Tag Archives: Auto Club Speedway

12th Annual California Festival of Speed

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California Festival of Speed – Day 1, 04/05/13

The Porsche Club of America (PCA) and the Porsche Owners Club (POC) joined forces for the 12th Annual California Festival of Speed, which began today at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.  The first day was primarily a practice day as racers rolled out their cars for the first of three days on the track.  Saturday and Sunday promise warmer and sunnier weather as well as lots of activities – both on and off the track.  Saturday’s schedule features four races including a 60 minute enduro.

Here’s a few shots from todays action:

California Festival of Speed

California Festival of SpeedCalifornia Festival of Speed

More here.

California Festival of Speed – Day 2, 04/06/13

Now this is what the SoCal sports car scene is supposed to be like!  The 12th Annual California Festival of Speed has to rank as one of the best – certainly the best in recent years.  Full grids, lots of vendors, great cars, and beautiful weather drew Porsche and sports car enthusiasts in the many hundreds from across the southwest.  In addition to Porsches, a couple of Audi R8s and Lotus Exiges also competed on track.  Auto Club Speedway was host to a big, happy, sports car celebration featuring the best amateur Porsche racers in the West.

California Festival of Speed

Fifty Years of the Porsche 911

Aside from the racing, one of the most popular attractions was the Fifty Years of 911 parade and display.  Some of my favorites included:

Chiffonweiss 1978 930 Turbo
California Festival of Speed

1980 911SC Coupe
California Festival of Speed

1987 Sunroof Coupe
California Festival of Speed

1998 TT S Coupe
California Festival of Speed

California Festival of Speed – The Races

Three Sprint Races, a 60 minute Enduro, and Time Trial practice kept lots of people in the seats on top of the corporate boxes in the Auto Club Speedway infield.  In the Blue, Green, and Enduro races, the grid was composed of many classes of cars and drivers from both the PCA and POC.  Overall results:

Blue Sprint Race

  1. Drake Kemper
  2. Mike Monsalve
  3. Roger Lai

Green Sprint Race

  1. Craig Ames
  2. Chip Romer
  3. Daniel Davis

Pirelli GT3 Cup Race

  1. Jim Walsh
  2. Kevin Woods
  3. Jesse Menczer

Enduro Race

  1. Chip Romer
  2. Tom Haacker
  3. Frederick Chin / Elliott Skeer

Detailed results by class can be found on the PCA San Diego Region results web page.

Time Trial grid:
California Festival of Speed

California Festival of Speed – Day 3, 04/07/13

Sunday brought warmer weather, four more races, and the Time Trial.

Blue & Green Combined Race start:
California Festival of Speed

California Festival of Speed

Blue Sprint Race

  1. Drake Kemper
  2. Bob Mueller
  3. Roger Lai

Green Sprint Race

  1. Craig Ames
  2. Chip Romer
  3. Bob Rodriguez

Blue & Green Combined Race

  1. Chip Romer
  2. Dan Aspesi
  3. Jesse Menczer

Blue & Green Combined Race action:

California Festival of Speed
California Festival of Speed
California Festival of Speed

 

What a great weekend of racing at a super facility!  Both PCA and POC will be back to Auto Club Speedway in the next month, and HSR West will have their Historic Sportscar Festival there in June.  Look for details on the Calendar.

California Festival of Speed

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California Festival of Speed

The 12th Annual California Festival of Speed, the largest Porsche event in the Southwest, comes to Auto Club Speedway April 5th thru 7th.  With participation from Porsche Club of America (PCA), who is also the event host, the Porsche Owners Club (POC), and Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA West, this Festival of Speed promises to be one of the biggest and most exciting in recent years.

In addition to the PCA Cup Race and Time Trial, this year’s California Festival of Speed will also include POC Cup Racers and Time Trialers, a PCA Enduro, a PCA Zone 8 Concours, a Taste of Autocross, a celebration of 50 years of the 911, a Porsche Corral, swap meet, and of course, a Vendor Row.

On Friday, the California Festival of Speed features practice session for all groups, track tours, and a Pirelli GT3 Cup Race.  Saturday’s schedule includes more practice and qualifying, PCA/POC Sprint Races, another Pirelli GT3 Cup Race, and a 60 minute Enduro to close out the day.  Sunday brings three more sprint races, Pirelli GT3 Cup Race, and a Time Trial to close the weekend.

Check the calendar for detailed information, the event schedule for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and a free parking coupon.

Here is the track map for the Auto Club Speedway configuration used for the California Festival of Speed.

A handy web page for Schedule, Track Map, Time Trial entrants by PCA Class, & Results

NASCAR Racing Experience – Auto Club Speedway

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NASCAR Racing Experience

Driver registration and check-in.

