It’s another Porsche packed day of fun and adventure here at Utah Motorsports Campus. The Porsche Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA finished up their morning practice session. Here’s what it looked like:
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The 2016 NASA Utah season came to an end this past weekend. I know, I’m sad too. But instead of the usual, conventional, “one track configuration for the entire weekend” business that we’ve seen at every other weekend this year; Dave, Matt, and Momma NASA (Cheri Miller) had something special for the end of the year. Instead of running the Outer Loop, or the East track, or even the Full track, they arranged it so the drivers could race on ALL THREE IN THE SAME DAY!!! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the TresDuro.
IT’S BACK, BABY! Just like last year, and the year before; BUT, unlike last year, they were blowing the dust off the gigantic Full track. To the best of my knowledge, the last time the Full track was run was two years ago. I should probably explain how one wins the TresDuro, since it has been a year. It’s pretty simple for the race groups: you qualify once, and start the first race from that position. Where you finished in that race is where you start the next race from. Where you finish also gives you points. Driver/team with the most points at the end of the third race wins. For TT: they take your fastest times on each track, add them together, and person with the lowest overall time is the winner. Got it?
It’s been a hot minute, but the drivers managed to drive the track without getting lost or forgetting which configuration they were driving! However, the weekend wasn’t without incident. That incident, while unfortunate, provides a convenient segue into the actual race coverage.
Taking home the win in GTSU by a mere 5 points was Makes & Models, in their Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo 620-2. Their main competition throughout the day was David Donner, in his Porsche 911GT3R. You know, the other Effort Racing car that showed up at Air Power Racing at the beginning of this year. David had the pace to run away with it, but a broken axle in race 2 served up the win to Makes & Models. The TresDuro would hinge on the third and final race. The Lamborghini was on the pole, and Les Long’s 997 Cup car was starting from second. And then this happened.
This is video of the start of the third race, shot from Michael Eifling’s ST1 Corvette. It was uploaded by Brendon Stewart, driver of the Makes & Models Huracan. FULL DISCLOSURE: I’ve known Brendon for many years, long before he was working and driving for Makes & Models. Makes & Models has been friendly with us, we have stickers on the Huracan and a few other Makes & Models cars. That said, it’s pretty clear Les makes a move to the left to keep the Lamborghini behind him. Then as the Lambo starts moving to his right and passing him, he moves to the right and pushes him West pit out. The result of all of these moves was the Huracan spinning out in turn one, and having to rejoin at the back of the field. Despite that, Brendon fought through the field and finished second.
5 points behind Makes & Models was David Donner. It’s been a few rounds since we’ve seen him at UMC, but he’s been spending that time wisely. He’s very in tune with the 911 GT3R, and showed INSANE pace in the first race. Good God was he flying! David, I’m begging you!: come out for more races! I’d love to see you, David Lockwood, Derek, and the DXDT guys have an all out death match (not really a battle to the death, but you know what I mean) one NASA weekend. Do it for me, do it for the children, do it for America! Or England if your James Burke.
In third place, with 255 points, was Les Long. He narrowly edged out David Lockwood for the final podium spot. Les is a really good driver, but I’m not used to seeing him drive as aggressively as he did on Saturday. From what I’ve seen over the years, he is most definitely not a dirty driver. Just an aggressive driver, something we typically enjoy. While he may be at fault for the incident at the beginning of the third race, I think he just got caught up in the heat of the moment.
Being alone in a class has advantages sometimes, and Michael Eifling took full advantage of being the sole ST1 driver. He took the fight to Robert Gardner, in the orange Jagermeister Porsche, and they had amazing battles all day long. Good on ya Michael! Thanks for not just turning laps, and taking the easy win. Also, thank for bringing Buddha!
ST2 started the day with two competitors: JR Smith in his Porsche Boxster, and Toby Crawford in his Subaru BRZ. By the end of the first race, there was only one. The head gaskets in Toby’s BRZ let go, allowing the man, the myth, the legend that is JR Smith to take the win.
