NorCal 86Drive Challenge w/ Speedsf @ Thunderhill raceway - February 24, 2018
A New Kind of Challenge
The NorCal 86Drive Challenge in conjunction with SpeedSF was held on February 24 at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, CA. A combination of 12 Scion FR-Ss, Subaru BR-Zs and were present and competed across the Challenge’s 4 classes: Unlimited, Touring, Street, and Stock. The drivers and their respective cars laid down fresh rubber onto the track’s East-Bypass configuration.
In the Stock class, driver Tor Anderson, who is part of both the Championship Prize program and the Tire Contingency program took home 1st place and 10 points. His fastest lap time was a 2:17.96 on the GT Radial SX2.
In the Street class, the 2nd and 3rd place drivers were in close contention with one-another! Even better, they were both on the same SX2 tire! While Neal Wiebmer ran away with the fastest class time of 2:10.80 and 10 points with his SX2 tires, Sean Chou and Aseda Abaoyge’s lap times were close. Sean ran a 2:11.12 earning him 2nd place and 7 points, while Aseda, who was not far behind at all, laid down a 2:11.80 on his fastest run, which earned him 3rd place and 5 points in the championship. That is some fast driving on display! All three drivers are participating in the Championship Prize program and the Tire Contingency program.
In the Touring class, Trevor Parque took 1st place and 10 points home in addition to netting a 2:12.07 on his fastest lap time. P. Stitch took home 2nd place and 7 points for his efforts. His fastest lap time was a 2:21.89. Stitch is also a participant in the Tire Contingency program.
Last but not least, we have the Unlimited class. In it, Kevin Schweigert whose boosted chassis pushed him to a 1st place finish and a fast lap time of 1:59.22, taking home 10 points for the class win. Garland Wong’s V8-powered FR-S allowed him to get a lap time of 2:00.31 and 7 points as a result of his 2nd place finish.
It was a great day of driving from the NorCal 86Drive Challenge participants, who will once again battle it out at SpeedSF’s Thunderhill Raceway-West event on March 17. We shall see who will reign supreme on this track configuration!
Federal Tires SpeedSF Challenge @ Thunderhill Raceway - February 25, 2018 - Round 2
Round 2 of the SpeedSF Challenge was feaured at the world-class facility known as Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, CA.
Round 2 @ Thunderhill east
Round 2 of the Federal Tires SpeedSF Challenge was held at Thunderhill Raceway as part of an exciting two-day weekend. A huge entry list for this round netted some incredibly close points-grabbing, in addition to SEVERAL track records being broken, making it one of the more intense SpeedSF rounds of recent memory. Additionally, the Federal Tires contingency earned two drivers free tires!
Sohan Kota won two free tires for his Group S4 1st Place finish, while Eric Talistu won one free tire for his Group S5 3rd Place finish!
Federal 595-RSRR
BROKEN RECORDS at Thunderhill East:
Group X: 1:51.710 (Jeff Cook - 2002 Corvette Z06) 02/25/18
Group S1: 1:53.259 (Andrie Hartanto - Corvette C6 Z06) 02/25/18
Group S2: 1:56.925 (Patrick Chio - Nissan 350Z) 02/25/18
Group S3: 1:59.551 (Edwin Pham - Honda S2000) 02/25/18
Group X:
Group X featured two drivers: winner Jeff Cook in a Corvette C5 Z06 and Gary Yeung in his world-famous Honda S2000. With Shah Rukh Khan's absence for this round, this allowed Jeff to grab 25 points, tying the two gentlemen for 1st place. Pretty boy Gary secured 2nd place for this round.
Group S1 featured a repeat winner, Josh Grobin in a Porsche GT3, and two newer drivers, Philip Spencer in a Lotus Exige and Nikolas Beisert in a 2015 Ford Mustang GT. Philip scored 2nd place, while Nikolas scored 3rd place. Great driving by both of them! Andrie Hartanto accepted the award on Josh's behalf during this round, causing great laughter and confusion as to who the real Josh Grobin is!
Group s2
Group S2's winner was SpeedSF's very own Patrick Chio in his made-for-Thunderhill Nissan 350Z. Historically, his car has performed very well at Thunderhill East and this time it was no different. Group S2's runner-up was Gordon Peng in his Corvette C5 Z06, an amazing run featuring fresh tires, a determined set of eyes, and brass hardware whose gleam could be seen for miles. He snatched an easy 21 points, putting him squarely at the top of the S2 group as we head into Round 3. 3rd place winner was Jourdan Risoen in a 2011 Subaru WRX. It is still a young season, but if this round was any indication, the S2 points battle will be very close as each round progresses.
The shirt clearly explains why he was able to secure a podium finish!
Group S3
Group S3 is a loaded group of track stars. It features the usual track toys piloted by some of the finest drivers SpeedSF has to offer. Edwin Pham secured a 1st place finish in his Honda S2000, followed by John Lawrence's 2nd place finish in his big bad 2017 Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE. Tim Crane took home 3rd place his own FWD beast, a Honda Civic EK hatch.
Group S4
Group S4, although a smaller group of drivers, already has a runaway winner heading into the Round 3 of the SpeedSF Challenge! Sohan Kota won 1st place again in his Honda S2000 (AP1), while Alex Lin took 2nd place with his own Honda S2000. With a name echoing famous racing liveries of yore, Gabriel Rothman took 3rd place in his Ford Focus RS.
