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!
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