ST3 had a field of 5 cars: four of the Ford Performance Racing School BOSS 302 FRSes and the Minion mobile, the UAO Clothing M3. I know I saw Alex in the car on Saturday, so I’m going to say it was he who won the shiny, not chocolate filled gold medal for ST3. I’m sure I’ll hear about it if I’m wrong, but until then: congratulations Alex! UPDATE: Todd Ainsworth also drove on Saturday. Matt Guiver probably wasn’t in the car on Saturday, so we can rule him out. So congratulations Todd and Alex on the win!
In second place was Frank Gannett. Frank the Tank has been pounding away in that Mustang, and doing a damn good job too. Hopefully we see Frank in a different chassis next season, preferably one that doesn’t belong to the fine folks at the Ford Performance Racing School.
Rounding out the podium was Josh Williams, in the #85 FPRS BOSS 302 FRS. It’s in my favorite color, which makes it the best looking Mustang they have at the school. Ask for it by name!
Super Unlimited also had a five car field, but unlike the ST3 field there wasn’t a dominant model in the field. There was; however, a dominant team: CA Sport. They represented four of the five cars, the fifth being George Smith’s Corvette. It was also a rather diverse field: the aforementioned Corvette, a PWC TC Class 370Z, a widebody E92 M3, and a pair of Cayman GT4 Clubsports. It was one of those Caymans, the #41 driven by Andrew Smith, that took home the win.
Chasing Andrew was Davis Warnock, in the #70 CA Sport Cayman GT4 Clubsport. It was really fun watching these two cars duke it out for first place, and mix it up with some of the other classes. And the new liveries look great.
Locking out the podium for CA Sport was Lara Tallman in the 370Z. Hey! I just noticed that it has one blue mirror! I like that. And also congratulations to CA Sport for locking out the podium! That quite the feat, especially considering who all could’ve run in the class and taken a spot on the podium.
And there you have it for Thunder! Looking for Lightning or Time Trial? I’ve got those in their own posts, so you don’t have a 3000+ word article to rifle through
It was the beginning of the best ten days on this year’s calendar. Acting as the meat in a sandwich where the delicious bread is a Salt City Drift event and Pirelli World Challenge, and the condiments are a NASA Utah weekend, was the annual Utah 6 Hour. Now a staple on the NASA Utah calendar, the Western Endurance Racing Championship stop provides a unique opportunity for the drivers and fans to drive into the night, and see nothing but lights piercing the dark Tooele night. And if you were out around turn 5 around 10:30-11, you would’ve seen me with a string of LED lights strewn about my torso. I was easily identifiable, for safety! Anywell, let’s talk about who took home a trophy!
Lyfe Motorsport was out with one of their own Spec Z’s (the Towne Storage Z) and supporting the #99 DLG Racing Z. Showing that 350Z is life, the Lyfe backed teams finished 1-2 in E0! The Towne Storage Z completed 147 laps in the 6 hours, with the DLG Z four laps behind them.
In E1, completing 153 laps in the allotted time, was the #65 E46 BMW of Strom Motorsports. It was the teams second win of the day, having taken the win in the GTS5 class during the Lightning sprint race earlier.
The Fit is fucking go! The #12 Honda Fit of Honda Performance Development completed 143 laps in 6:01:09.257, and probably had to stop for fuel once.
It was a battle of the Miatas in E3: the mighty and legendary Paul Mitchell versus the bug-eyed RJ Racing Miata. I mean bug-eyed in the nicest way. Look at those lights! Those lights lit the way for 147 laps, and lit their way to victory.
The ENP had one entrant, the Valkyrie Autosport Elan NP01. Despite the teams best efforst, the little prototype went behind the wall after 29 laps.
This was a battle: the TruSpeed Autosport 997 Cup car versus the Makes & Models Huracan Super Trofeo. A tried and true chassis versus a sprint race car. WERC class leaders one win away from clinching their championship versus a team with multiple regional championships under their belt? If you’ve been paying any attention to how these posts go, you know that by seeing the picture of the TruSpeed car that they won. Not only did they win the Utah 6 Hour, they locked up the ES Class championship. Congratulations to them!
Now we arrive at the car I was most excited to see running. Toby Crawford, driver of the Pink Ribbon Racing/Makes & Models Subaru BRZ, told me that there was a Ginetta G57 at UMC and that it was racing in the enduro. It was the Ryno Racing team, sponsored by Design Masonry. The G57 is based on Ginetta’s LMP3 design, and is probably a lot the same.* The big difference is that the LMP3 spec Nissan engine, rated at 420bhp, has been replaced with a Chevrolet LS3, which makes 150 more horsepower than the LMP3 engine. I was excited to see and hear the 900kg prototype tearing through the night, but unfortunately the car was retired after just 72 laps.
And there it is, another six hour race in the books! I’m already looking forward to next year. A tremendous shout out to all the race officials, corner workers, and safety crew for sticking it out until midnight. A big thank you to the family, friends, and well wishers who came out and watched the race and cheered the teams on. And all of the congratulations to all of the drivers and crew members for racing in the longest race on the NASA Utah calendar! There were over thirty cars entered in the race, and they all took the green flag. It was, as always, an amazing experience.
We can’t wait for next year.
It was hot. Very hot. So hot, in fact, that some competitors ended up being less than competitive because of it. Andy Moench’s and Mike Bratsch’s TT3 cars were feeling the heat, as were some of the Spec Z cars. Greg Warnock’s E92 M3 racecar succumbed to overheating issues, but he just hopped into his Cayman GT4 Clubsport and got some more laps in. I mean, who doesn’t have a back up race car in this day and age? Speaking of Greg’s race…
That’s where we start our coverage. Surprisingly, it was pretty drama free. At least from where I was. We had one GTS3 competitor, and that was Mayor McCheese himself: Blake Troester!
Byron Smith was back! Unfortunately for him, Darrell Troester was still there. He finished a lap up on Byron, and claimed another GTS4 win.
Despite going spin cycle early in the race, Gerry Shear (who gets it) got everything straightened out and took home a GTS5 win.
NASA Utah’s own BFG, Bob Evans, took the Snickers Ford Fusion NASCAR Sprint Cup High Downforce Prototype to the top of the podium in ST1.
J.R. Smith, proving that good things can be made better with the addition of an LSx, claimed another ST2 win.
Benevolent Overlord Matt Guiver hopped in the Minion (or banana mobile) and out drove five of the Ford Performance Racing School Mustangs. Five! That’s a lot of Mustangs to beat out.
In the Super Unlimited class, Pirate Supreme Les Long threw down some blistering laps and took home the class win. Could he take home the overall win?
Well, no. Makes & Modesl had their Huracan Super Trofeo back on track, and Derek was a man on a mission. Despite rising temperatures setting off alarms, he managed to claim the GTSU win AND the overall race group win. Speaking of that white, German/Italian super-weapon…
Brendon Stewart hopped in the driver’s seat for the TT sessions and threw down a best time of 1:35.580 to take the TTU win.
TT1 saw a few Vipers. Definitely not a bad thing, especially given the news that FCA will be killing the big snake after 2017. Topping the podium was one of those snakes, the one driven by David Gilliland. He slithered around the East course of UMC in 1:41.8.44
Shawn Murphy wasn’t there that long on Saturday. He had a wedding to go to. I suggested someone Facetime him in, but that one didn’t fly. My brilliant idea didn’t fly, but Shawn did. And in the crowded combined session to boot. His best time in his “street car” was 1:40.988.
As mentioned earlier, Andy and Mike’s cars were feeling the effects of the heat. The heat didn’t seem to be a problem for James Pasquier, and his reliable as the sunrise 993 911. He set his best time in the last session of the day! Clearly we should all get 911’s, and be immune from heat.
Darin Beaudoin barely escaped the day with a win in TTB. He had Stephen Martin hot on his heels. Stephen posted a best time of 1:47.795, which was so close to Darin’s time. Darin, in his Honda Miata, posted a 1:47.760.
For those keeping score at home, Porsches have claimed five wins on the day so far. After this, they will have claimed six. Max Dufford, in his Boxster, ran a 1:48.977 in TTC.
