Thanks for joining us on this episode! Most of the other panelists couldn’t make it, so Mike and Gavin are joined by CAM super fan Brandon Kuhn, local drifting royalty (?) Nick Stucky, and wildcard Julian Whitterton. This motley crew tackle some serious news topics
A British tourist managed to rack up $47,000 in fines in 4 hours of driving in Dubai
A lot of cars missed being IIHS Top Safety picks because of their headlights
Lawrence Stroll, and several other rich people, have saved Force India!
Elon Musk might take Tesla private
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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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Welcome back! We’re glad you’re here, cause it’s just not the same without you. Mike and Dave welcome a sharped dressed Gavin and a regularly dressed Trent to chop it up about some news and such:
More mid engine Corvette rumors!
Porsche will have some retro liveried 911’s in Le Mans
BREMBO has a weird press release
Matt LeBlanc is leaving Top Gear!
A 250 GTO goes for $70million
No new Viper, but an 8C is happening?
Our buddy Alex Prasop is in the running for Tuner Battleground at StanceCon (where we’ll be on Sunday), and he needs your vote! GO VOTE FOR HIM!
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.
Find us on social media, subscribe to the CAMcast podcast, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!
As I talked about in the Cars N Copters coverage post, more happened to make it an interesting trip. This is that story.
Being that I wanted to have a fun car after flying into Long Beach, I wanted to get something that will fit in with all the PCH Bentley’s and Ferrari’s, but on a Buick budget. That led to a Polaris Slingshot on Turo. The price was right, and despite not being too fast, the fun factor is high. I had fun…for 3 hours…
Tommy picked me up from the airport at 8am, I went and picked up the Slingshot before we headed over to Lamborghini Newport Beach for their get together. We saw some great vehicles and headed out. Wanting to get one last look, we drove by the show again and were greeted by a Costa Mesa motorcycle police vehicle with it’s lights flashing.
Pulling into a parking lot, the police officer took my license and the supplemental insurance provided through Turo. He came back shortly after to tell me how wrong I am for not having a helmet in a motorcycle(which the Slingshot technically is), how the vehicle isn’t registered, there’s no insurance according to the DMV, and that he would be impounding the vehicle and assessing over $1000 in fines!
Obviously not how my trip was intended, especially since I was really looking forward to my time behind the wheel of this thing, I was smiling ear-to-ear up until that point. All my research beforehand said not to worry about a helmet because the Slingshot has seat belts and a roll bar.
Fortunately, the officer assessed the fines to owner of the vehicle, and not me, because my cheap Turo rental would have gone quite over budget. Finally getting ahold of the owner as his Slingshot was being loaded onto a flatbed, he was very nonchalant. He apologized profusely and mentioned the only vehicle he had available to rent to me was a C7 Corvette Convertible…with an automatic…
I was hesitant and thought long and hard about just getting my money back and riding in Tommy’s Honda Element over the weekend. Then I relented and met up with him to get the keys to the Corvette. I am glad that I did.
This Corvette had 27,000 miles of rental use, and Corvette’s aren’t known for high quality interiors. The C7 tried to change this reputation, and if this made me nod in agreement. No squeaks, no rattles, just pure speed! I’ve driven a C6 Z06 on several occasions, this felt faster! This was just a C7 Stingray, with an 8-Speed auto. Surely it can’t be this good. After about 400 miles in canyons, the PCH, and multiple people asking about the car and asking for pictures, I am a believer. I’m happy about my misfortune despite really wanting more time with the Slingshot. And now I can say I have had a car impounded.
Trent
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Write-up coming… Eventually? In the meantime, here are the photos from Sunday. Enjoy the gallery, buy stuff so I can keep coming out and covering the races (also so I can replace the pants I ripped hopping fences this last round), and stay tuned for the write-up.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the CAMcast! This week we have the entire crew in for some of the episode, but we still bring some news, opinions, and an unhinged rant or two. We talk everything from the Rolex 24 at Daytona to how we’d change and enforce emissions standards. It’s quite the episode.
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.
THUNDER
German Touring Series Unlimited
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.
Super Touring 1
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!
Super Touring 2
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.
Super Touring 3
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
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
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMautoMag.Com and their respective owners.
There were fifteen entries in Spec Z on Saturday. 15! The other Lightning group classes, combined, had eighteen cars. It’s safe to say that we’re drowning in Spec Z’s. Anyway, on to the coverage! And let’s begin in Spec Z, where Arthur Golebiowski was fighting off four other drivers for the top spot in the championship. None of the four drivers, nor Arthur, took the win. It was James Burke who won the day. Yes, James Burke and that delightful accent of his took P1 in class and overall in the group. Yeah, I called his accent delightful. Have you heard him speak? Best accent on the grid!
In the next largest spec class, Spec Miata, Bond, Chris Bond took home another gold medal. He’s still holding to the top spot in class, but Matt Williamson is still hot on his heels.
And in the loneliest spec class, Spec Boxster, Mark Boschert turned some solid laps.
