Words by Michael Chandler. Photos by Michael Chandler and Gavin Pouquette
As we’ve discussed, the upcoming 2019 Camaro looks like an Impala. Thankfully Jay Steffey’s is not a 2019, it’s a 2018. It’s also had one important box ticked: the 1LE package.
“Hey Michael, what the hell does that mean?” GLAD YOU ASKED! First it means you opted to grab a ZL1, because 1: why wouldn’t you? and 2: it’s superior to the pedestrian SS because it is packing a supercharged V8. It also has beefy Brembos, Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperCar rubber, and an eLSD that does some stuff with the traction control to make cornering better.
When you tick the 1LE box, you get some things that take the ZL1 from good to great. You get diveplanes and a big spoiler for added downforce, and aggression. Just looking at the car, you can tell it means business. And that’s before we talk about the upgraded mechanical parts. Tell me this doesn’t look like it’s going to burn your town to the ground for a laugh. YOU CAN’T!
The 20″ wheels get replaced with 19s, and you get a special set of Eagle F1 Supercar rubber that has been specially developed for the big Chevy. The magnettic dampers are replaced by an upgraded set, made by Multimatic. You can adjust the ride height in the front, and the camber because YOU GET CAMBER PLATES FROM THE FACTORY. You can stiffen up the rear sway bar if you want to! You still get that eLSD, but it’s packed with a 3.73 gear set.
Six piston and four piston Brembos, with this neat 1LE logo on them, haul this thing to a stop.
Now, you may have noticed that this thing is covered in NASA stickers. That’s because Jay runs Time Trial in this thing. Some of you may be chuckling, and saying something like he’d probably do better if he were in a GT350. You might be right, but let’s look at some numbers. This Camaro weighs 3880 pounds and makes 650 horsepower, which means each horsepower has to move 5.97 pounds. A Mustang GT350 weighs 3760 pounds but makes 526 horsepower, which results in 7.14 pounds for each horseypower. So, going by that he would be doing worse in the Mustang. But enough about this, let’s get back to the Camaro.
The interior is pretty swank. You wrap your mitts around things covered in suede. The steering wheel, which is also flat bottomed, and the shift knob are wrapped in suede.
You get to plant yourself in some nicely bolstered Recaros, and if you can get a ride in Jay’s you’ll get to secure yourself into those Recaros with these Safecraft harnesses.
There’s a performance data recorder, and then there’s this! “This” being the paddle that activates the rev match for the transmission. Yes, the six speed manual in the ZL1 has rev match so you don’t royally screw up your shifts. The system can’t help you if you can’t find 3rd.
If you’re curious, the paint is called Frost White, and if you go to build your own on Chevy’s website it’ll look gray. It’s definitely not gray. It’s very white, and the diveplanes and hood are very black, making this thing look like a panda. A panda that’s been eating nothing but steroids for a year.
GAVIN’S BACK! And to welcome him back we (Dave and Mike) talk all sorts of stuff!
The Bahrain Grand Prix’s interesting results
Kimi mangling someone’s leg
Forrest Wang kicking ass in Formula Drift
Why Dave doesn’t like the drifting Ferrari 599
The cool abandoned cars you’ve come across
Support our sponsor Steady Broke! Head to their site, and use the code CAMAUTO15 to get 15% off your entire order!
Thank you for joining us on this episode! You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever else you find your podcasts. Please subscribe, rate, and review us! Support the providers of this podcast’s theme song, Mathusaworm.
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On this episode of The Driving Experience: Gavin hops behind the wheel of a modified Camaro ZL1, and sees how far we’ve come since the Carrera GT and Enzo.
Car courtesy of Vincent Meyer. Here’s a behind the scenes gallery!
The madness that is a Pirelli World Challenge GTS class race has risen and fallen. This race had all the staples of a great race: close racing, plenty of passes, near misses, and some not misses. The field, which features everything from the GT4 spec KTM X-Bow up to the almost too powerful Camaro ZL1. In the end, one driver would rise to the top. Stand on the highest step, and therefor have the strategic advantage in the champagne spraying that happens at every podium event. That man is Scott Heckert.
