Auto Club Speedway in Fontana California is just a short 3 hour drive from my house, but it was the first time there, and my first time on a NASCAR oval track.
The track we would race on today had two components to it, the first was a real banked track the the NASCAR series visits once a year. It wasn’t too steep, but was definitely something I had never experienced before.
The second part uses the infield part of the oval to make a 21 turn “roval” or road oval course.
You can actually rent one of the garages that are used during the NASCAR races, I didn’t know this til I arrived and missed out on a space.
The Integra was coming to this race unchanged from the last race in Pahrump. I wanted to see how the Street class in the Honda Challenge was going to end up, and if a podium spot was possible in my first year. Skip to the bottom to see my results and place in the championship.
As I was getting ready for the first session of the day I spotted this wicked Shelby gt350 off in a far corner of the lot.
The interior looked all business even for a 60’s era car, I love the bucket seats.
This brand new C7 Corvette had 560 miles on it and was already at the track. The car has a base price of $58k but the owner said with options and dealer markup he paid over $76k. The owner traded in a Porsche 911 to get the car so I guess the upgrades GM made where enough to lure in european car drivers.
This is a real Porsche cup car, it came in a hauler with it’s own mechanic ready for the owner/driver to just jump in and drive.
This Nissan 240sx is one of the most well built I have ever seen, it could be in a magazine never mind on a race track.
The Car feature a fully built Sr20det, with a complete Greddy turbo kit, and intake manifold. Horsepower was said to be over 350.
This 1986 turbo 911’s owner used at least 1 roll of tape to protect it’s paint, but at least it was on the track not in a garage.
The engine looked stock, but I’m sure it was still a blast to drive.
The banked course let the high horsepower cars stretch their legs and hit speed over 160mph, the most I was willing to reach was 110 before I had to slow down for the 90 degree turn into the road course.
An experienced driver with a high horsepower car should be able to drive the course in under 2 minutes. I did it in 2:22.114. The was another competitor from the Honda challenge in my class with a lighter but similarly powered integra, and he was about 10 seconds faster so there is a lot of room to improve. I know with a little more experience I can get a second or two off of my time.The Acura needs to go on a diet as I still have air conditioning, cruise control, and the sunroof to remove to be competitive in the class.
The other driver racing today finished ahead of me and locked me out of a podium finish this year. If I was able to attend more events during the summer when the car was getting it’s new clutch and differential installed I might have had a chance. The winter is here and I will soon begin a tear down of the car with a goal of a faster and light Integra for next year.
Stay tuned as I will update with all the new improvements.