Mike Cronin Sizzles!

Round 4 of the Redline Track Events 2011 Season was held July 2-3 at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond California.  Typical desert weather prevailed, with daytime temps upwards of 105 degrees the entire weekend.  Pavement temps hovered around the 160 degree mark, making the newly resealed track surface slick and greasy.

Good thing Mike and the 350Z were in peak form! Cort Wagner, the consummate pro, ignored the heat and drove the GTR flawlessly all weekend.

Redline had a fun day planned for Saturday, complete with drag races and a fantastic Fireworks Show!  Mr. Cronin and Mike both took advantage of the opportunity to beat up on each other drag racing the Firebird and Ferrari 458!

Age wins before beauty every time. Mr. Cronin now has bragging rights in the Ferrari over Mike Jr in the 1000 ft. drags!

Unfortunately, Scott VanderHeide in the Sentra had a turbo seal failure in the MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Championship Liberty Grand Prix, run in the relative cool of the evening before the Fireworks Show.  Aaron Singh also had a mechanical failure taking him out of the Pro Time Attack competition.

Mike Cronin put down a blistering qualifying lap of 1:22.45 to take the pole position. Cort came in a strong 4th, with a 1:23.951 in the heat.  The Super Session start was marred by an incident between Joey Scarallo and Lou Gigliotti in turn one, ending the day for both competitors. 

The restart followed, with both Fontana Nissan Racing entries on the front row.  Mike was able to bring home the win, followed closely by Cort and Paul Brown.  The brackets are set!

Mike’s first battle was against the new competitor Fred Poordad in his Porsche GT3 cup car.  Mike was able to move on, sending Fred to the loosers bracket.  Meanwhile Cort was pitted against the tough Paul Brown and came up just short.

Cort would next face Poordad but the excessive heat played havoc with the GTR’s street car electronics, sending it into limp home mode. Hard to race in limp home mode. Cort would finish the event in 4th place.

Mike would face Paul Brown in the K&N Filters car for the win.  By now, both cars and both drivers were heat soaked to the max, but Mike was able to keep the 350Z out in front and take the win!

Fortunately, the champagne was ice cold! Congratulations to all the competitors and crews for surviving a very challenging weekend!

Technorati Tags: Fontana Nissan Racing,Nissan Race Shop.com,Circuit Battles,Redline Track Events,Mike Cronin,Cort Wagner,Nissan 350Z,Nissan GTR

Just Because We Would Love To See You!

 

Here is a $5 off discount coupon for the upcoming Liberty Grand Prix! Print the Coupon HERE.

Mike will be driving the 350Z,  Cort Wagner in the GTR, as well as Scott Vanderheide with his Sentra and Aaron Singh with his Nissan!  Kerryann de la Cruz will be back in action at Round 5 Buttonwillow.

Make plans to come out Saturday for practice, as well as the BIG FIREWORKS SHOW!!!!!  Keep yourself occupied before the Fireworks Show by running your car in the 1000 foot Drags down the front straight at Willow!

While you are enjoying your  cold beer,  cast your vote for the Miss Redline Model Search Contest Contestants! The contest will be going on Saturday afternoon and evening.

Sunday the racing will begin!  The Pro Time Attack sessions will be in the morning with the Pro Track Challenge beginning at 1:30pm.  Crews will be filming for the TV Show Circuit Battles!

Love to see you!

Technorati Tags: Fontana Nissan Racing,Nissan Race Shop.com,Pro Track Challenge,Circuit Battles,Pro Time Attack,Redline Track Events,Mike Cronin,Cort Wagner

Round 3 Auto Club Speeeeeeedway!

Fontana Nissan Racing made the couple mile trek to our home track, Auto Club Speedway to compete in Round 3 of the Redline Track Events Season!

Notice anything different? The GT-R has gone from stealth black to sporting the identical livery of the 350Z!  Thanks to Michael and the boys at All Digital Ink the GT-R was transformed into the twin of the 350Z in record time.

With Mike Cronin at the wheel, the Z was looking fast during all practice sessions Saturday. 

The new Team Look!

Before qualifying Mike Cronin experienced a problem with the fuel pump, resulting in no qualifying time.  He was relegated to the back of the pack for the Super Session Race which sets the upcoming Battles.

Cort Wagner was able to qualify a strong 4th place with a blistering time of 1:41.702!

The Super Session got off to a great start, with Mike clawing his way toward the front and Cort holding onto 4th. Mike and Paul Brown had an epic battle with Mike just beating Paul to the finish line to secure 2nd place!

Unfortunately, just as the first Battle started, the electrons in the 350Z went on strike and Mike was done for the day.  Cort first battled Joey Scarallo and was dispatched to the Consolation bracket by the GTO.

After a bye against the broken Mini Cooper of Dez Ballard, Cort was set to battle the improving Lars Wolf in the next bracket. 

The two seesawed back and forth, to the delight of the crowd!  Lars was able to just take Cort at the line, moving on and sending Cort to the sidelines.

