Hello everybody! And welcome to the first in a new series of videos that we’re calling The Driving Experience. What is The Driving Experience? It’s taking all those numbers you see in a review (0-60, lateral G’s, etc) and putting them to practice. It’s us going out and driving these cars and sharing our experience behind the wheel. We’re not experts, we’re not hot shoes, we’re not journalists who get to drive every new car at giant, manufacturer sponsored events. We’re guys just like you: enthusiasts who care more about how a car drives than the numbers on a spec sheet. We’ll be back next month, and every month, with another review for you. If you’ve got a car you’re willing to let us drive, send us an email: [email protected]
And so with that, please enjoy our first episode, featuring the BOSS 302 Laguna Seca of Alex Crane. Gavin and I went to Vegas, stayed in a sketchy hotel, and hustled the car around the hills surrounding the city.
Nationals were only a month behind them when the Miller locals returned to the west track for Round 6 of the NASA Utah season. It was also three weeks before the season ending endurance race. That led to some of your favorites taking the weekend off. They still came out to instruct HPDE and hang out, but their chariots were still.
But that doesn’t mean the track was empty. Cole Powelson was out in RaceCo’s new Porsche, Todd Ainsworth was out in his STi in ST2, George Smith hustled his flying banana C5 Corvette to a win in the Super Unlimited class and first place overall in the race, and Park got a few runs in in his Vette as well.
Oh, and Jason Smith raced Roger Miller’s World Challenge Mustang. More on this humbling experience in a later post…
STR1 went to Bob Evans in the Snickers, EA Sports Ford Fusion. He battled with Jason for a good chunk of the race, but he left him behind when they encountered traffic. Passing Jason got him into second overall.
Again the Spec Miata/GTS guys were out with the bigger, faster guys. While Jason and Bob had a good battle going, there was a dog fight happening at the front of the herd of Miatas.
Todd Green and Mike Ferrara were never out of the other’s sight the whole race! They might as well have tied their cars together, thats how close they were. After an epic battle, Mike emerged the victor. They might not be as fast as the open wheel or ST cars, but they fight just as hard if not harder than those other classes.
Speaking of open wheel, the shorter track kept them closer than usual. There weren’t any dirt drops or wheel touching, a la the Japanese GP, but the closeness brought action.
This is Dave Wann. He ran a 1:49.75, and did the best pirouette of the day. Kudos to you Dave, kudos.
I see you race a Z32. I too like to live dangerously. And if I remember right this either placed or won TTC. You don’t see a lot of Z32 300ZX’s out on track days, which is a shame because, as our friend here is demonstrating, they can do some serious work. They’re also such handsome vehicles.
You don’t see too many Z cars out in general, at least out on our little ribbon of tarmac. 370z’s are pricey, and S30s are gorgeous and more people would rather do them up and then take them to shows instead of the track. Hopefully seeing that Datsun go will bring a few more out.
Here are some random photos from the HPDE session. Nothing too crazy to report, just some guys getting in some supervised laps. Anyway, thats what happened in a rather light day. We’ll be out there for the season ending endurance race on the 26th, and we’ll do a photo dump ahead of that. We’ll see you there!
Words and Photos by Michael Chandler.
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMAutoMag.Com and their respective owners.
