I too have ended my three years of driving. My last match was a horrible one in the quarterfinals in which we lost, we were supposed to play the next one too but our "partners" wouldn't let us. They flipped, and our alliance lost. Not exactly how I wanted to end it. At least I was able to do some kick@$$ driving that made us finalists in Phoenix. I just wished LA could have ended just as well. Today I picked up and skimmed through an RC car magazine, something I haven't done for years. I guess I'll just have to get back into that, or something. Reading this thread made me even more sad. I don't really know what to do. I can accept the fact (although it's hard) that I can never drive anymore but I can't accept the fact that I'll be watching from the stands instead of from behind the glass. Our field coach is graduating too and going far away so maybe I can take his place.
Anyway, I've gone to designing a transmission for next year so at least some of me will be with the robot. If I can spend enough time, I'll build it. If not, I'll give the kids a full set of plans. The good part about this is that I can make some parts of the design go into "uncharted waters" so a lot of drive testing will be needed by the designer before anyone else can drive.
Anyway, I'm really bummed so is anyone up for building something even better to drive? My summer looks free.