Free Fun Runs and Modified Format Highlight Autocross #13

Full Results

Cal Club Autocross concluded its 2017 season on Sunday, December 3 with a modified event format that included hot swapping workers (similar to a national-style event) and free fun runs at the end of the day. With idyllic December weather and a challenging Tom Berry designed course, over 115 people said goodbye to 2017.

Street Touring Roadster led things off in the morning with co-drivers Michael Yanase and Matt Ales going 1-2 in the 11-driver class. Yanase coned his fastest run but still held on for the .047 victory, while Ken Motonishi rounded out the podium .800 back of Ales.

Edward Tsui’s car broke at the Saturday practice, leaving co-driver Leonard Cachola without a ride for Sunday. However, as is the norm in autocross, drivers frequently step up and allow their competitors to drive their cars. Dennis Hubbard did just this for Cachola, and the duo ended up battling it out for the E Street win. In the end, Cachola’s fourth run edged out Hubbard by three-tenths for his second straight class victory.

Two more winners relied on fast fourth runs to claim top honors in their classes. The first was Julian Manolov in Street Mod Combined (consisting of cars in SSM, SM, and SMF), who edged Matt Davis in his SMF car by .112. In Street Touring Sport, the top four drivers all laid down their best times on their last runs, but it was Kai Hur who came out on top, besting Stephen Yeoh by .411.

In Street Touring eXtreme, Steve O’Blenes was the only driver in the three-person class to get in a clean run (which is surprising for those that know “no lift” O’Blenes), beating co-driver Adam Tarnoff by 2.6 seconds. In F Street, Myles Wakayama took the crown by 1.1-seconds against Maurice Polak, while Tom Tanquary earned a 2.1 second win over co-driver Curt Luther.

Omar Kaayal had the lead in the five-person H Street class until the final run, when Don Green improved by over 1.2 seconds from his third to fourth runs to leapfrog past Kaayal and take the almost three-tenths victory. Similarly, Lisa Berry was the early leader in PAX Ladies until Neelu Yeoh cleaned up her act following three straight dirty runs to move past Berry for the .284 win.

For the second straight event, Jeff Stuart put a smack down on the PAX class, this time winning by one second. Tom Berry finished in second place with Jeff Wong in third in the intense 10-driver class.

Brian Strovers defeated wife Cathy in Super Stock R by 1.3 seconds, while Brian Howlett won Historic 1 by over five seconds against Cal Woolsey. Both Classic American Muscle classes saw the champion win by identical 1.4 seconds: Greg Nelson over Paul Molina in CAM-C, and Chad Ryker over Efrain Diaz in CAM-T.

The closest win of the day came in the last group, as Terence Chang’s fourth run was .016 faster than Brandon Porambo’s third. Randy Gonzalez held on for the A Street victory after Danny Castillo coned his fastest run, which would have given him the top spot. In Novice class, Thomas Gallagher won by 2.3 seconds over Dan Duran.

Completing the competition runs for the day were the Junior Karts, with Robert Ekstrand running unopposed in Junior A, and Samuel Barrish winning Junior B by 1.7 seconds over Shelby Baltazar.

Cal Club Autocross opens its 2018 season on January 13-14 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

We would like to thank Randy Gonzalez for being event master, Tom Berry for designing course, Stanley Kowalski for being our safety steward, Neelu Yoeh as worker chief, Rick Brown as timing and scoring chief, Vereker Tam as tech chief, Maggie Jardine as registration chief, gate chief Kevin Pao, youth steward Steve Ekstrand, and our novice coordinator Leonard Cachola for their hard work this weekend. These volunteers are the people who made this event possible, and if any of these positions interest you, let us know so we can get you more information!