Scott, in the lone Sin R1 GT4, overtook Brett Sandberg (#13 KTM X-Bow GT4) and held off Nate Stacy (#14 Ford Mostang BOSS 302S) at the beginning of the race, and held on to the lead for the rest of it. A late race full course yellow, brought on by the #29 Ginetta of Harry Gottsacker colliding with the #46 Lotus of Scott Dollahite, cut Heckert’s massive lead down to nil. However, on the restart, he built back that lead, as Nate Stacy and Brett Sandberg battled each other for position.
It was a nice morning at Miller Motorsports Park. The paddock was buzzing with activity as drivers were preparing to go out on track, and crews were readying the cars. The first group out were the Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy, which featured a couple of locals.
Both Desire Wilson and John Scarlett were driving out of the Air Power Racing garage, and both did well on the weekend. Desire finished first in Platinum on both days, and John took home first in Platinum Masters on Saturday and second on Sunday. For those keeping track, with their wins that makes a total of 6 wins for MMP locals! Could Vesko do some upsetting in GTS and make it 7?
Unfortunately no. Vesko did wind up in second though, behind one Mr. Michael Cooper in his Blackdog Speedshop Z/28 Camaro. With his win on Sunday, and with Andrew Aquilante’s 12th and 10th pllace finishes in the weekend’s events, pushed him to a 107 point lead in the driver’s championship standings. Seeing a black and red Camaro cross the line 1st at the Ford GP of Utah gave me a feeling of deja vu.
The two cars involved in the big incidents on Saturday, the Swisher Z4 GT3 and the iRacerCoaching.com R8 LMS Ultra of Drew Regitz, were back and ready to go for the final GT/GTA/GT Cup race of the weekend. And things were different up top!
JD Davison…
…
!
Collected his second second place finish of the weekend. Guy Smith on the other hand…
Yes, a previous winner at Miller in the Continental GT3 swooped in, and finished in third. Third!
But our guy Johnny took first. Again. See, the top spots were different because Guy… I’m not gonna spoon feed you on this one. Now, to address the fellow with the dog.
That fellow is Colin Thompson, driver of the #11 Porsche Bucks County/Penn Valley 911 GT3 Cup. The dog is his dog, which made the trip out from Pennsylvania to watch his owner claim the win in the GT Cup category, and join him in celebrating the win on pit lane. I forgot the dog’s name, but he was super chill.
GTA Shook out with a pair of SLS GT3s in the top two podium places, and a Ferrari on the last spot. Frank Montecalvo in the Bayshore Racing SLS crossed the line first, with Eric Lux’s Rembrandt Charms/Monticello Motor Club SLS following behind. Eric’s journey to second in class wasn’t easy. Martin Fuentes in the Scuderia Corsa/Hublot/Samsung Ferrari 458 GT3 Italia kept Eric in his mirrors most of the race, but Eric fought and got around Martin to take home second.
And there we have it, another amazing World Challenge event in the books. Opportunities to see cars, drivers and racing like this don’t come up too often, especially in our neck of the woods. Watching the GT, GTA, GT Cup and GTS cars stretch their legs on the massive front straight, and blast through the high speed corners, then seeing the Touring Cars bang around the track and hit the kerbing and getting air under the tires all in the same day is one of the best ways to spend any day. With the news that Miller Motorsports Park will become the Utah Motorsports Campus, and that the new ownership is just as excited to keep the racing going at the track, we’re hoping to see more Pirelli World Challenge events at our home track in the coming years. And we’re hoping to see more of you guys out there too! Seriously, where can you go from seeing this:
To this:
Then see the drivers up close:
And sometimes personal:
Before they grid up and take the green flag?:
Not a whole lot of events are this open to their fans, and feature this diverse a line up. If you get a chance to, come to the track and spend the weekend watching high caliber racing!
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMautoMag.Com and their respective owners.
Words by Michael Chandler, photos by Michael Chandler, Michael Wells and Gavin Pouquette
Some things are inevitable: death, taxes, and one rain soaked NASA Utah event. Nobody died, everyone had paid their taxes (probably), but it did rain. A lot.
But here’s the thing: it wasn’t raining all weekend. In fact, for the Saturday races, everyone qualified in the dry. Well, everyone except Madison Snow. He ran in the dry, and then the UIS Snow Racing Porsche 911 went back in the trailer. BUT! But, McKay (the younger one) was not averse to running in the rain, nor was he averse to annihilating the field.
