Time to Head Into The Sunset
Solid work today everybody. Let’s do it again tomorrow!
08th Mar2016
0 Comm
24th Oct2014
Tresduro: NASA Utah’s 2014 Season Finale
Words and photos by Michael Chandler
Every year for… many years NASA Utah, and MPRA before them, have thrown an endurance race to close out the season. Normally it’s the standard X amount of hours in a row, on a track that has the corners in the same places as the lap before. This year things would be different. Very different. Not mind blowingly, life alteringly different, but still different. There would still be an endurance race, but not all in a row. It would run on the Outer Loop… and the East Course… and the West Course.
That’s right baby! Dynamic track! Basically here’s how it would shake out: All the HPDE groups and TT would run on the Outer Loop only, while the race group and the open wheel guys would jump between all three configurations. If you remember the Pirelli World Challenge races from a couple of months ago, then this track switching concept isn’t so foreign. They ran the World Challenge GT races on the Outer Loop, Spec B and Miller GT Challenge on the West Course and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West guys got the East Course. What was foreign, and I can’t stress this enough, was having the same group of competitors running three different track configurations on the same day for the same race! Well, technically it wasn’t all the same race, but the drivers’ times in each race would be combined and whoever had the best time would be the class winner. Speaking of which, let’s stop talking about the track thing and talk about racing!
The Open Wheel guys were in the same boat as the Race Group: three different tracks, three races, one time to decide a winner. In Formula Troy Duffin and Steven Costello continued their season long battle, but at the end of the long day there had to be a winner. And that winner was Troy, who completed 34 laps in the allotted time compared to Steven’s 33. In Super Formula it was the the #11 Rodizio Grill sponsored car of Terry Biner running away with the class win, leaving Steve Burns and John LaBrie to duke it out for second. In what can only be described as driving feats never seen since the days of Juan Manuel Fangio*, Steve Burns defeated John LaBrie!
*Not really true at all, but both John and Steve had really good drives in their races
It was time for the TT competitors to take to the track after the Open Wheel drivers vacated it. Their four sessions held weight because, while the season points chases were over for everyone else, this was a points event for the TT drivers. While some people had wrapped up their season titles (more on that in another post), some people were still fighting tooth and nail for theirs. People like Shay Campbell and James Pasquier, who pitted their Porsche 911s against some ST3 competitors and a healthy chunk of the Spec Z field. Despite finishing in 14th, five spots behind James and scoring 5 points less than him, Shay locked up his TT3 points title! Meanwhile, at the front of the TT3 crowd, Travis Tidball took the win.
In TT1 the guys of TW Racing put their Audi R8 LMS atop the podium, and solidified their championship. However second place in the class was up for debate. If you remember, Shawn Murphy ventilated the engine block in his WRX STi which sidelined it for the remainder of the season and seemingly opened the door for Smith-Burke Racing to leapfrog one of our favorite Wyomingans… Wyomingites? Whatever, Shawn needed to hold off the C5 Corvette, so he did what any enterprising man with a willing girlfriend would do: he used her car for the last two events. He didn’t win, but he scored JUST enough points to hold off the Data Motorsports backed Corvette to stay in second place.
In TTE Ben Lamberson put used all 127 horsepower his Audi could muster to beat Steve Larsen, and cement his title. TTU was missing it’s most notable competitor: the Lyfe Motorsports/Wild Schick Racing R35 GTR was in California doing some testing, which left the class wide open for Rhett Panter to win. TT2 was won by David Bradshaw, and Josh Bennett took home the win in TTB.
And we finally arrive at the Race Group, the other group that would take on the perils of driving three different tracks over the course of one race day. It also had some interesting driver line-ups, including George Smith piloting a Miata with Les Long, Derek Wolthoff driving Brendon Stewart’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and… Well, there’s no easy way to say this…
PPPAAAAAAAUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLL MMMMIIIITTCCCCCCHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which was driven by Matt Guiver, Todd Ainsworth, Alex Whetman and Todd Green. That mighty team could only muster a third place finish in E3, behind Allan Anderson (who slid around Wind Up, but it’s cool because he has a Corolla so he knows what he’s doing) and David Sherman.
In E0 we saw No Whammies (Travis Tidball) hit big money and stop atop the podium, ahead of Travis Williams in the #22 Discount Tire FR500S Mustang and Good Guy Gus Stribakos in the 888 Porsche.