Todd Green, listed in the #60 which I don’t have a picture of nor even see, took home the win in TTE. He posted a best time of 1:47.335 in the second TT Storm session. I don’t have a photo of that car, but I do have a photo of the mythical beast that is L’oreal! I MEAN PAUL MITCHELL!!! Speaking of things that you could hear about later…
Things got a little spooky, then kinda violent. Some Spec Miata drivers got too close coming out of Release, and one spun. Later in the race: a couple of Spec Z drivers got together, sending one into the dirt. Aside from those events, and another Spec Z losing an engine over the course of the race which left the car stranded at pit in, the race was fairly straightforward. Let’s start with Spec Miata, where Chris Bond returned! He took home with win, and managed to stay clear of any sort of shenanigans.
Otto Silva wasn’t the only 944 Spec driver this weekend! He was still the winner, but he wasn’t alone!
We haven’t had any open wheel races this season, which has meant that the usual drivers have been doing other things to occupy their time. Apparently one of those “other things” for Troy Duffin is getting a hold of a Datsun 510 racer. He brought it out this weekend, and took home the win in PTE.
Here we see the GTS2, PTB, and Thunder Roadster winners, all at once! Tom Rogers got himself a win in GTS2, Nathan Rohner in his RX7 (which was originally built as an autocross car) got another PTB win, and JD Stull took the win in Thunder Roadster. This was JD’s first race, and it was great seeing him out in competition.
We had one, lone GTS1 competitor: Steve Burns. He and Chris Bond had a solid battle all race, which was great to watch.
And in Spec Z, we had the #42 DXDT car, driven by David Askew, atop the podium.
PHEW! What a day! On to some miscellaneous stuff:
And that is that! We’ll be back for Round 6, and the 6 Hour Enduro on August 6.
The rain stayed away for the qualifying AND race for the Thunder group. It was an incredible turn of luck, and something some of the drivers didn’t see coming. We aren’t used to luck when it comes to weather! Because of the poor weather, some of the drivers packed up and called it a day. In my opinion, they missed out on one hell of a race.
Darrell Troester took home yet another GTS 4 win. He valiantly battled himself, and through sheer grit and determination he defeated himself to take home the win.
I had to ask myself several questions during the race, but the only one that really is relevant right now is “When did they start running GTS3 cars in Thunder?” I asked myself that, because Jeff Burton was out in his Cayman S, a GTS3 car, with the Thunder Group. I let it go rather quickly, which was good because I watched Jeff drive a solid race, and take home the win.
ST3 was a quartet of Ford Performance Racing School Mustangs, and Todd Ainsworth in the Us Against One M3. Not good odds for the banana mobile, and things shook out accordingly. A Mustang did win, and it was driven by a repeat winner, but it wasn’t Frank Gannett. It was Dan McKeever, in the most evil looking BOSS at the school.
Out of nowhere (maybe Colorado? I have no idea) came a man in a small British car with a Toyota engine. Bob Schader, said man in tiny car, managed to harass some of the ST3 field during the race. Why would he do such a thing? Because he was the only guy in ST2. Thanks for coming out Bob, and for putting on a show.
Sorry Bob, and occasionally George, but my favorite ST1 car was BACK! Dan Worley and his glorious Porsche were out and running! He was alone in ST1, but he was out there! Man, I love that car.
If I tell you that a 996 GT3 Cup car beat a 911 GT3R, you’d call me crazy. And for good reason. The old Cup cars are still great, but the GT3R is a different beast altogether. That first statement would be crazy, but it happened! Or so says My Laps! Listed as the class winner in GTSU is Mark Brouse, driver of the above pictured 996 GT3 Cup car. How did he do that? He ran the full race, and the Air Power GT3R didn’t.
SU was a four way deathmatch. The R8 LMS Ultra driven by Kristian Boodoosingh faced off against Les Long and his 997 Pirate mobile, and a pair of E92 M3’s. This was the Euro fan boy race of the day! The only thing missing from the German fight was a Mercedes. In the end Kristian in the R8 took home the win, after battling to get around Les. Can we do that again next month? Please?
