NASA Season Opener January 2015

    NASA’s Arizona Region kicked off its 2015 driving season January 10th and 11th at the Wild Horse Pass “Rawhide” facility in Phoenix, AZ.  The track is a perfect venue to start the season since it is centrally located to most of the participants in the Region.  There has been much news about future plans for this facility and while some minor changes were evident the facility is mostly how we have all become used to seeing it.

    Nearly 200 individuals signed up for this early January event comprising run groups from about 25 first timers in HPDE 1 through race group.  A similar number were signed up for HPDE 2, 3 and 4.  Over 40 participants in the increasingly popular NASA Time Trial group and enough racers to warrant having split race groups.  The Drift group also returned to NASA-AZ with 14 participants in a variety of over powered rear wheel drive cars.. this is a crowd favorite!

    The weather was cool and overcast on Saturday and there was some rain in the mid morning that slowed down the drivers a bit, but not the driving action.  Driving with Nasa is an all-weather sport!  Threats of “rain tires” and pedal dancing were short lived as the sun quickly returned and the track dried out nicely for the remaining afternoon activities.

    Time Trial competitors have results posted and season points to review here:  http://www.nasa-tt.com/Arizona_Regional_Results/p2040_articleid/117    Big congrats to Erik Davis for a new TT3 track record and resetting his personal best time (59.018.. so close!!!).  Team Schotz also destroyed the previous TTC a track record in their new TTC Corvette (1:01.506!).

    New participants to our Region are critical to the clubs existence and of course our existing members are our greatest asset to ensuring we maintain a steady flow of them! Thank you and congratulations to the following for completion of HPDE-1:

  • Jeremy Blaker
  • Tim Blanchard
  • Patrick Davidson
  • Taylor Guhlstorf
  • Joshua Morton
  • Miguel Ochoa
  • Cable Rosenberg
  • Sean Stecker
  • Justin Walloch
  • Edward Zarbock
  • Matt Bradley
  • Tim Bushnell
  • John Hazelton
  • Phillip Le
  • Ryan Merritt
  • Austin Peterson
  • Dominick Rosa
  • Trent Tanner
  • Joshua Wiersma
  • Edwin Wilson
  • Jesse Brozyna
  • Kyle McCaw
  • Michael Hilliard

    • HPDE 2, 3 and 4 were packed with a variety of cars and competitors moving their way up the competitive path to eventually hit the track under Time Trial, Race Group or Drift rules.  Congrats to all the drivers who moved up a rank and expanded their skills.

    Race Group… (a personal favorite of some authors) featured Arizona’s normal clean and strong competition.  Many thanks to Honda Challenge Series Director, Gabe Ortega for his excellent recap of the Honda Challenge .  I have participated in races in several other regions in the past 12 months and I can honestly say that our Arizona drivers are some of the most respectful and skilled I have been on the track with.  Pole position drivers continue to use great judgment and speed control to make for tight and fair starts.  Race Director gets a thanks also for making great choices on the out-lap in the rain.  Results are posted and season points are accruing.

    Time Trial sessions, were packed with a variety of local cars collecting points for that coveted season end banquet.  Full results are posted online now:  http://www.nasa-tt.com/Arizona_Standings/p2040_articleid/118

    Another local favorite and NASA AZ *only* and unique series sponsored by Arizona’s own UMS Tuning is the UMS Tuning Time Attack series and continues to be a crowd favorite with HPDE drivers but anyone in HPDE4 or higher may compete in the series.

    Another great venue to see all the lap times:  http://www.mylaps.com/en/events/1104452

    Its time to get your upgrades moving along now and get signed up for the next event in Chuckwalla Valley Raceway! It is ~3 hours from central Phoenix and well worth the trip as the track is amazing! Signup soon and bring a friend:  https://www.drivenasa.com/events/1949

    Thanks for reading as always!