In a class by himself, literally, was the Idaho Mountain Touring Porsche 911 in E1. Let’s take a moment to appreciate how pretty it is. Ahhhhhhhh.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
ES. The Big boys. You know the Names: TW Racing, Big Bob Evans, Dandy Dan Worley, Steve “Mister” Burns and “Mister En Fuego” Brendon Stweart. They were all fighting for the victory. The gritty field went wheel to wheel and door to door all day! Except when Brendon broke a suspension component. That sidelined him. And Bob blew a tire in the last race of the day, so his day ended early too… But when they were running, they were threatening to take away podium finishes from other drivers! In the end it came down to two teams: the TW Racing crew had adjusted their R8 LMS so Allen Turner could fully exploit it’s advantages, while Tatum Racing had the LSx powered Porsche 944 tuned to peak efficiency for Dan Worley. Who would emerge victorious?
In the end the Audi proved too much for the Porsche, and TW Racing took home the class and overall victory.
In the end, we all took home a victory. Over the course of the season we saw drivers snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and overcome devastating events. We saw camaraderie and good natured competitiveness, and most importantly: everyone at the end of the day could walk away uninjured.
And so ends the NASA season. On behalf of me and the staff here at CAMautoMag, I would like to say thank you to Matt Guiver, Dave Kizerian and Dan McKeever for the awesome season, the track workers for the thankless and tireless jobs they do to make the racing happen, and especially to the drivers. Everyone from the HPDE 1 drivers, all the way up to the Super Unlimited class drivers and everyone in between. We do this because we have the same passion as you guys, and since we can’t get out there and drive with you guys (yet!) the next best thing is to come out shoot some photos and say some nice words about what you’re doing out there.
We’ll be at the Awards Banquet on November 22, where we’re looking forward to seeing everyone! We will also have things for you to purchase if you so choose.
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMAutoMag.Com and their respective owners.
31st Mar2014
NASA Utah 2014 Round 1: Thunder and Lightning
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
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMAutoMag.Com and their respective owners.
25th Nov2013
NASA Utah Round 7 Enduro
The NASA Utah season ended with one final race, and for those who stuck around got their money’s worth. A series of endurance races were run, concurrently, with one ending two hours in, another at four hours and the final big daddy race ending after a staggering SIX hours! Once again Travis Williams, Jason Smith and Todd Ainsworth entered the six hour race; however, Todd joined up with NASA Utah director Matt Guiver and Spec Miata hot shoe Todd Green in a Miata, while Jason and Travis grabbed Alex Honing to pilot the #22 Discount Tire/Innovative Garage/Asea/CAMautoMag FR500S. This is a story about these two teams… For the most part.
They were by no means the only warriors out on the track that day, nor were they the only ones competing in the six hour race. However the field was small. Almost criminally small. At the end of the six hours only five cars crossed the line. After two hours Bob Evans had burned enough gas to make his weekend worth while, after four hours the #25 VP Racing Fuels Mustang took top honors. The final two hours left the #503 Towne Storage/RaceCo FR500s, the #22 Discount Tire/Innovative Garage/Asea/CAMautoMag FR500S, the #58 Miata of team Green/Guiver/Ainsworth, the #13 Miata (which was driven by a lone madman!) and the #54 BMW 3 Series.
The lack of partners made dancing hard, but endurance races are not won with heroics on the track. They are won and lost in the pit stall!
This is where we join the #22. Travis took the first stint, and did well. He didn’t wrap his exhaust around an axle, nor did the clutch mysteriously die. It was a solid effort. Travis came out (with the hope of OP Anderson) and Alex hopped in. While he was adjusting the Mustang to him and vice-versa, the crew was hard at work fueling the car. All went smoothly. The car took all the fuel it could and Alex took off without incident.
With the car away and everyone in the garage it was time for Travis to relay information to Jason. Quick aside, I had been snapping photos of Travis from the moment Alex pulled away. Problem was Travis wasn’t wearing his hat. I’m fairly confident he would’ve been hatless for a bit longer if he didn’t notice my large self (clad in a bright orange vest mind you) going nuts with my camera. Anyway, I had forced Travis into a hat and Jason was explaining something with his hands when the team received some troubling news…
During the stop, while the car was drinking in its necessary fluid, some of the fuel had spilled. This was a problem and required some sort of punishment.
And so it came to pass that Alex would come in to top off and then sit in the penalty box for five minutes. It was EXCRUCIATING. It was only five minutes, 1.3% of the race, but it was five minutes of NOTHING. Five minutes of hearing your fellow competitors lap you. Three hundred seconds of scheming on how you’re going to make up the lost laps. And then they send you off.