Speaking of next month, there’s a race weekend next month! It’s taking place on July 15th, 16th, and 17th on the East track. Join us, won’t you?
The rain photos look cool, but man are they not a lot of fun to shoot. But man do they look cool!
There was a time that the season at Miller Motorsports Park opened up with an endurance race. It was pretty cool book ending the season with endurance races. By the way, that’s Madison Snow driving. You can see him driving in the Rolex 24 at Daytona this weekend in a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 for Paul Miller Racing in GTD
The first NASA Utah weekend of the year brought with it its fair share of action. From new track records to people driving the wheels off their cars, local hero’s, rookies, and national champs all came out to enjoy Utah regions Round 1. Over 100 drivers challenged Miller Motorsports Park’s outer loop configuration, and our Thunder and Lightning race group featured well over 40 cars on grid for the start of Saturdays race!
The GTS drivers were out in force, and entirely in Porsche 911s. In GTSU David Donner put his red and white Air Power Racing prepped machine in First place ahead of Peter Spencer and John Scarlett, both also in Air Power Racing machines.
GTS5 demonstrated some close racing between Alan Wilson and Roberto Albarran, with Roberto edging out Alan by just under 1 second, despite Alan posting better lap times. Russ Timmons debuted his beautiful new orange and chrome wrap job to round out 3rd. Sundays race was another barn burner for these two, Alan was leading a close battle when a daring move in lap traffic, quickly turned into a carefully managed spin, moving him to 2nd, but with Desire supporting over the radio, Alan climbed back into 2nd place, while Mark Brouse finished 3rd.
GTS4 was a two man battle between Darrell Troester and Chris Vivolo in their Tatum Racing 911s. When the checkered flag dropped it was Darrell taking the class win. Darrell was able to repeat his victory on Sunday, securing a healthy lead for his season.
In the Pro Touring classes it was Douglas Turnquist versus Bill Noblitt in PTB and Todd Green versus his Miata in PTE. Douglas put his Porsche 944 ahead of Bill Noblit’s Boxster, which retired early due to a mechanical issue.
Todd Green had an exciting Saturday in PTE. After only 4 laps his driver’s front wheel decided it wanted to take a lap off. It took the hub and brake rotor off into the infield while Todd wrangled the rest of the car to a stop just outside of turn 6. Determined to get back in the game he recruited Matt Guiver and Travis Tidball to sacrifice the E3 Miata sitting quietly in the garage. Todd worked hard and got his #60 PTE Miata back on the grid in time to edge out Allan Anderson for the class win on Sunday.
In other Miata racing news, Chris Bond was your Spec Miata winner, ahead of David Sherman and Troy Duffin respectively. Rounding out the class were McKay Snow, Paul McGarvey, and rookie Joe Shubert. David came back with all cylinders firing on Sunday and put down some consistent laps to take 1st place, Troy Duffin clinched 2nd, and Chris Bond had to settle for 3rd. Larry Carpenter had his hands full keeping cars tuned up for this competitive class.
Spec Z featured all rookie drivers, in 3 brand new Nissan 350Z Spec racers. Spec racing rules meant the cars were nearly identical, but Arthur Golebiowski, Tom Kaminski, and Paul House drove them very differently. Arthur wrestled his Strace Z into first, Tom pedaled to 2nd place, and Paul closed the race in 3rd. Arthur even took home a BFG R1 race tire, and $250 from Nissan for his debut race with NASA Utah. Sunday saw a surprise reversal, Thomas managed to take advantage of traffic to secure 1st place, even though Arthur set a new Spec Z track record with a 2:11.4 his effort was only good enough 2nd. Paul managed to bring it home in one piece for 3rd. All weekend these three drivers could be found in the paddock discussing strategy, and working on each other’s cars, it’s always nice to see camaraderie in the race grids.
Rounding out the Spec classes is Spec 944, which was the closest racing of the day! Samuel Kapp in his Eurotonic backed 944 battled with Otto Silva and his orange Euroworks machine. It was close, but Samuel took the win by .396 seconds after 10 laps on this 3 mile course!
