Avoidable Contact: Daytona's Checkered Flag

**5 Days Until Avoidable Contact Launches!**
**Read an excerpt of the book, and posts about the research backstory, the first 10 hours,
and my sleep research**

The 24 Hours of Daytona 2013 wasn't a good race for The Racer's Group. For about three seconds, I wondered if I was a bad luck charm for them, and then I remembered ... that's just racing. And perhaps being there to experience disappointment on disappointment on disappointment was appropriate to remind me that I write happy endings, and they sure don't always happen on the track.

That's why I make sure Kate has successes in my books, but she doesn't do everything perfectly behind the wheel every time, and she doesn't take pole and win all the time. Because that's certainly not realistic!

But good race for the team or not, I was there with them the whole time, and I learned a ton. The final two posts from that year:

• To the end.
• Over, over, over.

As research does, it all helped. Going into it (research/races), I never quite know what to expect (see my sleep research post). But I know I'll get plenty of information, and I'll be able to do something with it.

Which is what happened after the 2013 race. I came home, wrote a bunch, did a lot more research by email and video, and then decided to return in 2014 to make sure I had the details right—especially of the brand-new series and the brand-new Corvette. Two posts from this year:

• What I learned at Daytona (2014).
• My favorite Daytona things (photos from 2014).

And there you have it, my on-site, at-race research. Of course, there are bunches of friends, sources, and stories that didn't make the blog posts or the book. But maybe they'll turn up in the future!

Next week, Avoidable Contact!