We got some 944 Spec action! Samuel Kapp held off Otto Silva and took home the win in the all Porsche class.
Nathan Rohner took home another win in PTBrrappp. Seriously, this thing was shooting fire going into turn 1. Someone join him!
Todd Green, in the mighty Paul Mitchell, ran away from Randy Cummings in PTE. Here we see Todd next to Dave Dingman, 4th in Spec Miata, going into turn 1. Todd, or at least Paul Mitchell, took home the win in TTE as well.
Jeff and Blake had a new running mate in GTS3! It was Bob Boileau, in a BMW Z4! Good job Bob, solid work.
I don’t know why, but I have this weird urge to insert an H into Tom Rogers’s name. Call him Thom. Don’t know why. Anyway, Thom and his BMW took the win in GTS2, a square 26.159 seconds ahead of Chris Haunold and his Porsche.
Somebody buy a BRZ and challenge Trever Pope. He’s alone in TTD, and could use a friend.
Darin Beaudoin and his dirty, drifty Miata grabbed the TTB win. If anyone is getting sick of me calling S2000’s Miatas, I have bad news for you: I’m not stopping. AND NEITHER IS DARIN!!!! MAUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
James Pasquier piloted the Porsche of my dreams to a win in TT3 over some BRZ’s, and a friendly guy in a Subaru. Seriously James, I want your 911 or a reasonable facsimile!
Alex Whetman and the Focus of Doom, which I did not strap a camera to, came out of wherever it is they hide and took the TT2 victory of Shawn Murphy, his new flares, and his weird desire to go off-roading. We’ll hunt down the elusive Alex and stick a camera on the Focus at Round 4! Or whenever.
Jordan Priestly was out and about in the 2016 Camaro development mule. He then decided to DQ that car, and jump in Michael Eifling’s Corvette. And in doing so winning TT1.
We finally come to TTU, which was a bit different than usual. As you can see, this isn’t Wade Hall’s Mustang, nor is it the Makes & Models Super Trofeo Huracan. This is, however, Brendon Stewart, and it is a Makes & Models car. It also was the fastest TTU car of the day.
Speaking of 996 Porsche 911’s: Darrell Troester collected a GTS4 win with his 996 Cup Car!
In ST3, and *just* in front of whatever CA Sport car was coming out of Release, was Frank Gannett. He brought home another win in the black Ford Performance Racing School Mustang.
JR Smith piloted him E36 BMW to a solid ST2 drive, which got him a gold medal.
George Smith ran his Corvette in ST1 trim, which meant he was down on power. Normally this wouldn’t be much of a problem, except ST1 had a five car field. And Bob did some more aero modifications to the Snickers car (that’s a story in and of itself). Despite all of that, George took home the win!
Les Long broke out his 997 Cup car, which I’ve heard rumors about. Rumors that make me want to know more about the car. Anyway, Les and the pirate Porsche took home the SU class win.
Mckay Snow, and his determined look, claimed a GTSU victory. Frankly, it would’ve been more surprising if he didn’t win. The big story in GTSU is the lack of the Makes & Models Huracan ST. Unfortunately, the Huracan met the wall during an earlier practice session. Things were broken, but Derek was ok. The car? Well, that’s TBD. When I saw it, it didn’t look so bad. Then again, I grossly underestimate how bad things look to repair.
And that’s that. Another NASA Utah weekend in the books. Join us for the next race weekend, June 10-12. They’ll be on the West track, where things can get interesting.
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMautoMag.Com and their respective owners.
Oliver Gavin in the #4 C7.R nosed ahead of the #3 C7.R driven by Antonio Garcia by .034 seconds to take the GTLM win at the Rolex 24! We don’t have a photo of either of them, but here’s George Smith in his equally yellow C5. Like Oli and Antonio, George has won his fare share of races and championships.
Words by Michael Chandler. Photos by Michael Chandler and Michael Wells
The unusually wet spring Utah has been experiencing has meant that there were two consecutive rain soaked round of the NASA Utah season for the first time in… Well, ever. Mercifully the rain wasn’t as heavy as the second round, and it had let up by Sunday. So without further ado, let’s get to the winners!
In Spec Miata, David Sherman led the suddenly surging Spec Miata field to a win on Saturday, and Daniel Williams kept fighting the good fight and took advantage of the sunny Sunday weather to win on Sunday. Will he sell on Monday? Your guess is as good as mine, but I doubt he’ll be letting go of his silver NB.
Spec Z on Saturday was wild. Tom Kaminski was chasing the eventual class leader Arthur Golebiowski like a man possessed. He was coming around Clubhouse Turn at full opposite lock, which probably didn’t help close the gap but it looked very cool. Meanwhile, Kyle Schick (6th in class) had another scary moment in Clubhouse. He spun out, but managed to slide off the racing line.
As mentioned earlier, Arthur Golebiowski took the win on Saturday and the #98 of Team Askew Motorsports ran a tight race and took home their first win of the season on Sunday!
Bill Noblitt battled Gus Stribakos in GTS3, and took the win in his mid-engined Porsche on both days. Say what you will about the Boxster, but that car in the right hands can do some pretty awesome things.
Paul Mitchell, guided by the steady hand of Todd Green, navigated the rain and took the win in PTE on Saturday. Paul wasn’t done for the weekend, but he was done in PTE. GTS2 had a competitor on Sunday: the Team CA Sport BMW 3 Series. We need more lots of things out on track, and E36s are one of them.
While we’re all familiar with Todd Ainsworth’s new ST3 E36 M3, we’re not familiar with the red E36 M3 pictured above (but below Todd’s). Turns out the red car is driven by one of our favorite Corvette drivers: George Smith. Where is the Vette? Beats me, I didn’t see much of George so I couldn’t ask him but it spent the weekend running around in ST2. There it ran into something the engineers who created the M3 never imagined it would be competing against: a pickup truck.
Mike Mielke can wheel in that truck! Hopefully this season we’ll see some epic, and frankly strange, battles between the super truck and George’s new M3. Because who hasn’t wanted to see that?
Travis Tidball got himself a wing to go along with his fancy new (for this season) bodywork! He also got himself a pair of wins out of the weekend. The car was back on the dyno at JDP Motorsports to verify its power-to-weight ratio after some questions were raised during the weekend. The results? The car is ST3 legal. The C5 Corvette: ruining people’s race weekends since 2001!
A big surprise was seeing Brent Holden running in with the NASA Utah guys and gals instead of with the Pirelli World Challenge crew up in Canada. No matter, he had an impressive showing in his Global Motorsports Group Audi R8 LMS Ultra and took wins in the Super Unlimited class on both days.
On Sunday he battled the TW Racing R8 LMS, and you know what? The older LMS got around the Ultra! It was an amazing battle to watch! However, an untimely penalty forced the TW Racing R8 into the pits to serve out its penalty and cut the fight short. How did the GTSU class R8 fare in it’s class?
Not well, unfortunately. The 911 GT3 Cup cars of Alan Wilson and Les Long took the wins on Saturday and Sunday respectively. The Air Power Racing prepped Porsche of Les Long is currently tied for first in the season’s points race with the TW Racing Audi. How will this back and forth battle play out? Hopefully we’ll see more tight battles between the two as the season plays out.
More Porsches battled in GTS5. On Saturday David Lockwood notched another win for the Air Power Racing camp, while Darrell Troester picked up a win for himself and Tatum Racing on Sunday.
Have I told you that I really like the E90 3 series? Because I like the E90s, especially in race trim. Conveniently, Byron Smith drives a race prepped E90 AND he won the GTS4 class. That confluence of events allowed me to express my opinion on the E90. Moving on…
TT1 is being dominated by Subarus. On Saturday, Shawn Murphy in the Lyfe Motorsports STi took the win over Ziptie Dynowerks STi of Greg Valdez by less than a second. On Sunday the roles were reversed and Greg beat out Shawn, but the margin of victory was smaller: only .33 seconds separated the two!
TT2 is ruled by the iron fist of Robert Rathbone, and his authority is enforced by his 911 GT3. All those who oppose him will be laid to WASTE!!! Well, not really… at all. He is currently running away with the TT2 championship.
Alex Whetman is a bad, bad man in a bad, bad Focus. He took TT3 on both days, earning his 4th and 5th wins on the season. He also had the fastest TT times of the weekend. Not just TT3, ALL of TT. By the way, buy the shirt.
In the sea of FRS’s and BRZs, what rises to the top? A Honda S2000. Dave Wann took TTB on both days, and is right in the thick of things in the class. We don’t have a shirt to promote here, or anything really.
Paul Mitchell ladies and gentlemen! The intrepid Miata won TTE on the weekend, but that’s not the story here.
Jeb Brown and Ben Lamberson are continuing their battle from last season, with Jeb currently leading Ben by a mere 70 points. Was this little update necessary? Eh, probably not. But would you look at that picture!
Fresh off their win at Global Time Attack, Lyfe Motorsports brought out their R35 GTR on Sunday AND!… Did not post a time during a TT session. They did post the fastest time of the day (1.31.803!) during the Thunder group practice that morning. The TW Racing R8 LMS did post times during TT sessions. Did it on both days. It’s fastest time in the class was a 1:40.763, but that wasn’t the fastest lap it did over the weekend. In the Sunday Thunder Group race, they posted a 1:33.825!
McKay Snow was out again in the Patron Elan DP02, racing in Super Formula. He took both races in commanding fashion.
Formula saw Troy Duffin take the first race of the day with young Bruno Carneiro in second. In the second race, they swapped podium places: Bruno won, and Terry took second. At the end of the day, the young Brazilian clings to a twenty-five point lead in the class.
And there you have it. If you’re doing rain dances, stop it! Round 4 is also on the East Course, and the Lucas Oil Offroad series will be dropping by the off road course at MMP as well. Come out, bring an umbrella (and possibly a winter coat. You won’t be laughing when it snows three and a half feet!), and take in a full weekend of all sorts of racing!
