NASA Recap & Wrapup of 2014
The National Auto Sports Association held its first ever West Coast National Championships the first week of November 2014 at the iconic Sonoma Raceway (aka Infineon and/or Sears Point) capping off an action filled 2014 NASA season. Several hundred racers trekked from as far away as Florida to compete in 3 days of championship racing.
NASA-Arizona sent its best and brightest racers to represent our region and make a run on the podium. Sonoma raceway is about a 14 hour drive from Arizona through Los Angeles and up the San Joaquin Valley past the eastern side of San Francisco and parked just on the north side of the San Pablo Bay. It’s a relatively benign drive except for some hills around Quartzite and the Grapevine pass (which does get snow…). The Sonoma racing facility is quite impressive with a truly massive grandstand rising nearly 6 stories and an 1/8 of a mile long. There are several excellent viewing positions including the bridge just past the Start line and the hillsides showing off the exciting turns at this historic track.
Representing Arizona at Sonoma included: Ricky Johnson (Winner PTB & TTB), Tage Evanson (2nd in TTD), Erik Davis (6th in ST3, 4th in TT3), Jeff Abrams (4th in TTC), Phil Buffington (3rd in GTS3), Tom Johnson (4th in ST3), Kenn Francis (5th in TTC), Austin Newmark (6th in 944 Spec), Hal Dunn (7th in TTD), Michael Papworth (6th in SU) and Team Schotz racing (Winner TTC). Who did I miss?
For official results please visit the NASA site: http://timingscoring.drivenasa.com/NASA_Championships/Western%20States%202014%20Sonoma%20Raceway/Sunday/
It was a real privilege to run with NASA and represent our Region at this very first West Coast Nationals. Since I tend to gravitate to the back of the field I had a good view of some rather rough starts for the Group B race. I wasn’t the only one that messed up the “Restart” flags on Sunday (recall what a Restart flag looks like? And the passing rule?). After the dust settled there was some great competition and lots of good times to be had. The good news is… we’re doing it again at Laguna Seca in just a few months! So get your pre-qualification runs done early: https://drivenasa.com/news/694
And with this final event Arizona Region finishes up a great year of driving, education, competition and good times. We visited a 
great variety of tracks in Arizona including the Wild Horse Pass facility, Inde Motorsports Ranch, Spring Mountain in Nevada, Chuckwalla, Willow Springs and Sonoma in California. Biggest thanks to all the volunteers, officials, spectators and all the people that contribute spare time to make these events happen. Racing and driving on track is great fun but just doesn’t happen without the help and support of all our friends and family members.
Actually… we have one final event left! The NASA Awards Banquet for 2014 is coming up this Saturday afternoon December 13, 2014. This event is being held in an aircraft hangar by Deer Valley Airport. The event is catered with a cost of $20 each and PLEASE register ASAP so that Adina can finish the final preparations: https://www.drivenasa.com/events/1905 (Registration closes Monday night!)
Sooner than you can imagine we are back to the track. January 10 & 11 of 2015 kicks off our season at the Wild Horse Pass track here in Phoenix. Let’s all get registered early and have a giant kick-ass 2015 season. Get your registration on here: https://www.drivenasa.com/events/1904
Final note… new members are the lifeblood of our family and we should all keep our eyes out for potential new members in any of the training or competition classes and even volunteers. There are special discounts just for new members. Anyone who has never driven at a NASA AZ event can get 25% off their entry fee! To get the discount use this promo code at the time of registration “AZCH19FV14”.
Existing NASA members that bring a new driver will gain the respect and support off all your peers! So which class can bring in the most new members in 2015?? Thanks for a great year and see you all in the paddock soon.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NASAAZ
Author: Tom Johnson ([email protected] / 602-628-2701)
And of course… some other goings on from 2014:
