By Shelly Monfort Someone recently sent me an Internet humor piece that was the diary of a dog versus a cat. The dog diary started: Breakfast – my favorite thing! Ride in the car – my favorite thing! Milk Bone at lunch – my favorite thing! The cat diary started more like: Day 932 of my captivity. My captors taunt me by dangling small objects on strings; they dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed some sort of hash and dry pellets… For me, co-driving in Super Stock in the past year with two titans, I’ve come to think of Matthew Braun as fitting the dog diary, whereas Sam Strano reminds me more of the cat. Mind you, eighteen months ago I’d never met either of these guys, though I’d heard the famous names. Matthew Braun: five time solo national champion and outrageously fast in any car he jumps into. Sam Strano: seven time solo national champion and a permanent resident at the top of the ProSolo charts. If you had told me back in 2010 that I would get to know and co-drive with not just one but both of these legendary names, I’d have told you that pigs can fly. The social dynamics felt familiar – grade school. Remember the cool kids who were the superstars? -- The funny popular social kid, or the kid who was a natural in every sport? When I was growing up, those were the boys and girls the rest of us all admired, the kids I wanted to meet and befriend but wasn’t sure I had the nerve. Autocross is a school playground of sorts for us grown ups, and I can say that I had looked up, shyly, to Braun and Strano as two of those superstar kids. I met Matthew first. We were both in Lotus Elises, and I was friends with Liz and Don Leckey, the amiable couple who owned the car that Matthew usually raced. Matthew is from Michigan, and he has the ability to make nervy requests (like, can he take your shiny coveted race car out and thrash it for a few practice laps) with such gracious Midwestern charm and sincerity, that he’s hard to refuse and easy to fall into friendship with. He drove with me in my Lotus early last year, and we had a blast. I eventually headed east for co-drives with Matthew in a Lotus as well as a Porsche GT3, and we even co-drove Chump Car and LeMons road races together in Topeka, Kansas and at the Infineon Raceway. Matthew Braun is sharp, perceptive, and detailed-oriented - some might even say fastidious - but he is also easy going, silly at times, and strikingly unpretentious. He is a human data processor with a very high clock speed. I pride myself on being able to think fast, and I found myself working hard to keep cognitive pace with him. He applies this impressive logic skill in his driving, sometimes to the point of information overload, when for example - during a ProSolo Super Challenge - he debated back and forth ten times in the span of a nanosecond as to whether it was better to stop for a downed cone (simple approach: downed cone = stop). Matthew has laughed and told me, “I can be fast – but I’m not smooth!” And he is very, very fast. He drives everything with a no fear matter-of-fact approach, with quick hands and quick decisions. It was the friendship we had developed, and Matthew’s decision-making abilities, that were the key to my winning a solo national championship in SSL last year. When my Lotus broke after first run first day, it was Matthew Braun who jumped into action, got me into the Leckey Lotus and took care of stewards and stickers and tires so that I could concentrate on just driving well. And Matthew had his own challenging race to run in Super Stock, especially with his decision to change tires every run (did I mention Matthew is detail-oriented?) Even with all that in Lincoln, Matthew looked beyond himself and his own story and took the time to follow other drivers and races. He jumped in and helped two otherwise-experienced racing friends of mine who happened to be running in A Stock for the first time, checking pressures and watering tires and giving advice between runs. Matthew also made a point to honor and congratulate many other people on their accomplishments at the event. Matthew embodies that spirit that even if you are one of the fastest, you are happiest just being one of the gang. I met Sam Strano through Matthew, at the Toledo Tour last summer. Sam was splitting his time between a Mustang and a Super Stock Corvette Grand Sport, and the epic SS battle between Braun and Strano was just getting hot by June of last year. Strano was curious about the female who had let Braun drive her car on the west coast, and he walked over to introduce himself to me. Sam Strano is larger than life (even Matthew pointed out to me, “That’s Sam Strano!” when Sam rolled up to a restaurant in Toledo in his Mustang). But Sam started out slow – dog slow he’ll tell you - when he began driving in autocross, and I think it has given him perspective and empathy for the rest of us who are not quite so far along on the racing learning curve.  Sam stayed with it, worked hard to improve, figured it out, and became a Renaissance Man of the sport – an outstanding driver, instructor, course designer, contributing board member, car and suspension builder and tuner. Sam is opinionated and passionate; he hates to lose (don’t we all!) and he is extraordinarily skilled at funneling this energy to take himself to the peak of excellence in his driving and competition. Sam gives of himself to the sport in so many ways, and it has paid him back beyond the many trophies and awards he has earned. Many of his early driving school students have become highly regarded racing instructors. Multi-time national champions rely on him for component and suspension adjustment advice. And his close friends in racing are the most loyal and devoted group I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. When I jumped into Sam’s C6 Z06 Corvette for the first time in February, I admit I was a tad nervous. I had 505 horsepower at my disposal (remember, I drive a Lotus!), and a watchful Sammy in the passenger seat. Sam was serious about coaching my driving, and I was close enough friends with him by then to know that he would never let me operate short of my personal best. Sam is smart: clever, insightful and wickedly funny - don’t let his folksy rural Pennsylvania demeanor fool you – and he is mechanically brilliant, too. I was nervous in Sam’s car because I knew I couldn’t get away with cheating my eyes down at an apex cone, or blowing a corner entry because I wasn’t looking in right direction (and, incidentally, I didn’t want to wreck Sam’s Corvette). The greatest friend is one who never hesitates to give you a kick in the butt when you need it. And one who cuts you extra slack the times you need that, too.  Sam has become that kind of friend - and respected co-driver - to me. Sam Strano’s experience of life seems to run like a roller coaster: dizzying, vivid, full of loops and swoops. I’ve seen him give his all at an Evolution driving school - and end of day, a grumpy hungry grizzly bear nearly asleep on his feet. Most important I’ve learned that there isn’t a day or even a moment that goes by that Sam doesn’t genuinely and in his heart, care.  It makes for such a rich shared experience, whether it’s been co-driving Super Stock in his car at the Dixie National Tour, or having an enjoyable dinner with a group of Sam’s “fan club” of great friends, or taking a spontaneous side trip on the way to Georgia and pulling Sam’s Corvette off the trailer to drive the famous and twisty Tail of The Dragon stretch of road in North Carolina (which we did, with full decals and A6 tires, no less…) Sam and Matthew both make going fast look easy, but they both work very hard at it, and they’ve earned the many accolades that they have received. They also both grumble a bit when I tell them they have a lot in common with one another, maybe in the same way the hair of your neck stands on end when someone tells you how similar you are to a sibling or one of your parents (and of course you know it’s true).  But becoming a champion does share common traits. It requires determination, an attention to detail, honest self-assessment, mental toughness, and lots of practice. Many times I have to pinch myself that I’ve truly had the opportunity to drive with and confer with and learn from two of the top in the sport. It’s a privilege and an honor that I’m not sure I can adequately convey in words. I count these two guys among my very best friends. They both lead by example, with expertise and kindness, contribution and honesty. Sam Strano and Matthew Braun have demonstrated to me, over and over, that they are true champions – the best of the best – and that becoming a champion starts in your heart.