencils, gloves, flashlight and of course “Swedish Fish” means the world to them. I hope all the boxes will get there without any problems and it will make the kids happy !!