McKay came out in an IMSA Prototype Lights class car, and proceeded to eek out a 7.4 second win over Ian Lacy in the first Super Formula race (which was dry) and ran away from Terry Biner by a staggering 1:36 in the second!
The second race was utterly drenched. Nobody was going to be able to utterly dominate, unless they’re name was Ayrton Senna, and we’re never going to see that level of genius for many years. However, there is a young Brazilian who drove extremely well in the rain. If you’ll direct you view to the right side of the picture above, you will see him lurking in the mist.
Fifteen year old phenom Bruno Carneiro took both Formula class races, an impressive feat considering that the second race might as well have been held in a swimming pool. For those keeping track, Bruno has won three of the last four Formula races.
Speaking of tin tops, let’s talk TT. Greg Valdez, pictured here on race slicks and with a completed wrap, is taking to TT1 like a fish to water. He took the overall wins on both days of the weekend, while Shawn Murphy kept it close both days, but could not out run Greg.
Alex Whetman’s Focus of Doom narrowly defeated Travis Tidball’s C5 Corvette on Saturday, and beat up on Matt Guiver on Sunday. Guiver was in the freshly completed Us Against One Clothing E36 BMW M3. Speaking of Us Against One Clothing and Alex Whetman, they put our name and logo on a shirt with a picture of the FoD on it. Head on over, pick up a shirt (or several) and support some good local dudes.
In TTB, AKA Spec 86, someone in something that is called a GT86 in places that aren’t America won the class on both days. That someone is Toby Crawford, and that something is a Subaru BRZ.
TTE was missing Ben Lamberson, and his championship winning Audi, so that opened up a path to victory for another competitor. On Saturday Joe Schubert took a stroll down that path, and on Sunday long time rival Jeb Brown took the win.
And in TTU an Audi (TW Racing) beat a couple of Hondas (the Turbo Lab NSX and Rhett Panter’s Integra) on Saturday, and on Sunday tried its hand at being an S1 Quattro. It did not go well, but it still won TTU.
And playing by himself in TT2 was Robert Rathbone in his 911 GT3.
The Lightning group is getting big. More and more Spec Zs are emerging, which means the field is growing. On Saturday there were 8 cars in the field, and 7 on Sunday.
Arthur Golebiowski took advantage of the wet conditions, which caused an untimely spin for Chad Aalders (who, according the the results sheet, only did three laps. But did he make them count!) to take the win on Saturday. On Sunday the weather was better, and the Lyfe Motorsports Spec Z (piloted by Cole Powelson) narrowly denied Arthur of a weekend sweep. The margin of victory on Sunday? .305 seconds.
In Spec Miata, David Sherman swept the weekend in the #44 Carpenter Motorsports Miata. Ignore what the windshield says! It was David I tell you!!!
GTS3, PTC, PTE, and 944 Spec had one competitor each. They were Bill Noblitt (#644, GTS3), Ed Mineau (#221, PTC), Todd Green (#58, PTE), and Otto Silva (#21, 944 Spec). I would say they need more in class competitors, but they’ve taken to making the drivers in the bigger classes really work on the track.
Saturday’s and Sunday’s Thunder races could not have been more different. Just look at it! Saturday’s affair was rain soaked, while Sunday’s could not have had more perfect weather.
The weather didn’t matter to John Scarlett, he took wins in GTSU on both days. On Sunday he had the TW Racing Audi R8 LMS breathing down his neck, his margin of victory was a mere .144 seconds. That wouldn’t be really surprising, that R8 LMS is a fast car, but it is insane considering that Derek Wolthoff started the race from the back of the grid!
ST3 was a classic Chevy vs. Ford battle. On Saturday the Mustangs dominated the podium, with Gary Free in the Towne Storage FR500S standing on the top spot and Madison Milgard in second in one of the brand new Ford Performance Racing School BOSS 302 FRS Mustangs. Sunday was all about the bowtie, with Travis Tidball in his C5 Corvette taking top honors and Joe Bogie in second in his fifth generation Camaro.
Super Unlimited was won on Saturday by Joe Sim in the Turbo Lab NSX, which as a Honda fanboi at heart, was awesome to see. On Sunday Byron Smith put his BMW on top of the podium.