Group S5
Finally, Group S5, a group featuring a really cool Ford Escort race car straight out of Georgia, and, of course, a sea of Miatas! Miata hero Corentin Derbois continued his reign this round with a 1st place finish in his Mazda Miata, with Ronald Nielsen in a Ford Escort ZX2 trailing not far behind in terms of points! His 2nd place finish at Thunderhill vaulted him to 2nd overall in S5, leapfrogging Iakona Simpliciano by 5 points. 3rd place finisher Eric Talistu rounds out Group S5, finishing off an exciting round 2 at Thunderhill.
As we look forward to Round 3 of the SpeedSF Challenge at Thunderhill, we want to say that we truly appreciate our sponsors and participants as it would not be possible without them!
We would like to thank our Challenge sponsor Federal Tires, as well as SpeedSF Track events sponsors Wine Country Motorsports, G-Loc brakes, DBA USA, Necksgen, and iLapTimer 2.
Our next SpeedSF Challenge will be held at Thunderhill Raceway on March 18, 2018. Again, please check out the event website by clicking here. We will see you at our next event!
SpeedSF Banquet @ The Garage in Burlingame - January 14, 2018
On January 14, 2018, nearly 100 people descended upon The Garage for SpeedSF’s Year-End Banquet to celebrate the 2017 season, eat great food, and win some really cool prizes provided by SpeedSF’s sponsors and affiliates. The SpeedSF winners were also announced and were given top-notch awards provided by sponsors Necks-Gen, DBA USA, Wine Country Motorsports, and Carzwerk. SpeedSF's very own Joe McGuigan rocked the mic as emcee and awards presenter during the event.
Starting with Group RWB, we have Dom Stone in a Dodge Viper edging out Lief Storer and his 2009 Nissan GT-R 100 to 92. Dom certainly earned his top spot after winning the four events he entered! Third place victor is none other than Darius Khaghbi in his Dodge Viper ACR-E. He was only 1 win away from tying Dom but we’ll just have to wait until this year to see who ends up where. A huge congratulations to all. Andre Hartanto was the stand-in for accepting the prizes since the three winners were unable to make it to the banquet.
In Group FOF, cover girl Gary Yeung in the Dirty Mango Honda S2000 once again claimed the top spot with 217 points and 4 event wins. Gordon Peng in a Corvette C5 Z06 secured 2nd place after earning a crucial 15 points during the MRLS event on 12/31. SpeedSF first-timer Steven Chiu in a BMW E46 M3 won a respectable 3rd place with a total of 132 points. We’re excited to see where he ends up in 2018, as this group is loaded with talent and fast cars! All three winners received awards from the sponsors; Gordon won a $100 award from DBA USA, Steven won an award from Wine Country Motorsports and Gary won a head-and-neck restraint from Necks-Gen.
Group PAF had an exciting end to the 2017 season, as there were numerous close battles happening throughout the year. Gary Wong held the top spot with 202 points in his Honda S2000 with 4 event wins, while Henry Iglesias started out the season strong with 3 event wins, finishing the season with 106 points. CG Bob Blackwood and his Lotus Elise were very close to claiming 2nd place, as he was only 1 point behind Iglesias. We’ll watch this space to see what happens this year. Unfortunately, neither of these drivers were able to make it to the banquet as well, but we wish them congratulations all the same!
Scott Smith who won 16 events and ended the season with 454 points obliterated Group PF, another class loaded with talent! Not bad for a Miata. Joe McGuigan had an impressive season as well, scoring 305 points and 3 event wins, firmly holding on to 2nd place with his great driving in a Lexus IS300. Danny Vanco leapfrogged Haoming Chang in the final event of the season at MRLS with 11 points to steal 3rd place in his Scion FR-S. Danny ends the season with 108 points and 1 event win to his name. Because of all their hard work this season, Danny won an award from Wine Country Motorsports, while Joe McGuigan won a certificate from DBA USA, and Scott won a Necks-Gen!
Finally, Group P, which featured another place swap at the end of the season. Dave Theodore ruled P class with 3 event wins and 174 points, while Corentin Derbois in a BMW E36 earned 2nd place with a strong finish to net 108 points to close out the season. Todd Winstanley, who came alive at the end of the season as well to barely surpass King Tang by 5 points in a Lexus IS300, snatched 3rd place and boy did he earn it! A huge applause for the tremendous effort displayed here. Dave Theodore won a very pretty Necks-Gen for his season efforts, while Corentin Derbois won a gift certificate from DBA USA. Tood Winstanley (Alejandro Rios being his representative for this award) won a gift certificate from Wine Country Motorsports. A huge round of applause for this incredibly stacked group!
During the event, we raffled off several prizes ranging from Tein Magnetic Car Mount Holders, to Sparco picnic hats, and various car tools for the everyday handyman.
Overall, it was a great year with many battles in their respective classes. Most importantly, we cannot stress enough that SpeedSF and the SpeedSF Challenge would not be here without all our drivers’ support and participation in our events. We really appreciate it!
Additionally, we would like to thank our official title sponsor Federal Tires. Be sure to check out the sponsorship deal from Federal Tires here.
We would also like to thank Necksgen, DBA USA, Wine Country Motorsports, G-Loc Brakes, and iLap Timer 2.
Be sure to visit www.SpeedSF.com for more information about 2018’s events and the SpeedSF Challenge. You too can earn one of our glorious awards, trophies, and notoriety!
ALL PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT ARE BELOW:
