Chumps

This past weekend, I swung by California Speedway, in the always beautiful town of Fontana.  Actually, I was invited by former neighbors/ Lemons teammates, Mark and Noemi.  They were racing a piece of crap in the Chump Car series.  But I think their real mission was to torture me, by watching them race, since I haven't my R compounds haven't had any contact with tarmac for quite some time.

Grand Prix du Canada

Well after a lag from my Canada posts, let's take a look at the Formula 1 event itself the reason why I even bother going to Canada. Thank god it wasn't raining that weekend. It was actually the very opposite. Hot and sunny with some humidity thrown in, which reminded of days when I used to live on the east coast.


He won the event.


I wish he won the event.


AMG wagon. This thing sounded so mean. I like it.




People with a lot of team spirit.


The brakes, they glow.

After the race was over, the track was open for visitors to roam around. The view from the driver's perspective was simply amazing.



The track was much bigger than I thought. Walking to the start finish line was so long, our seats was located at turn 10. Which is basically the other side of the track.


Team USA out to lend a hand to teams in need of help

Thanks for visiting. For the rest of the pics swing by here. Or if you hate racing but love Montreal like I do, go here.

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The Last Meal

Well time has come to say good bye to Montreal. I've enjoyed every minute. I hope to visit again and enjoy the hospitality.

A few pics before we leave to remember this day.

Someone really loves Triscuits.

Ferrari fans showing their colors. I wonder if they all own Ferrari's?

A view of our seats from the other side of the track.


There's bits of this stuff all around the track. Just gotta have a good eye. I wonder who this belonged too?

Now I just need a car.
The last meal. And yes it was fresh.

I hope you enjoyed. There is alot more pics but only so much time. Next time will be some track time.

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Autocrossing Hollywood Park

Roughly around the mid to late 90's I tried my hand at driving around the cones. I've heard of autocrossing and visited 1 event a while back but never participated. After enjoying my drag racing phase, I decided going in a straight line wasn't much fun. Unless you have enough dinero to go make your car go into single digits. And since I was working at shop that built lots of Toyotas, and was surrounded by these guys who were in to autocrossing. That time there were quite a few Toyota enthusiasts in the auto x scene.


Moto M. in his super charged coupe.


Alan with his TE27.


Jay S. and his very clean MR2. He still owns this thing.


Me in my RX3 ripping up the course. Really sucked my first time out. But I had a great time.


Satan in da house.


Sunbeam Tigers prowling for some cones.

It's hard to believe all this was over 10 years ago. I began scanning quite a few photos from back then so i'll be putting up a couple more in the not too distant future.

Here's the link to more of the old pics.

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Back to the roots..

Way back in the day, there were a few enthusiasts that liked Corollas and motorsports. With Moto's idea, Club4AG was born. Since then it has spawned the Corolla and drifting craze ten fold. Now it's 2009 in Primm, Nevada, right at the Nevada/ California stateline. Going back to it's roots of Corollas and motorsports, the dedicated people from Vegas drift, Drift Association, and AE86 Nights bring back the ideals that is Club4AG.

A 2 day event bringing the car show, autocrossing, and drift.


Day 1 was the autocross, which i'm sure everyone knows if gripping through sets of cones. Some may balk at the idea, but like everything else, it takes skill to do this sport. Anyways there's was tons of seat time. I decided to use street tires since I really didn't want to use up r compounds. The surface was slippery since there was fresh dust from the newly constructed course. I did a bunch of mornings and posted up high 38's. After that, I decided it was time for a beer break. Don't worry I didn't drive after that, I wanted to get the party on early.


Since the following week was SEMA some cars destined for Vegas decided to stop by and check out the event.

mmmm Turbo.

The celebrity of the weekend

Moto

Day 2 which I'm sure many were looking forward too, the drift and car show event.


The drift course was tricky. It was laid out with a 3rd gear entry if you have enough power accelerate. With a decreasing radius right turn so you'll need to scrub speed before then so you don't wash out. But too much loss of speed means not finishing the course. So drivers needed to find the balance.

The car show brought out some nice Corollas.

Coupes

Hatchbacks

Props to the people who were able to bring out their rides out to the middle of nowhere. No queen mary or orange county lakes up in here.

At the awards ceremony I won 2 trophies.

I was very happy. Hey Naoki where you going??

And very wet.

The event went really well, but of course when you have a collaboration of Vegas drift, Drift Association, and AE86 Nights, you wouldn't expect anything less from their hard work. Kudos to them and the many others who helped support the event. And of course to the owners themselves who came out to party and show their spirit. This is what Club4ag is all about.

Next year: ?


As the event ended I think about what's next. Due to low turn out, it maybe the last Club4AG sanctioned event. I hope it isn't so, but for now the future is a blur if there will actually be another event.

Now for the rest of the pics click here.

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Next Generation (its' not Star Trek)

Photo by UNLV @ Club4AG

Looking through the photos of AE86 nights track day was like a flashback


It reminded me of the old days. When Corollas ruled Group C.

It's good to see the next generation of Corolla drivers.

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Another series...

Tired of the same LeMon? Well looks like there's a challenger to $500 beater car racing. Let me introduce you to the Chump Car series, yes Chump Car I found this on racing on the cheap blog.
Looks like it's another series copy so if you can't get into LeMons, then you can try your hand at this series.

It looks promising, though the closest event they have is Infineon, in Norcal. I don't think the red attack boat can make it that far.

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From 2 to 4 doors.

Looks like Katsuhiro Ueo built himself a new ride for drifting. I've always been a fan of his driving style which is much different from other drivers, especially when it came to piloting AE86. Here's a video of him stepping into a 4 door. The name of the vehicle is Nissan Crew, which is used normally used for Taxi service.


Here's a picture in it's normal setting.

I thought the TE wagon he built for drift was cool, but a drift taxi, now that's something else.

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