NASCAR Racing Experience rolled into Fontana and the Auto Club Speedway last weekend for a couple of days of speed and fun for drivers, riders, and fans.  Touring several of the country’s prominent NASCAR venues, NASCAR Racing Experience makes real NASCAR vehicles available to drive or ride in an educational, safe, and quite open – for instance, passing is allowed – environment.  These aren’t replicas or look-alikes; they are the real cars driven by guys like Jimmie Johnson, Dale Jr., and Jeff Gordon.  What a cool idea.  Imagine a baseball fan being able to walk into the dugout, picking up a bat used by one of his heroes, and taking batting practice at Dodger Stadium, Petco Park, Yankee Stadium, or Fenway Park.

NASCAR Racing Experience

Cars in the hot pit lane.

Families and friends were all smiles as drivers were belted into their cars for a few laps around the two mile banked oval track.  After climbing out, the drivers were ear-to-ear grins as they went on to collect their certificates, souvenir licenses, t-shirts, and other goodies.

NASCAR Racing Experience

Cars in the hot pit lane ready for track time.

Piggy backing with NASCAR Racing Experience was the Mario Andretti Racing Experience, which is a similar track program using open wheeled Indy cars.  Although the two programs have somewhat different schedules, they are often at a particular track over the same period.  Both programs offer various levels of track time from a single 8 minute session at the low end up to four 8 minute sessions at the maximum.  What a way to build fan loyalty, excitement, and commitment!  I spoke to several drivers who were given the experience as gifts, and it was just the beginning of their motorsports involvement as a participant…

After touring other tracks for the next few months, both with be back at Auto Club Speedway in late March.

POC Auto Club Speedway – Racing in the Heat

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POC Auto Club Speedway

Kevin Roush and Eric Oviatt into Turn 1 at Auto Club Speedway.

The POC Auto Club Speedway weekend was an exercise in dealing with extreme, 100+ degree temperatures at a favorite SoCal track.  Over one hundred drivers braved the intense late summer heat in Fontana for a great weekend of racing and time trials including a one hour enduro on Sunday afternoon.  The Porsche Owners Club (POC) was returning to Auto Club Speedway (ACS) for the first time since its Tribute to Le Mans event and two weeks after the IndyCar Championship race at the same venue.  The weekend’s activities featured two race groups, Red and Orange and two time trial groups, White and Yellow.

POC Auto Club Speedway – Saturday Events

Red Cup Race

In the Red Cup Race, Dan Aspesi jumped into the lead early on and took the overall honors as well as the GT2 class title and a best lap time of of the race at 1:43.120.  An early spin by Jesse Menczer put him back in the pack and playing catch up most of the race to take second in GT2.  Kevin Roush took the third spot in GT2.  Bill Dawson came in second overall while winning the GT1 class from Dan Davis in second..  Loren Beggs was third overall and won the GTC-4 class.  Doug Baron won the GTC-3 class while finishing fourth.  In the hotly contested GT3 class, Eric Oviatt won what became a two car battle from Duane Selby after John Gordon dropped out after 1 lap with engine troubles.  Vali Predescu won GT4, and Chas Wirken won R4 in his beautiful Cayman R.

Orange Cup Race

Mike Monsalve took first in the Orange Cup Race along with the V3 class and fastest lap of the race at 1:50.220.  Second and third the race and the V3 class were Steve Alarcon and Athan Aronis, respectively.  Monsalve led from the pole, and Alarcon kept it close for the first half of the 12 lap race with Monsalve stretching out his lead until the last lap when Alarcon closed to within 0.156 seconds.  Dwain Dement in his new, blue, Boxster based V3 machine was running well and making some nice passes between Turns 4 and 5 before he dropped out from third with raising oil temperature to let the V3 season class leaders have at it.  A total of eight V3 cars finished on the lead lap in this popular and competitive class.  Regan Steadman won GT5; Jason Huang won CSX; Brad Keegan won JP; Mark Foley won BSR; Keith Hulley won IP; Peter Busalacchi won GSR; and Carolyn Pappas won GT6.

POC Auto Club Speedway – Sunday Events

On Sunday, we were treated to a couple of particularly exciting battles – the GT3 contest within the Red Cup race and the grueling one hour JE Pistons Enduro.

Red Cup Race

POC Auto Club Speedway

Kevin Roush & Eric Oviatt in GT3 Class Battle in Red Cup Race.