And away he went. While the #22 was dealing with penalties and a herd of Jasons, the #58 was dealing with a slight issue of their own…
I went over to their garage to see what was keeping them off the track. I wandered in, said hi to Matt and Todd and watched as they (along with Todd Green and Alex Whetman) tore at the motor. I became curious, and began inching towards the open engine bay.
The valve cover was off, I could see that much. Beyond that I couldn’t tell what they were after. I asked Matt, who after saying hi to me and asking how I was (he’s such a courteous fella!) told me that THEY BROKE A CAMSHAFT.
Not sure how they did it, or where they got the spare bump stick from, but they broke one and managed to replace it. They then stuffed Todd into the car so he could go forth and conquer! Wait, no not conquer… Well, he went out and raced and by god did he race!
They didn’t win their class FYI, but you try telling them they didn’t put on one helluva show!
Back in the #22 things were race-y as well. Alex put the moves on the lone BMW going into turn one and held the position. Passes are great, as are hot laps, but unfortunately they eat tires and fuel. So after draining the fuel cell as much as he could, Alex came in for tires, fuel and a driver change.
The car was brought into the garage for servicing so more things could be done at once. Both right side tires were swapped for fresh (ish) rubber as the car was being fueled. Alex climbed out, relayed information to Jason, then got out of the way.
Jason hopped in and zoned out. While there was a flurry of activity around the car he remained in a state of calm. After the car received its last drops of fuel Jason fired it up, back it out of the garage and headed for the track itself. Soon after his departure the team was hit with ANOTHER five minute penalty. As per the rules of the class they could only add ten gallons of fuel to the car per stop. They added more than that. Jason was told to come in and sit in the penalty box…
Back on the track it was becoming obvious to everyone that the race was winding down. At this point all everyone wanted to do was bring their cars home in one piece and celebrate a race well run and an amazing year of racing. But there was still some time on the clock…
The drivers hustled around the outer loop in the fading light for a little while longer, which led to dramatic pictures for myself.
And then the checkered flag dropped
Much to the dismay of some…
The drivers made their ways back to the pits, where congratulations were shared, hugs were given and team photos were taken.
Some worked out…
…while others worked it!
Winners were declared, and awards and prizes were given out. Hands were shaken and we all agreed that we would come back and try to do this again next season.
And so ends the NASA Utah season. Well, there was a banquet but we didn’t go, but that’s beside the point. It was an amazing year for everyone involved. A lot of new people came out and got involved, and tragically we had to say goodbye to someone who wanted to keep pushing forward. We look forward to the 2014 season with optimism, knowing that those who organize and run the events want the same things we do: more people participating in racing in a safe manner and good times doing what we love doing.
We here at CAM would like to thank all of those who have raced, organized, and helped out the racers and organizers and us this season. In no particular order, we say thanks to:
- Roger Miller and Matt Guiver
- Cole, Pete, Trent and everyone at RaceCo
- Jason and Tyler at Innovative Garage
- George, Ryan, Dave, TJ and Jonny at Ziptie Dynowerks
- Greg Valdez
- Shawn Murphy
- Kyle Schick
- Michael Wells
- Brendon Stewart
- Todd Green and the rest of the Spec Miata racers
- Sally McNulty
- George Smith
- The staff of Miller Motorsports Park
- All of the NASA Utah staff
- Anyone who came out this season to support their friends and loved ones as they raced or went through the HPDE program
- You, the readers
- The racers, because without you we’d be standing around a ribbon of tarmac in the middle of cattle country.
We will be back next year for the 2014 NASA Utah season, we hope you join us and we especially hope to see you at the track!
Words and photos by Michael Chandler
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMAutoMag.Com and their respective owners.
16th Oct2013
NASA Utah Round 6
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.
16th Sep2013
NASA National Championships
NASA racers and support crew swarmed Miller Motorsports Park between the 4th and 8th of September for the NASA National Championships. Every class of NASA sanctioned racer were out there, along with your humble reporter/photographer. Well, the teams were there the whole time. I, unfortunately, only made it out on Friday the 6th, but I brought you pictures! And results!
Us Against One Clothing printed up some stickers for the locals to run if they chose to. The locals weren’t going to roll over and make it easy for the out of towners to win.
The American Iron (AI), American Iron Extreme (AIX) and Camaro Mustang Challenge (CMC) guys were taking advantage of the Full Course layout by doing what Camaros and Mustangs do best: go fast in a straight line. There were plenty of straights for them to wring their pony cars out. The AI and AIX classes were dominated by Mustangs that made the trip to Miller Motorsports Park from as far away as Ohio! But it wasn’t all Mustangs (well, the winners were all piloting Mustangs) or out of towners.
Gary Free in his RaceCo prepped, South Towne Storage sponsored FR500S took fourth in AIX, besting two other competitors. Corey Weber and Todd Davis brought out some classic American wheels to compete with. Weber took fourth in AI while Davis took tenth.
TTU, 1, and 2 were dominated by the home team. Kyle Schick ran a blistering 1:55 to take TTU, while Shawn Murphy and his full interior STi took TT1 with a 2:03. Smith-Burke Racing took TT2 by two tenths of a second! Their 2:01.039 was just barely quick enough for the title, while Greg Valdez missed out on the podium by four tenths. He still managed to out run a twin turbo 911 and a 911 GT3 by four and six seconds respectively.
George Smith took the fight to the STR-1 crowd and emerged with the title in the JDP Motorsports/Smith Marketing Services C5 Corvette. Corvettes appeared on the podium in ST2 (won by Smith-Burke Racing), ST3 and SU, with outright wins in ST2 and 3!
SU field was the most exotic. A pair of prototype-esqe cars, a pair of Thunder Roadsters, a Viper, a Honda S2000 and a Corvette all vied for the title, but when the checkered flag dropped the #7 Elan DP02 of Jon Van Canegham emerged victorious.
Also, the Brits were represented.
Spec Miata was arguably the most action packed field. Most of the packs were at least four cars deep, and dueling pairs of Miatas and lone Miatas were more the exception than the rule. Blinkers were left on, doors were smashed, it was one of the more fun groups to see tear it up. When the dust settled Matt Schultz climbed atop the podium. He represents the NASA Northwest region. The best the hometown crew could do was 13th (Chris Bond, 007). Can’t win them all…
If Spec Miata was the most action packed, most fun group to watch; then the GTS group was the prettiest. Porsches and BMWs running hard lap after lap. The sight was glorious, and the noise was epic!
Out of a possible twenty-eight championships, MMP locals took six. Nearly one quarter of your NASA National Champions call Miller Motorsports Park home… Well, not literally, but you get my drift. The number could’ve been more just as easily as less. Brendon Stewart’s Evo was still in pieces, Jason Smith sold his very quick Civic, Travis Williams’s FR500S was still down from the endurance race, and I’m not sure where Dave Dingman disappeared to. Sally McNulty’s WRX was dealing with a bad head gasket, Jordan Priestly was doing support work for some of the drivers. Those are six locals who could’ve competed for, if not taken a championship. And we’ll just gloss over the Snows and John Potter, because we know how well they usually do.
The championship trophies may have been handed out, but the racing isn’t over for the season. The final two events are in October: 4th-6th on the West track and 25th and 26th on the Outer Loop. Still plenty of good times to be had, and for the TT guys, faster laps since it *should* be cooler out.
A full list of winners, placers, show-ers, just missed its and also rans can be found here. BUT since you’re here, I present you with a list of the Champions, their class and their home region:
- Alec Udell, American Iron, Texas
- John Miksula, American Iron Extreme, Midwest
- Aaron McSpadden, Camaro Mustang Challenge, Texas
- Matt Schultz, Spec Miata, Northwest
- David Schotz, TTB & C, Arizona
- Sonny Watanasirisuk, TTD, California-Southern
- Jason Kohler, TTE, Great Lakes
- George Smith, STR1, Rocky Mountain
- Michael von Quilich, Super Touring 1, California-Southern
- Team Smith-Burke Racing, Super Touring 2, Utah
- Kenneth Smith, Super Touring 3, Great Lakes
- Jon Van Caneghem, Super Unlimited, California-Southern
- Tyler Palmer, 944 Spec, California-Southern
- Dick Hunter, GTS2, Texas
- Tony Colicchio, GTS3, California-Northern
- Michael McAleenan, GTS4, Northwest
- Peter Spencer, GTS5, Utah
- David Schotz, PTB, Arizona
- Dennis Holloway, PTC, California-Southern
- Need Speed Orozco, PTD, California-Southern
- Jason Kohler, PTE, Great Lakes
- Walter Carlos, PTF, California-Southern
- David Dirks, Spec Z, Rocky Mountain
- Shawn Murphy, TT1, Utah
- Team Smith-Burke Racing, TT2, Utah
- Christopher Mayfield, TT3, Rocky Mountain
- Kyle Schick, TTU, Utah
And there you have it. See you in a a few weeks, and because I told them this is where to look, here’s a picture of this AIX Mustang:
-Words and Photos by Michael Chandler
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMAutoMag.Com and their respective owners.
05th Sep2013
Western Endurance Racing Championship at Miller Motorsports Park part 2
I arrived back in the pits to find… The Mustang, in one piece and not on fire. As it turns out “blew up” means different things to different people. Unfortunately the clutch gave out, which ended the day for Travis, Todd, Dave and Jason. It was a melancholy scene, but the hour and a half they were out there wasn’t so bad. They’re night was done, but for others the evening was about to begin.
Racing is a physical effort, which is why the drivers do their best to stay in some semblance of shape. Some take it a bit more serious than others… Seeing a man do lunges and jog across three pit stalls is a sight I don’t think I will ever forget. As he was preparing his body and mind for the stint ahead, RaceCo was bringing their guy in for a driver change and fuel stop.
Intense doesn’t even begin to describe the atmosphere during an endurance race pit stop. There are a lot of moving parts and, while longer than pit stops in other motor sports, time is a huge factor. Those extra seconds add up, and turn in to minutes, which over the course of a six hour race could become tens of minutes. Cole Powelson, driver and chief push broom technician at RaceCo, hopped out and declared himself #1 after relaying some information about the car. He had a couple of minutes to relax and change before it got windy again…
Wind can be handled, but the dust and lack of visibility could cause havoc. Seeing from Clubhouse to Release was almost impossible, even if you were standing in between the turns. Mercifully the winds died down and visibility picked back up. I gathered my things, hopped in my car and made my way to Black Rock, the first in a series of hairpin turns on the west section of the track.
The turn sits at the end of a high speed section, so naturally this is where the brakes would see the most use. Everyone was lighting up their brake rotors, especially the vehicles that carried buckets of speed in to the turn. The Factory Five GTM and the Radical had absolutely no problem cooking their brakes coming in to the turn, lap after lap after lap.
With the sunset painting the sky with hues of orange, blue, purple and magenta, the on track action almost seemed like an added bonus. There was barely enough light in the sky to illuminate the racers, and when that faded we all had to resort to artificial means of light.
The cars would cast eery slivers of light on to the track, illuminating only what was in their immediate path. Their tail lights were the eyes of shifty demons scurrying about the track, looking for a victim to terrorize. It was quite a sight to behold, and a rather difficult one to capture. Unable to capture thin windows of light, I did something that seemed like a good idea: setting the camera on a tripod and capturing the trails of light the cars were leaving behind.
Most everyone had bright, white lights. Everyone, except the Radical. It had a white LED light bar on the roll hoop, but red orange lights on the front of the car. The track took on a sinister glow when it passed. It left a devilish red-orange trail with a little white halo above it. It was also hitting the curbing, which can be seen by the ripples on the left side of the picture. Most everyone else played it safe and only touched the curbing while taking as straight a path through the Attitudes as they could.
I don’t like saying it, but the grand stands on the race weekends I have been in attendance have been rather empty. This night was no exception. One of the best spots to watch a race from are the stands on the outside of Release, the track’s final turn before the straight. From those seats one can see cars coming through Witchcraft and disappear as the cross the Attitudes. They reappear just past the clubhouse, and you can see them all the way until they dip out of sight as they travel through turn 1.
I returned to the pits, and made my way through lifeless GP garages to a dark and busy pit lane. Privateers and factory backed crews toiled under the work lights to ready their cars for another stint. By this time everyone was preparing for their last outing on the track for the night. The drivers were exhausted, the crews were fatigued but still they fought on.
The end was in sight for those still driving. Last minute information was relayed to drivers, fuel was topped off, lights were cleaned and finally the engines were fired. Off in to the blackness one more time…
Words and photos by Michael Chandler
*Article and Photos are copyright of CAMAutoMag.Com and their respective owners.
03rd Sep2013
Western Endurance Racing Championship at Miller Motorsports Park Part 1
This was going to be an entirely different article. It was going to be like the old Honda Challenge stuff we did: chronicling the local guys on their home track as the battle the out of towners. I was going to talk about how Dave Dingman, Todd Ainsworth, Travis Williams and last second addition Jason Smith took the fight to them over the course of the six hour race. It was going to be heroic and epic and all of those things.
But then their day went belly up. Here’s how it happened: Dave went out first, and irony found him. See, Dave pilots the Freeway Mazda Miata we all know and love in the NASA Utah events. As he was out in Travis’s FR500S Mustang was hit by a (wait for it) Miata. This prompted the stewardess to tell Travis and Jason that he had thirty minutes to come in and file a report. If he didn’t the team would receive a five minute penalty.
After a brief discussion, the team decided to leave him out. When he came in they’d get his side of the story, top him off with fuel and send him on his marry way. His side of the story goes something like this: he gave the Miata plenty of room going in to turn one, but closed the door because thats how his line was. The Miata, seeing that there wasn’t any room, decided to stick its nose in there. Contact was made, it was the Miata’s fault. Anyway, the team didn’t have radios so Travis grabbed a white board and a red marker to communicate to Dave that he was to come in. He scribbled something on the board and ran to the pit wall.
As it turns out, it’s hard to see red on white as you’re at speed with the sun in your face. The crew in the next pit stall noticed Travis’s mistake, gave Jason a black marker, and the sign was re-scribbled. Travis again ran to the pit wall and held the sign. It worked better that time around, and Dave came in.
Travis got Dave’s story and explained the situation. He also made sure Dave stayed strapped in, because if he unstrapped then his stint would be over. Jason topped off the fuel tank and Todd held the fire extinguisher just in case. The tank was brimmed after some more conversation, and Dave took off making sure not to abuse the clutch upon his exit. They weren’t going to leave him out there for too much longer, so I hung around the pits so as to not miss the driver change.
The professionals at RaceCo were a few stalls down, showcasing the professionalism, enthusiasm for produce and the proper way to kinda listen to someone’s story about something…or whatever. They were also fielding a FR500S Mustang in the race. The competition had been meet, and they had watermelon and a canopy in their stall. More on them later, because Dave was about to come in for the first driver change of team TRADINGWOR’s night.
Dave out, Todd and fuel in. Dave took over fire extinguisher duties, while Travis helped Todd get settled in. Jason, and his Vans, manned the fuel can. Notes were passed between the drivers and the rest of the team. I imagine that this is what it was like in the fifties. All the drivers had other responsibilities and the only time they could communicate what the car was doing or feeling like was when they came in for fuel and fresh rubber. Except I don’t think anyone would be wearing bright red shoes, but I could very well be wrong.
Todd left gingerly, but not any harder than you or I leaving a stop light quickly. Dave proceeded to tell us his story, and show us when the Miata decided to test just how small it was. He also mentioned that the car felt good, and he wasn’t using the clutch much. He was rev matching up and down shifts because he wanted to keep the clutch for later in the night. Remember: it was a marathon, not a sprint. With that handled, I hopped in the Subaru and made my way to turn one to catch some of the cars on track.
Miller is a challenging track for many reasons, but one reason I have heard many times is it’s very dusty. This is because the track is built in the middle of high desert grazing land, which will grow wild grasses and other native vegetation but not a whole lot else. The track is never going to look like Road America, and that’s not a huge problem. Willow Springs is in the middle of a desert in the middle of nowhere, and it does plenty fine. However, that lack of vegetation has one drawback. That drawback, coupled with the recently constructed motocross track in the infield of the east half of the road course, can become a calamity when it gets windy… Like it did the whole weekend and pretty much every evening in Tooele county. Eventually the wind died down and visibility returned to a safe level.
An HPD backed Fit was out. They were banking on only having to stop a few times for fuel. They were also excited by the prospect of being lapped so it would look like they were in the race! That’s the kind of optimism and creative thinking we like around here. We also like E30 BMWs with crazy light bars, because who needs lights in factory locations when you have a bunch of really bright LEDs on your hood? Oh, and there was the very patriotic Factory Five GTM. Nothing says freedom like a mid-engined LS powered car you can assemble in your garage.
I sent a text to my friend Jenny to inform her that Jason was going to be driving the #22 Mustang. The pack passed by a few more times before she responded. Her response was concise and very concerning:
“I knooowwwww It just blew up though! :(”
After seeing that a few thoughts raced through my head: where did it blow up? Why wasn’t there a yellow flag? Why wasn’t the safety crew rolling out? Did I miss them on the track the whole time I was stand on the outside of turn one? I ran back to the Subaru and double timed it to the pits.
Did the car blow up? Was Todd horribly disfigured? Does Travis have to buy a new car? Where are the night shots? All of these questions will be answered in the thrilling conclusion!
