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!

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!