In the Red Cup Race, pole sitter Jesse Menczer took the overall win, GT2 class win, and fastest lap of the race at 1:43.619.  Dan Aspesi, Saturday’s winner, took second.  Early in the race Jesse and Dan traded the lead multiple times.  Doug Baron took third overall as well as the GTC-3 class win.  In GT3, we were treated to a fantastic battle between Eric Oviatt and Kevin Roush that was wasn’t over until the last lap with multiple passes throughout.  Eric and Kevin put on a clinic of close, clean, and exciting racing with Oviatt holding off Roush by just a couple of ticks at the flag.  See Eric’s in car video below:

Steve Vandecar won GT4 from Kip Waterhouse by less than a second; Chas Wirken won R4.  Loren Beggs in GTC-4 retired after 4 laps while running third overall.

Orange Cup Race

POC Auto Club Speedway

Orange Cup Race Leaders.

The usual V3/R5 suspects were running at the front of the Orange Cup Race.  Mike Monsalve won his second race of the weekend as well as the class from second on the grid.  Steve Alarcon took pole and finished second by 2.409 seconds while setting fast lap of the race at 1:50.665.  Bob Thacker finished third overall and in the V3/R5 class.  Athan Aronis, who typically runs near the front of this group accidentally released his harness buckle and lost a couple of laps getting himself buckled back in.  Regan Steadman won GT5 with Paul Young second; Richard Yochum won V4; Brad Keegan took another JP win with Brent Gokbudak second.  Drake Kemper won BSR with Mark Foley second and Nathon Johnson third; Jason Huang won CSX; Keith Hulley won IP; Carolyn Pappas took GT6; and Peter Busalacchi won GSR.

POC Auto Club Speedway

Orange Cup racers in the Auto Club Speedway infield.

JE Pistons Enduro

By the time the field gridded up for Sunday afternoon’s JE Pistons Enduro, the heat had taken its toll on cars and drivers resulting in a slightly smaller than expected grid.  However, that did not diminish the competition or excitement of the race.  I have to really hand it to the guys who raced for an hour in the still nearly 100 degree heat after a full two days of practice and racing.  In a really tough break, Jae Lee of ‘Gang of One’ lost the fire in his machine at Turn 1 on the final lap.  Paul Young of ‘Dead Pets Racing’ took the win in his 911.  Seems like Paul is making a habit of this.  Doug Baron finished second, and Nathon Johnson took third.

POC Auto Club Speedway

Start of JE Pistons Enduro.

 

POC Auto Club Speedway

Green Flag Flies To Start JE Pistons Enduro Race.

More pics here.

POC Auto Club Speedway – Time Trial

Amazingly, even with brutal heat and a pretty slick track, multiple class track records fell on this POC Auto Club Speedway weekend.  On Saturday, Brandon Griffith, who set fast time of the day on both days, broke the GT2 class record by nearly 7 seconds at 1:41.783!  Unreal.  Also on Saturday, Steve Radenbaugh set the GT4 class record at 1:54.308 and Chet Kolley set the CSX class record at 1:56.434.  On Sunday in GT4, Bob Mueller broke Steve Radenbaugh’s Saturday time with 1:53.074.  Also on Sunday, Paul Young set a new GT5 class record at 1:57.639 – yes, that’s the same Paul Young who took second in class in the Orange Cup Race and won the Enduro overall.  Great job Paul!  Troy Evarts set a new LS class record at 2:02.751.  Congratulations to all the new record holders and class winners

Another POC Auto Club Speedway event is days away with a combined Performance Driving Series (PDS) and Time Trial (TT) event.  See the calendar for more info.

Ryan Hunter-Reay Is 2012 IndyCar Champion

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IndyCar Champion

Early in the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana

Gripping Fontana Race

After an exciting and surprising 500 mile race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Ryan Hunter-Reay is the 2012 IndyCar Champion, and Ed Carpenter won his second ever IndyCar race.  Hunter-Reay entered the race 17 points adrift of leader Will Power.  When Power spun and crashed at Turn 2 on lap 55, Hunter-Reay had his opening – he needed to finish sixth or better to overtake Power and become the first American IndyCar Champion in 6 years.

Power Somehow Rejoins Race

After a simply amazing effort by the Team Penske Crew, Will Power returned to the track on lap 123.  The #12 Verizon car was severely damaged by the lap 55 crash, and the team had to replace the entire rear end plus many other parts to make the car track ready.  Other crews were ‘high-fiving’ the Penske crew members in a mix of awe, amazement, and respect.  I’ve never seen a car so badly damaged return to a race.  Power was able to turn a dozen laps before retiring, and this was enough to move him ahead of E.J. Viso.  Now Hunter-Reay needed to finish fifth or better to be the IndyCar Champion.