Fontana Nissan Racing now sits 2nd and 4th in the Championship Points Standing for the Pro Track Challenge.  Next up, Willow Springs Raceway and the track Mike has a zillion miles on!

Also new this race was the debut of Scott VanderHeide running MotoIQ PTCC in his Nissan Race Shop.com Sentra and Kerryann De La Cruz in her R35 GTR competing in the Pro Time Attack Modified Class.

Unfortunately Scott experienced fuel starvation all weekend and chalked this one up to “Getting it Sorted Out” ! 

Kerryann’s debut was also a shake down and she is getting a few items sorted as well.  She finished 1st in the Modified AWD class!

Aaron Singh ran very well in his Nissan, taking 1st place in the hotly contested Modified RWD class! Congratulations to him!

Stay tuned for information about the upcoming airing of the Circuit Battles TV show and make sure to attend the next event, July 2-3 at Willow Springs!

See you there!

Technorati Tags: Fontana Nissan Racing,Nissan Race Shop.com,Redline Track Events,RTE,Pro Track Challenge,Circuit Battles,Mike Cronin,Cort Wagner,Scott Vanderheide,Kerryann De La Cruz,Aaron Singh

Circuit Battles Airs Saturday April 30!

Don’t miss the epic first episode of the TV show Circuit Battles, airing this Saturday April 30th at 11am Pacific Time, 2pm Eastern Time on VERSUS.

There is plenty of in-car, on the car, and outside the car camera footage, interviews with Cort Wagner and Gary Sheehan, girls, action, drama, and girls.

The first episode is 30 minutes, with subsequent episodes being 60 minutes. 

Don’t miss it!! Tell your friends!! Tell your enemies! Tell your relatives!

Catch the Fontana Nissan Racing team in action at Auto Club Speedway, May 28-29, 2011!

Technorati Tags: Fontana Nissan Racing,Pro Track Challenge,Redline Track Events,Circuit Battles,VERSUS,Mike Cronin,Cort Wagner,Nissan 350Z,Nissan GTR

Doing it in the desert!

Fontana Nissan Racing took to Interstate 10, heading for Firebird International Raceway in Phoenix and Round 2 of the Pro Track Challenge.

Saturday dawned wet, cold, rainy, cold, windy, miserable, and just plain yucky.  Oh well, make another pot of coffee and try to stay warm. Neither car ventured out on a very slippery track.

Never bet a kid that he can’t fit into a tire.  You will lose.

Sunday’s weather was the complete opposite of Saturday. Yea!!! Sunny, warm and beautiful, just like the desert should be!

Both Mike Cronin in the 350Z and Cort Wagner in the GTR were eager to make up for lost time, and entered the track for the first time all weekend.

First up after a quick practice session was the qualifying session, with all cars trying to lay down their quickest laps to get a good spot in the Super Session race later in the day.

The 350Z was running great, thanks to some last minute tweaks by Naoto, the Sakata Motorsports guru. Mike was able to take the top qualifying position with a blistering lap of 1:01.206!

Cort was very quick in the GTR,  following closely behind Mike with a qualifying lap of 1:02.151 for 3rd.

After qualifying the crew set about getting the cars ready for the Super Session, a 5 lap wheel to wheel race that would set the brackets for the Circuit Battles.

The drivers were kept busy with interviews by Samantha Schacher, the pit reporter for the Circuit Battles TV show. Mike was able to meet the legendary Tarzan Yamada, racing for the first time Pro Track Challenge!

The drivers discussed performance issues with Naoto and endlessly watched themselves drive around the track. Again. And again.

After working out any issues with the cars, they bench raced. Again.

Next up, the Super Session start, with Mike and Lou Gigliotti on the front row.

With Lou out front, the 350Z, GTR, and Paul Brown in the K&N Infinity were battling all the way to the checkered flag.

Gigliotti won, followed closely by Mike, then Cort in the GTR.  The bracket races would be set by this finishing order.  First up for FNR was Cronin vs. Tsaran and Wagner vs. Wolfe. (Scroll down to the previous post for the complete write up on each bracket.) Each race is a green, white, checker race, with the winner moving on and the loser either going home or to the loser’s bracket.

Both FNR cars were victorious, setting up the first FNR on FNR battle!

Mike was the winner, setting up a battle with Lou Gigliotti, and Cort went to the loser’s bracket to battle Paul Brown.

Mike lost by a hair, and Cort won, setting up a second round of FNR vs. FNR.  Mike once again bested Cort to win a place in the final winner-take-all battle!

Talk about exciting!  This photo says it all.  The battle was intense! In the end, Lou Gigliotti took the win in Round 2 and Mike settled for a fantastic 2nd place finish!

Congratulations to all the Pro Track Challenge drivers!  Stay tuned for air date information of Circuit Battles!

Th th th thaaaaats All Folks! See you at Auto Club May 28th!

Technorati Tags: Fontana Nissan Racing,Nissan Race Shop.com,Redline Track Events,Circuit Battles,Pro Track Challenge,Mike Cronin,Cort Wagner