Super Touring was a dense field, with the quickest cars and some very experienced drivers at the wheels. It also featured the widest variety of vehicles. From Alex Whetman’s Focus of Doom to Madison Snow’s IMSA GTD class 991 Porsche that sees action in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. There are also a good handful of Corvettes, and in ST1 is where we find the 2013 National champ Team Smith-Burke Corvette. They were competing with Dan Worley and his Chevy LS1 powered Porsche 944. They came out of the box with a fast pace, opening up a 1:15.701 gap, and setting a new NASA Utah record in the process.
ST2 had old hand Byron Smith in his BMW against rookie Brendon Stewart in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. Brendon was hoping to not have a repeat of last season’s catastrophic failures and missed races, and things seemed to be working great. However an incident with the the #33 Skullcandy Team Nissan Altima in Clubhouse turn resulted in a spin, and driver penalties for Brendon. Determined to learn from his mistake, Brendon found the very small pieces of his bumper, and got the car back together to take 1st on Sunday with a 2:05.4.
ST3 was the deepest class with eleven drivers, seven of whom with driving FR500S Mustangs. Of the Mustang drivers, R. Ryan Curl proved to be the fastest, coming in fifth in class behind Todd Ainsworth’s Us Against One Clothing backed Subaru WRX STi. Cary Wilson took the class win in his gray C5 Corvette, earning some Hoosier race tires for his efforts, and Alex Whetman’s managed his Focus into second despite a catastrophically failed power steering pump. His effort was good for a contingency award for 1 free BFG R1! Gary Free’s RaceCo prepped Mustang FR500S rounded out the podium in what is shaping up to be an exciting season. Sunday saw Cary once again secure 1st place, while battling a new to him car, Todd Ainsworth drove the UAO STi to 2nd place, and Ryan Curl put down a blistering pace in his Ford Racing school FR500S easily securing 3rd place with a 2:13.9.
SU was the class to watch. Two IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship Porsches paired off against the two Skullcandy Team Nissan Altimas which see action in Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge. Also in the fray were 2014 NASA SU National Champion George Smith and NASA Rookie Skip Sasser in Chevrolet S10. The Nissan’s were plagued by problems: the #33 had an incident with ST2 driver Brendon Stewart, while the #34 Nissan had clutch issues which forced them to retire after eight laps. No stranger to the race track, Skip Sasser drove his #38 S10 to a fourth place finish behind Melanie Snow in the #62 UIS Snow Racing Porsche 911. Ahead of her was George Smith in the yellow JDP sponsored C5 Corvette. And topping the SU podium in 1st place, Madison Snow. The 2013 IMSA GT3 Cup champion had a commanding lead by the time the checkered flag dropped. Sunday saw Les Long owner/operator of Air Power racing get behind the wheel of his Super Unlimited GT3, but there was nothing he could do to compete with Madison Snow. Driving hard, Madison managed a record shattering 1:52.0 to secure the win.
And so ends a successful opening weekend to the NASA Utah season. The next race weekend is April 25-27 on the West track. Registration is open and we look forward to seeing everyone return for Round 2 of the NASA Utah racing series
Words by Michael Chandler and Matt Guiver, Photos by Michael Chandler and Michael Wells
Miller Motorsports Park was a busy place on April 27. Rally Cross was happening, iDrift was going off in the Midway, and there were a gaggle of Porsches on the East course. Since I was conveniently standing between the Midway and the East course I figured I might as well snap some photos of the Porsches.
Words and photos by Michael Chandler
Ah, the weekend. We are gonna be at the track on Saturday and furiously editing photos, video and skulling energy drinks like our lives depend on it on Sunday. But for Friday we give you these, a pair of photos for you to use as wallpapers if you see fit.
While I never actually saw the McLaren or Ferrari on the track, I did see this little red Beetle 997 911 GT3 tearing it up. If not for The Black Pearl it would have been the fastest thing out there.
I moved a little over a month ago, and this is what my roommate keeps in the garage: a banana yellow C6 Corvette. I’m trying to convince him to bring it to a Wide Open Wednesday, but until then it’s going to live in the garage and wait for sunny days.
-Michael Chandler
