Windy Conditions Challenge Autocrossers At November Event
Participants at the Cal Club Autocross event on Sunday, November 11 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana dealt with billowing winds, a narrow course, and lots of cones calls at the penultimate autocross of the 2018 season.
Three junior karters in the Junior A class kick-started the competition, with Robert Ekstand—in his last ever event in JA—coming from behind for the win after coning his first three runs. His fastest time was eight-tenths quicker than Shelby Baltazar, who improved on each of her four runs to finish in second place.
The top four finishers in PAX Ladies all went the fastest on their final runs, but it was Jessica Pao who claimed the top spot defeating Lisa Berry by half a second. Catherine Tran finished in third just .053 behind, but did so on a coned run which prevented her from moving up.
Thomas Frecentese stood on his first run in C Street to win the class, besting Leonard Cachola by 1.3 seconds. Michael Parker coned his fastest run, which would have put him second instead of third in the class, but graciously offered up a co-drive to Cachola after issues prevented Cachola from driving his own Mazda.
Another driver to win on the first run was Steve O’Blenes in Street Touring eXtreme, and boy did he need that initial clean time, coning his next three runs. Derek Punch finished in second place .395 back on a dirty run, with Adam Tarnoff finishing third .286 behind.
In the five-driver Historic 1 class, Doug Teulie in his Volkswagen Scirocco improved in each of his four consecutive runs to take top honors by 1.4-seconds over Brian Jackson in his ’69 Corvair.
Course designer Tom Berry found success in PAX class, cleaning up two dirty runs to finish four-tenths ahead of Tom O’Gorman for the win. O’Gorman’s final two runs had the raw time to move up, but unfortunately they were also dirty. Jeff Stuart finished third in the nine-driver class.
Sebastian Rios had the early lead in B Street and held on as Don Green improved by 1.5-seconds from his third to fourth runs to claim second place honors. Michael Yanase was the top finisher in the seven driver Street Touring Roadster class, besting Jonathon Lugod by nearly half a second. However, Lugod never got one clean run in, but his raw time was enough to win. Robert Joe finished in third place only .278 behind Lugod with Kevin Pao in fourth .123 behind.
Nicole Wong’s third run was fastest amongst the F Street drivers, earning her top honors by nearly three seconds against Myles Wakayama, whose fastest run was dirty. New to the Solo Spec Coupe class, Reed Gibson drove Yuting Guan’s FRS and promptly rocketed to a first place finish, beating Mike Simanyi by 1.6-seconds.
Craig Naylor had the lead in Street Touring Sport after three runs thanks in part to two dirty runs from Gary Cameron, but Cameron finally matched his raw times clean on his fourth run to re-take the lead and win the class by six-tenths.
California Street Touring was the largest class of the event with 10 drivers. Brandon Porambo (back to the class after a year in CAM), took the win using a fast and clean fourth run to top Jacob Abrams by .661. Scott Hanson finished in third place with Jonathan Hartendorp in fourth only a tenth behind. Adrian Cardenas had the fastest raw time of the class, but was dirty on all his runs, placing fifth.
Marco Kok in his Miata won the four-driver Novice class by over four seconds against Corey Reiner in his Camaro.
Cal Club Autocross returns to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on December 9 for its final event of the 2018 season.
A big thanks to all our chiefs and volunteers!
Event Master - Randy Gonzalez Registration - Matthew Gonzalez Timing and Scoring - Rick Brown Course Designer - Tom Berry Workers - Lisa Berry Tech - Vereker Tam Gate - Kevin Pao Novice Coordinator - Leonard Cachola Safety Steward - Stanley Kowalski Youth Steward - Steve Ekstrand
