A good friend and also a long time sushi bar regular, invited me for ride alongs during the last few sessions of the afternoon. I couldn't pass up this opportunity to get my head thrashed around the chicanes of the infield of Auto Club Speedway. Also known for hosting Nascar and Indy races.
After a few hot laps in Brian's '71 BMW 2002 technical problems forfeited his car for the rest of the evening. That 110mph top speed in a car like that and then breaking down 2nd gear to make the first corner coming off the straight would be pretty harsh on your motor mounts.
I continued getting ride along with other cars and the one I found most impressive was the driving skills of a 21-year old instructor, Tristen. He drove the yellow E36 pictured below. Tristen has been instructing since he was 18 and has been doing auto cross since he was 16! Truly, a skilled and experienced driver.
It's hard to fully capture the ant-like feeling you get looking out towards the towering bowl of bleachers when you're in the infield. Instructors and their cars cooled off along Pit Road waiting for sessions to start. Cars were classified from A-C Class A being "Alpha" class.
I'm a sucker for meaty sticky race slicks.
From left, Tristen's E36, middle Brian Moon's 2002, and anonymous driver but much love for it's aggressive yet functional wheel stance. The extended wheel studs would give more room to squeeze more inches of rubber if he wanted to widen it a bit more. And who knows, a blow dryer and a cloth wrapped baseball bat could help stretch out the fenders for an even wider stance. Nonetheless the car was one of my favorites.
JDM wheels on euro cars?...I dig!
Ah ha, there you are white prancing horse! I promised myself when/if I retire I'll buy myself a Porsche, but at that point I wonder what they've developed over the years to make Porsches like this beautiful white GT3 even better.
The blaring exhaust notes of this ZR1 were not forgiving on my bare naked ear drums as it came down the finish line stretch topping out.
The blue on these two 2013 328i's caught my eye right away and the sun's light reflecting off the pavement brightened the faces of these cars quite nice.
I found this ZR1 cooling down it the garage. I love it's aggressive body lines and the fender brake vents along the front fenders giving it an even meaner race car look without disrupting the existing the stock body lines.
The first chicane coming from your top speed stretch.
＿終わり
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