 Battle for MAVTV 500 Win and IndyCar 2012 Championship

After Will Power retired, there were two races ongoing – one for the MAVTV 500 win and one to become IndyCar Champion.  In the former, there were 24 lead changes after Power’s crash.  JR Hildebrand ran really well on the high part of the track early in the race.  Unfortunately he had a brush with the wall, which necessitated a repair that put him several laps down and out of contention.  In the middle part of the race, the lead was exchanged multiple times between the likes of Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Alex Tagliani, and Ed Carpenter.  As the race wore on, it was apparent that nobody was clearly dominant, and that promised an interesting finish.

IndyCar Champion

Beautiful Sunset at MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana

Carpenter Wins With Gutsy Drive

Ed Carpenter was competitive throughout, led the most laps overall, and drove a great race to win the MAVTV 500.  The victory was the second of his IndyCar career.  Tony Kanaan spun into the Turn 4 wall bringing out a red flag on lap 242 to preclude a parade finish under yellow.  Dario Franchitti who had taken the lead from Carpenter on lap 237 would lead from the restart and take the white flag, but Carpenter had a strong run thru Turn 2 from high on the track and passed Franchitti down the backstretch just as Takuma Sato crashed out bringing out a yellow flag for the last half lap.  What a finish!

Hunter-Reay A Worthy IndyCar Champion

Ryan Hunter-Reay is certainly a deserving IndyCar Champion, winning more races than anyone including three in a row during the summer stretch and a win in the penultimate race in Baltimore setting up the showdown in Fontana.  In the run up to the finale, Hunter-Reay also turned down a deal to race with Team Penske and signed a new contract with Andretti Autosport.  For Will Power, this makes the third year in a row that he finished second while going into the final race with a strong chance to win.  It was also the third year in a row that a crash in that final race ruined his chances to win.  Congratulations to Ryan Hunter-Reay, IndyCar Champion for 2012.

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway Qualifying

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IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

Will Power on qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

In the IndyCar Auto Club Speedway qualifying session, Marco Andretti took the pole for the MAVTV 500 with an average speed of 216.069 MPH.  Will Power, series leader and favorite for the Championship going into the final race of 2012 qualified third at 215.940 MPH.  His Team Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe was second with a speed of 215.058 MPH.  Power’s closest competitor for the series title, Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport qualified seventeenth at 212.773 MPH.  Hunter-Reay comes into the race seventeen points behind Power and must have a strong finish combined with Power misfortune in order to take the series crown.  Rookie Josef Newgarden qualified fourth at 215.919 MPH.

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

James Hinchcliffe burns some rubber heading out to qualify at Auto Club Speedway

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

Simon Pagenaud on a qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

Brutally Hot Conditions At Auto Club Speedway

Qualifying was tough on the hot day in Fontana with air temperatures over 100 degrees and track temperature reaching over 140 degrees.  Similarly hot weather is forecast for race day on Saturday.  With the IndyCar Auto Club Speedway race being a grueling 500 miles under difficult conditions, many teams opted to change engines while accepting a 10 place grid penalty.  Troubles also forced some drivers into an unplanned engine change.

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

James Jakes heads out for qualifying at Auto Club Speedway

Final Starting Grid

After engine change penalties are factored in, the starting grid looks like this:

  1. Marco Andretti, #26
  2. Ryan Brisco, #2
  3. Tony Kanaan, #11
  4. JR Hildebrand, #4
  5. Ed Carpenter, #20
  6. Rubens Barrichello, #8
  7. Katherine Legge, #6
  8. Oriol Servia, #22
  9. Dario Franchitti, #10
  10. Sebastian Saavedra, #17
  11. EJ Viso, #5
  12. James Jakes, #19
  13. Will Power, #12
  14. Josef Newgarden, #67
  15. Scott Dixon, #9
  16. Alex Tagliani, #98
  17. Helio Castroneves, #3
  18. Graham Rahal, #38
  19. James Hinchcliffe, #27
  20. Simon Pagenaud, #77
  21. Takuma Sato, #15
  22. Ryan Hunter-Reay, #28
  23. Charlie Kimball, #83
  24. Wade Cunningham, #14
  25. Justin Wilson, #18
  26. Simona de Silvestro, #78
IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

Helio Castroneves on qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

 

IndyCar Auto Club Speedway

JR Hildebrand on qualifying lap at Auto Club Speedway

More pictures are posted in a gallery here.

 

Dario Franchitti & Scott Dixon at Auto Club Speedway

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Auto Club Speedway (ACS) in Fontana will be hosting the IZOD IndyCar finale under the lights in September when the series returns to SoCal, and today, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon came to ACS to treat a small group of fans to a lunchtime visit that included interviews, Q&A, a photo session, and a sampling of their signature cuisine.

Dario Franchitti

Scott Dixon

Gillian Zucker, President of Auto Club Speedway was the event host, and she did a nice job of interviewing and engaging the drivers with audience submitted questions. Both of these guys quickly make connections to a crowd and are approachable good sports.

Scott Dixon is currently 4th in the standings and 28 points behind IndyCar series leader Will Power with three races to go.  He has a chance of winning the Championship if he has a couple of good races at Sonoma and Baltimore heading into the finale – especially if Power (1st), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2nd), and Helio Castroneves (3rd) founder.  Dario Franchitti is currently 8th with no realistic chance of defending his Champion status.  Aside from a fabulous month of May that saw him win his third Indy 500, Dario has had a tough year in which just about anything that could go wrong, did.  Aside from trying to take wins, his main role for the rest of the season will be supporting Dixon, his Target Ganassi teammate.

Dario & Scott were having fun!

During the interview we learned that Dario’s family fled Mussolini’s Italy for the ‘place with the worst weather.’  His maternal grandmother is, in fact, Scottish.  Scott Dixon’s wife Emma was a former top middle distance runner for Great Britain.  Dario favors street courses, while Scott favors road courses.

Dario and Scott are both lukewarm on the push-to-pass. In the recent race, the 5 second push-to-pass delay made it confusing and difficult to use it properly at the start. How do you time the boost that will happen 5 seconds in the future when you don’t know exactly when the green flag will drop?  Everybody got it wrong.  Supposedly the delay is going away.

Both of them felt the finale will be an interesting race with changing conditions as the sun goes down – compromising vision – and the track cools off.  500 miles around the Auto Club Speedway will be exciting and tough.

After the interview and a picture session, fans were invited to sample Scott Tots and Franchitti Ziti – really.

The guys with Scott Tots and Franchitti Ziti

Both of these guys are passionate racers, and the fans love them.  They’re great ambassadors for the sport, and I wish them well for the rest of the season.

Scott Dixon & Dario Franchitti

HSR West 11th Annual Southern California Historic Sports Car Festival – Auto Club Speedway

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Auto Club Speedway hosted the HSR West 11th Annual Historic Sports Car Festival this weekend for two days of vintage and historic racing in the SoCal sun.  HSR West was running 10 run groups this weekend:

  • Group 1 - Formula Vee
  • Group 2 – Small & Medium Bore Production
  • Group 3 – Formula Ford Pacific
  • Group 4 – 2.5 B-Sedan
  • Group 5 – BOSS, Formula 5000, & Formula 2.0
  • Group 6 – Historic Stock Cars
  • Group 7 – Big Bore Production
  • Group 8 – GTP, Trans-Am, Can-AM, & FIA
  • Group 9 – Champ & Indy Car
  • Group X – Datsun-Nissan

HSR West ran a quality event with an open paddock, an entertaining race announcer, podium celebrations, and generally a really friendly atmosphere.  The luxury box seats on the inside of the main straight were open, and some folks brought their portable party along.  Add in dignitaries like Adam Carolla, a passionate historic Datsun racer, and Tony Adamowicz, the Trans-Am, Can-Am, Formula 5000, and IMSA veteran along with beautiful weather, and we had a recipe for some good old fashioned – literally – Southern California racing fun.  Tony Adamowicz also has a long association with Datsun-Nissan and Riverside International Automotive Museum, who had a big celebration event earlier in the week.  Being here with the HSR West crowd around all these historic race cars made me think of what it must have been like at Riverside or even Ontario back in the day.  Unfortunately I wasn’t here back then…

All pictures in this gallery were taken with a Canon EOS 40D; most were shot with Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras.

I also recently bought a new SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash 16 GB Flash Memory Card SDCFXP-016G-X46,Black because my old card with a 30 MB/s write speed could not continuously keep up with the 6 fps of my Canon 40D.  The new card was fabulous; I could hold the shutter release down essentially indefinitely without the card slowing down my shots.  A really important consideration when shooting live action sports.

Porsche Owners Club 20th Annual Tribute to Le Mans

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A who’s who of SoCal Porsche Drivers converged at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana for the Porsche Owners Club 20th running of their signature Tribute to Le Mans weekend.  The four-hour enduro running into a beautiful sunset was the highlight of the weekend – attracting well-know teams & organizations such as Competition Motorsports, TruSpeed, GMG, and Werks II and drivers with ALMS, World Challenge, and Grand-Am pedigree.  Bob Faieta and Michael Avenatti of ALMS GTC fame took the overall top step of the podium handily turning fast lap after fast lap.