FEDERAL TIRES SPEEDSF CHALLENGE @ WEATHERTECH RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA - JUNE 17, 2018 - ROUND 6
Welcome to Maz--- WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca! Our first SpeedSF Challenge held here since the official name change. We're still trying to rewire our brains saying the new name, right Joe McG?
Anyhoo, this round's SpeedSF Challenge went smoothly and featured 30 drivers with a variety of cars (also, mostly Porsches). Even a Ferrari came out to play this time!
Records fell thanks to Andrie Hartanto (Group S1) and Gary Yeung (Group S3). Andrie's record with his Chevrolet C6 Corvette Z06 was a 1:34.444 (W O W) whereas Gary's record was a 1:40.618 in his Mango Honda S2000.
Starting with the Group X class, we had one entrant, and ergo, one winner: Kevin Woods with his 2016 Porsche GT3 RS, posting a 1:39.087.
In the Group S5 class, we had two entrants, with Karan Shertukue earning a 2nd place finish in his Miata (2:00.108) while George Kibilov took home 1st place in his Miata by putting down a 1:47.139 lap time.
In the Group S4 class, 4 entrants laid down their lap times. In 3rd place, Vasu Divi put a 1:57.643 on the track in his FR-S, while Justin Cruz had a 1:56.039 lap time in his 2017 Subaru BRZ, earning him a 2nd place finish. In 1st place, Mikhail Butenko put down a fast lap of 1:48.132 in his 1992 BMW 325is. Very nice!
The stacked Group S3 class featured 11 entrants, and boy, were the lap times close. 3rd place finisherMartin Riente laid down a 1:42.003 in his Honda S2000 while 2nd place finisher Thiago Aguiar posted a 1:40.709 in his 2007 BMW M3. Just barely squeaking into 1st place was the aforementioned Gary Yeung in his Honda S2000, laying it all on the line with a class record-breaking 1:40.618.
Group S2 featured 5 high flyers and some really fast cars. In 3rd place, we have Steven "how the heck did he pull that off" Chiu, putting a 1:42.460 in his 2004 BMW M3. 2nd place finisher who barely stayed ahead of Steven by two-tenths of a second was Hans Soho in his 2016 Porsche Cayman GT4. He earned his place with a 1:42.235 lap time. 1st place boy racer was none other than Sean Yepez in a 2007 Lotus Exige S who had a blistering 1:39.705 lap time!
Group S1 had 7 drivers with their own fast cars, but even the two Porsche 911 GT3s couldn't outgun the American power Andrie put on display this time around. Jeff H took home 3rd place in his GT3 by putting down a 1:39.356 lap time while 2nd place Chris Bales, who was very close to grabbing 1st, put down a 1:34.859 lap time, only four-tenths away from Andrie's 1st-place-winning 1:34.44 lap time in his C6 Z06 Corvette.
A great job to the drivers who won their places and THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the SpeedSF Challenge!
As we look forward to Round 7 of the SpeedSF Challenge at Sonoma Raceway, 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 Sonoma Raceway on July 7, 2018. Again, please check out the event website by clicking here. We will see you at our next event!