Mike Mielke in the super truck that can, did win ST2 on both days of the weekend. Should the Silver Streak be detuned so it can compete in a more populous field? Should it be tuned UP to compete in ST1? Personally, I like it where it is. So long as it remains on track.
On Sunday we had Dan Worley in his Tatum Racing prepped LSx powered Porsche 944 competing in ST1, and Chris Vivolo was out and about in the #66 Porsche 911 in GTS5. Both were the lone competitors in their classes, and both were Porsches.
And that’s all she wrote. The next race weekend is fast approaching, the 16th and 17th of this month in fact. The racers will be hustling around the East course, which features Miller Motorsports Park’s signature turn and the most dramatic elevation changes on the entire track. Come, join us, there might be cookies, and there will definitely be some great racing.
No time for pleasantries, let’s get right to it! The day opened up with the second Touring Car class race of the weekend, and while nobody attempted to climb over anybody else there was still some close racing.
Nathan Stacy came into the Black Rock hairpin too hot in the #14 TSG/Ford Racing Motorsports Development Group Ford Fiesta, opening the door for Brian Price to drive the #51 Unlimited Racing/RP Performance Honda Fit right on through. Unfortunately their battle was for third place, Johan Schwartz used the Schwartz to put his Garrett Racing/Drive4Diabetes Honda fit on top of the podium, with Andrei Kisel in the #57 Racing.ca/LaptopScreen.com Mini Cooper taking home second place. Despite his third place finish, Brian Price took home the Driver’s Championship for the B Spec Class!
TCA was an in house battle, with Jason Wolfe and Nik Jonsson battling for the class win. Jason Wolfe in the #36 Wolfe Trucking/Kinetic Motorsports Kia Forte Koup squeaked out a first place finish over Nik Jonsson in the #38 Kinetic Motorsports Kia Forte Koup. The margin of victory was .003 seconds! Rounding out the podium was Jason Cherry in the Autism Society of America/Avpro Jets/Purposeful Architecture Shea Racing Mazda MX-5 Miata. Jason Wolfe’s narrowest of narrow victories cemented his Driver’s Championship.
Touring Car wasn’t nearly as hotly contested as TCA and B Spec was, but that’s not to say it was completely devoid of action. Steven Doherty in the #94 Skullcandy/Nissan/GT Academy Altima Coupe fired off a 1:38.411 lap on his way to victory, which was better than the existing track record! No slouch himself, Michael Pettiford in the #41 Go4It Racing Schools/ Hawk Brakes Pontiac Solstice turned a 1:38.693 lap; however, he could not overcome the lead Doherty had. Fred Emich, #30 Emich Racing/Emich Volkswagen Jetta GLI had the same problem of an insurmountable lead, but he still parked the Jetta on the podium. The 4th place finisher would end up taking home the Driver’s Championship: Michael DiMeo in the #71 Grand Alarms/Compass 360 Racing/Children’s Tumor Foundation Honda Civic Si.
The Touring Car classes in World Challenge didn’t garner as large of crowds as the GT classes did, and that’s a bit of a shame in my opinion. Sure the cars aren’t as fast or as flashy, but the racing is just as good, and just as competitive as it is in the senior circuit. If you ever get the chance: find a good seat, settle in and watch the entire field go nose to tail and try to get around each other.
Next on the docket was the Miller GT Challenge group. The twenty car field consisted of eight of your favorite locals in the title class, nine United States Touring Car Championship drivers, and three USTCC GT drivers. In the UTSCC field it was a battle of BMWs, with Jason Alexandridis in the #22 Perfromance Technic M3 beating out another M3, this being the #12 of Beau Borders, for the class win.
In the GT field it was two manufacturers vying for the win. Unfortunately the #34 GoGoGear.com BMW of Larry Bani retired, relegating him to third place. Finishing ahead of him was the #16 Red Star Racing BMW of Daniel Akhromstev. Sitting atop the heap was the #98 Honda S2000 of Andrie Hartanta.
And finally in Miller GT we saw a three way battle for first place. Derek Wolthoff in the #08 Makes And Models/TW Racing Audi R8 LMS battled Cindi Lux in the #5 Lux Performance Dodge Viper SRT and Cole Powelson in the #23 AMS Performance/OS Giken/RaceCo Nissan GTR. The battle raged for twenty-five laps, but nearing the end of the race a piece of the GTR’s under tray came loose and caused them to fall off the pace. Cindi and Derrick continued the fight, but by the time the checkered flag came down it was Derrick who was in front by 4.7 seconds.
On a side note: Cole Powelson has been a friend of the site’s for many years. Today he announced that he would be leaving his position at RaceCo to create a new opportunity for himself in motorsports. All of us here wish him the best of luck going forward, and we can’t wait to see what he ends up doing.
On to the Pirelli World Challenge GT/GTA/GTS race, where championships were on the line! Well, at least in GTA and GTS, the latter of which is where we begin. Lawson Aschenbach in the #1 Blackdog Speed Shop Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 needed to hold off Jack Baldwin and Mark Wilkins to claim his Driver’s title. Fortunately for Lawson, and unfortunately for Mark, the prior race’s incident between the Kias left Mark looking up from third place in the standings, and 17th in the race. Drew Regitz, #02 TRG-AMR Aston Martin GT4, battled with Lawson all race long, but Lawson pulled eeked out a .461 second lead by the drop of the checkered. Jack Baldwin, in the #73 RESET-MD/GTSport Racing Porsche Cayman S took the class win by nearly a second over Lawson, but the win was not enough for Jack to claim the Driver’s Championship from Lawson.
Less than 100 points separated the contenders for the GTA Driver’s championship, and Michael Mills (#41 Effort Racing Porsche 911 GT3R) secured his championship with his hard fought third place finish in the race. Marcelo Hahn in the #0 Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo FL2 narrowly took second place in the race behind the #54 Black River Caviar/Black Swan Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Tim Pappas. It was Pappas who ran away from the field, and finished with a three second finish over Hahn.
The GT class featured a podium completely devoid of Driver’s Championship contenders. Andy Pilgrim, #8 Cadillac Racing CST-V.R, would finish fourth in the driver’s standings but his third place finish in the race secured Cadillac’s Manufacturer’s Title over Audi. The top of the podium was decided by less than 1/4 of a second. Robert Thorne in the #6 K-PAX Racing Mclaren MP4-12C GT3 traded blows with Ryan Dalziel in the #31 EFFORT Racing Porsche 911 GT3R, but managed to hold off the Porsche at the line.
The real battle to watch was further down the pack. The fight for positions 6-7-8 featured your top three Driver’s Championship contenders. Unfortunately, the incident at the beginning of the previous day’s race that left Skeen with a broken axle pretty much secured the title for Johnny O’Connell and his #3 Cadillac Racing CTS-V.R. Second place in the championship was still up for grabs, and Anthony Lazarro battled Mike Skeen tooth and nail for it. Unfortunately for Anthony and the crew of the #61 R.Ferri Motorsports Ferrari 458 GT3 Italia, Mike knew the score. His 23rd place finish the race before narrowed the gap between himself and Lazarro, so he had to outright beat him in the race or at the very least keep him close. The Hawk Performance Audi R8 LMS Ultra ran well, but not well enough to keep the Ferrari behind it. The 3.2 second gap, at first glance, would seem to vault Lazarro into second place; however, Skeen only finished two places behind him. The gap was not enough, and Mike Skeen maintained his second place.
Finally on the day was the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race. The Home Tracks series are the entry level series in the NASCAR system. Do well enough there, and the potential to move into the Camping World Truck Series arises. From there it’s Nationwide series, and finally the Sprint Cup. Could one of these drivers be the next rising star? Who knows, but your third place finisher is the series’s Rookie of the Year. James Bickford put the #6 Sunrise Ford/Eibach Sprint/Lucas Oil Ford on the podium and secured the ROTY honors. Second place belonged to Bickford’s teammate Dylan Lupton in the #9 Sunrise Ford/Eibach Sprint/Lucas Oil Ford. Taking home the win was David Mayhew in the #17 MMI Services/Ron’s Rear Ends Chevrolet. Two races are left in the season, and Lupton is withing striking distance of Driver’s Points leader Greg Pursley.
And so that ends our weekend at the Grand Prix. It was quite the two days. Below are galleries with far more photos in them, neatly divided up into their respective series. We hope to see you again at next year’s Utah Grand Prix, or at the very least on the 27th of September for NASA Utah Round 6.
When Miller Motorsports Park released their 2014 schedule many, many months ago, I saw the Utah Grand Prix in September. You remember Trent went to it years ago and got some very cool shots. Well, now was my turn. So I put in my application for credentials a few months in advance… And was told by John Gardener, the Marketing Communications Manager at Miller Motorsports Park, that I needed to resubmit them when the event was about a month out and that I wouldn’t have any issues getting credentials. So I waited some more, resubmitted and was granted them! I was going to my first big boy event, where there would be very serious photographers and big name manufacturers. The scale of the event didn’t really hit me until the night before, when I felt like a very small fish in a very large pond.
I’m getting ahead of myself, and side tracked. First, let’s talk about exactly what the Utah Grand Prix is. This year there was NASCAR K&N West Series racing (which you’ll see in part two of this), Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy racing (All Porsche 911s, all of the time), Miller GT and United States Touring Car Championship (Your local favorites and the USTCC field running all at once), and finally Pirelli World Challenge Championship racing. AKA SCCA World Challenge, this is the other big sports car racing series in the US. This event was also a make up for the rained out opening round, and the season finale! Championships were on the line! And for those staring blankly at the screen, wondering what World Challenge is, here’s a break down:
GT/GTA/GTS
Ahh, Grand Touring. The Gentlemanly auto racers. Actually, it’s mostly sports cars of varying degrees. As we reported, World Challenge will let you run FIA GT3 spec cars in GT and GTA, which is why you see the Bentley Continental GT3 bearing down on the GTS class Kia Optima. GT and GTA is the home of the GT3 cars (Continental GT3, McLaren MP4-12C GT3, Ferrari 458 GT3 Italia, etc) along with Cadillac CTS-V.Rs, the Acura TLX GT (which was wrecked in the previous race and wasn’t repaired in time for this one), and in genreral cars that were too much for GTS (Alex Loyd’s Corvette and Louis-Phillip Montour’s Dodge Viper). GTS is home to more pedestrian entries, if you want to call them that. Mustang Boss 302S’s, Nissan 370Zs, Chevrolet Camaros, and Porsche Caymans represent the majority of the field. Also running in the class are the Kia Optimas and Aston Martin GT4s, with the Kias competing for the Manufacturer’s Title in class.
TC/TCA/TCB
TC is short for Touring Car, and if you’ve ever watched any of European Touring Car series then you know how wild the econo boxes can be! Sorry, sport “sedans”; although, as you can see the Skullcandy Altima is a coupe. That’s neither here nor there. TC and TCA is populated by small displacement rear wheel drive cars, like the Pontiac Solstice GXP Coupe and the venerable Mazda MX-5 Miata, and front wheel drive cars like Civic Si’s, Altimas and Jetta GLIs. TCB is the land of the little B Spec cars, Honda Fits, Mini Coopers and Fiat 500s. Armed with this knowledge, lets get on with this story.
I had to be at the track early. Not pre-dawn early, but early for someone who is usually ready to face the day at the crack of noon. I arrived, got my wrist band and found a seat in the media center. I chatted with Michael Wells, and finally met Chance Hales. After the meeting, Chance, myself and Shawn Pierce, who shoots for NoBraking.com, piled in to my Subaru and made our way to some corners for the practice sessions of GT/A/S TC/A/B and Miller GT.
By lunch we made our way half way around the track. We formed a plan for the qualifying sessions and races, and made our way to the paddock. I dropped them at the Media Center and made my way to RaceCo to chat with Cole Powelson and Kyle Schick, and meet up with Derrick Wolthoff of Makes and Models and TW Racing. On the way I ran into George Smith, and asked him why he suddenly disappeared from the Miller GT session. The crank sensor in his Corvette failed, and it was an all hands on deck effort to replace it.
Eventually I made it to the Makes and Models garage just in time to tag along with Derrick to talk about getting some fuel from some people. Those people happened to be Audi Customer Support Racing, Global Motorsports Group and Mike Skeen who was #2 in GT Driver’s championship. While Derrick was conducting business, I wandered about the paddock and got some photos. I would’ve stayed for more photos, but the next session was coming up quick so I had to get my car and grab Chance and Shawn.
Not without getting a little sidetracked though. The Black Swan Racing SLS AMG GT3 is the most gorgeous car in the field, hands down. And the KPAX Racing McLaren MP4-12C GT3s have names: Reginald and Edward. Why they’re named that is beyond me, but it led me to thinking of names for the Cadillacs and the Bentleys. The Caddys are George and James, while the Bentleys are Lord Percival Umberbottom and Duke Albert Thistleton IV. I didn’t ask either team if they would consider naming or changing the names of their cars, but I think Cadillac would’ve been a bit more receptive to the idea.
Anyway, Chance and Shawn decided they wanted to skip the next session, and go grab some food. I agreed with this, and off we went.
After lunch we made our way to Witchcraft and The Attitudes for the Pirelli GT3 Cup race, which had a healthy amount of local Drivers in it who had quite a showing. David Donner, Alan and Desire Wilson, John Scarlett, Les Long and Darrell Troester all demonstrated what is meant by a home field advantage. We stayed in the attitudes for the World Challenge GT qualifier, before making our way down to turn one for the start of the TC race.
And what a start it was! In the opening lap Paul Holton in the #65 Shea Racing Honda Fit collided with, and almost drove over top of, the #58 Racing.ca Mini Cooper of Glenn Nixon. Somehow Holton’s Fit was able to continue with the race. The same could not be said for Nixon’s Mini. Both drivers received Driver Conduct penalties, $1000 fines and lost 20 points each. Holton finished 9th in class, and 22nd overall while Brian Price in the #51 Unlimited Racing/RP Performance Honda Fit finished first in TCB. Adam Poland in the Eastex Motorsports MX-5 Miata took the TC class win, and Nic Jonsson took the TCA win in Russell Smith’s #38 Kinetic Motorsports Kia Forte Koup. After the track was cleaned up, it was time for the GT race.
Before I tell you about the race itself, I need to tell you something we were told in the media meeting. We were told we couldn’t be on the pit wall for the beginning of the GT race. Why? World Challenge does a standing start, like Formula 1 does. Most of the time, this isn’t an issue but lately drivers stalling on the start has been a problem. When a driver stalls, and is in the middle or front of the grid, everyone behind him has to take evasive maneuvers. Sometimes these maneuvers result in collisions, which can send pieces of the cars flying. So for our safety, we weren’t allowed on the pit wall for the start of the race.
This was a good thing, because guess what happened. The GTS Kias got into each other, and Mike Skeen broke an axle in his Audi R8 LMS Ultra. Mike made it off track under his own power, but the Kias had to be towed off. This immediately brought out the yellow flag and the safety car. Since this was a timed race, some of the other photographers began getting worried/annoyed, which led me to cracking off a one liner. It was not well received. Anyway, the Kias were finally removed, and the green flag flew again.
After watching the calamity of turn one iron itself out (everyone is trying to get around everyone else. Remember the incident between the Fit and the Mini?), we made our way over to the Clubhouse to grab some photos of the final three turns, where more calamity ensued.
An incident occurred as soon as we got to Clubhouse turn. The #6 KPAX Racing McLaren MP4-12C of Robert Thorne got into the back of the #96 Capaldi Racing/Dat Dog Ford Mustang Boss 302S of Brad Adams, causing both cars to spin out right in front of the massive and massively fast Dyson Racing Bentley Continental GT3s and Cadillac Racing CTS-V.Rs. Thankfully nobody else was involved in the spin.
With Mike Skeen’s race over before it began the battle for the podium came down to two iconic luxury marques: Bentley and Cadillac. Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim battled the Bentleys of Guy Smith and Butch Leitzinger for two of the top three spots. When the dust settled, Guy Smith was atop the podium. His Continental beat out O’Connell’s CTS-V.R by 3.47 seconds for the top spot. It was very nearly a 1-2 finish for the Brits, but Johnny held Leitzinger off by less than 1/10 of a second!
Michael Mills in the #41 Effort Racing Porsche 911 GT3R took the GTA class win, and without the class leading Kias in his way or Driver’s Championship leader Lawson Aschenbach’s Black Dog Speed Shop Camaro ZL1 to worry about Nick Esayian cruised to victory in GTS in his TRG-AMR North America Natural Cures Aston Martin GT4.
And that wraps up the first of two days I spent at the Utah Grand Prix. Stay tuned for Day 2, which held the Pirelli World Challenge final races, the Miller GT race, and the NASCAR K&N West Series race! Below are a few galleries, neatly organized by series.
