Back in the day (2003), I competed in the Skip Barber Formula Dodge Eastern Series, where I won 4 races and finished runner-up Rookie of the Year to Marco Andretti (politics involved in that one…). This video is from a Memorial Race (non-points race done at the end of the weekend) at Lime Rock Park, running the chicane. During these Memorial races, many of the Skip Barber instructors would join us “regulars” for the race, and in this case, the late Josh Rehm started at the back of the grid.

Josh was one of the instructors that helped watch out for me, and made that extra effort to coach me in my first year of car racing. We quickly became good friends, and this was the one and only time that he and I got the chance to race each other. Unfortunately, Josh was killed a few years ago in a car accident by a careless driver who “fell asleep” driving the opposite direction on a highway in Wisconsin, and jumped the median, hitting Josh’s car. To this day, we still run “Detroit Coffee” decals on all of our cars: this was Josh’s new company that was doing extremely well before he passed…it’s our way, and many other racers’ way, of keeping Josh on the track.

This is still my all-time favorite race that I’ve ever done…the back-and-forth passing with Rehm was great…neither of us ever blocked the inside when the other had a run down the front straight…we both knew that would only slow us down and allow the pack to catch up. Going into the last lap, I had to block the inside…but he managed to pass me around the outside of Turn 1 anyways. I knew that I could get a great run through the downhill and pass him before the finish line, and that I had to set him up for it in the chicane…quintessential Josh, still being a coach even while racing, he balked me into the chicane, knowing what I was trying to do, and he pulled away with the win on the last lap.

When we pulled into the pits, I got out of the car and immediately went to Josh…I was psyched with how much fun that race was…and his first comment back to me was: “I noticed some of your mistakes when I was behind you, we’re going to have to work on that.” I’ll never forget that race, and we’ll never forget Josh Rehm.