Author Archives: Jared

Sonoma Raceway hosts an annual blood at the track and yesterday's proved to be very successful.  The track contacted a few new groups about the event and expanded the marketing reach for this program which resulted in a very busy afternoon of blood donations and hot laps.  I drove a hot lap car giving rides to people donating blood (of course before they donated..) along with driver Paul Charsley for 4.5 hours.  We gave rides to several hundred people.  Thanks again to Sonoma Raceway for the opportunity to be a part of another awesome event!

http://www.racesonoma.com/media/news/raceway-host-14th-annual-high-speed-blood-drive-may.html



 

Save Mart has been a major sponsor of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Sonoma Raceway for 23 years.  Each year the track hosts a day of appreciation for the Save Mart group and it is always a very fun day for the participants and for the people who run the event.  For several years now I have been fortunate to be asked by Sonoma Raceway to be the lead instructor for the event.  This year was particularly special because I was asked to bring my Ford 5.0 powered Nissan 240sx drift car to give rides in the morning.

The day went off without a hitch.  We started a presentation at 10:45am, then onto drift rides, then by 11:30am we began autocross practice for the participants.  At noon we drove the participants on Hot Laps in the Toyota Camrys on the road course (instructors driving were: Jeff Sakowicz, Alex Schutte, Andrew Shoen and myself).  After lunch we held the autocross challenge, a timed competition for the participants and wrapped up by 2:30pm with awards and a short presentation.

Once Alex and I had cleared the main paddock of all the autocross cones and got everything put away, I gave drift rides to a few friends at the raceway.  It was a great day of work and even better playing around afterwards.  Thanks again to Sonoma Raceway for all of the amazing opportunities that I have been given over the years.

Drift Rides at Sonoma 4/15/14

Sonoma Raceway, formerly Infineon Raceway, formerly Sears Point Raceway, has been the home to a variety of racing schools throughout the last several decades.  In 1973 the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving moved to Sears Point Raceway from Ontario Motorspeedway.  In 1991 Skip Barber Racing School moved in and then in 1996 the Jim Russell racing Drivers School took the spot at the track.  1996 was the year that I first began coming out to the raceway as a spectator at 13 years old.  The Jim Russell Racing Drivers School went through many changes over the last decade and has morphed into what is now the Simraceway Performance Driving Center.  The Audi Sportscar Experience is a sister school to the Simraceway PDC, and shares the same campus.

I have worked at the racing school as an instructor throughout the changes in ownership, management, property and location.  The school has now completely settled in with its new appearance and fleets of cars.  The program days are busy and often times there is a combination of Karting, Highway Survival, Audi, Performance Driving, and Formula 3 programs running simultaneously at the raceway.

The Simraceway Performance Driving Center, Simraceway Performance Karting Center and the Audi Sportscar Experience offer the highest quality in vehicles and driving programs.  The instructors at the school are a great group of people and are excellent to work with.

The Simraceway Performance Driving Center offers courses for drivers 8 years old and up, and has a plethora of programs to choose from.  The school can be contacted through their website at http://simracewaydrivingschool.com/ or by calling the office at 1 800 733 0345.

See you at the track!



 

 

Below is footage of me driving the Ford 5.0 / Trick Flow powered Nissan 240 on the road course between turns 2 and 5 at Sonoma Raceway during a Sonoma Drift practice event on Wednesday afternoon March 19th, 2014.  I had the track nearly to myself and got a good amount of runs in a short period of time.  Went through 3 sets of rear tires at the track and got out of there before dark.  Thanks again to Leno Ramos and everyone at Sonoma Drift and Sonoma Raceway for putting on such entertaining and successful drift events.

I was kindly invited by AD3RACING to join in on a day at the skid pad up at Thunderhill Raceway on March 5th, 2014.  The day was cloudy and quiet, and we got the drifting in before the rain came through.  In January this year I drove in a karting race with Team Infinity Karting and today's time at the skid pad was planned for the karting team to come out and have a try at drifting.  Unfortunately most of the team could not make it last minute, however Tazio Otis was able to hang out for the whole day.  Tazio picked up drifting in no time.  Towards the end of the day I did some driving and got a bit of footage. The car ran great without any serous problems and I am looking forward to driving in some events this year with Drift Team Animal Style.

Thanks to GoPro again!

 

On Thursday February 7th, 2014, I headed out to Thunderhill for a test day in the AD3RACING Spec Mustang along with drivers Tony and Ted.  We were joined by a great crew Danny, Don and Cory.  The track was very wet in the morning and lost surface moisture very slowly as the day went on.  Each session the car gained grip around the track and we found the initial setup to be good in the wet.  The car tended to be a bit tight in the low speed corners and felt pretty balanced in the faster sections.  It was a lot of fun communicating about the car's handling characteristics and the rain line with Ted and Tony.

I have not been on track at Thunderhill in a proper race car for a few years so it was very nice to be out there again.  Driving in the wet is something I have always enjoyed very much.  The rain line is a tricky science and there are different ways to tackle the job, it is always a challenge to be as adaptable as necessary to get everything out of the car and the ever changing track surface.

Thanks to Tony at AD3RACING for the opportunity to work in the shop over the last few weeks getting the Mustang ready and for the enjoyable seat time at Thunderhill.

I drove on a very telented team in the annual 4 Hour Enduro at the Simraceway Performance Karting Center at Sonoma Raceway on January 25th, 2014.  The Infinity Karting driver line up included Jarrett Lile, Tazio Otis, Sean McDonald and myself.  David Carrasco (owner and operator of Infinity Karting) did an amazing job crewing for our team.  On the start of the race we made it into the lead by Turn One.  Just a few laps into the four hour event the flywheel came loose on the engine and Jarrett quickly thought on his feet to push the kart into the pits.  David has us back on track in no time!  We made up laps and regained the 1st place position in class.  We finished behind two very fast and consistent Masters teams, ending up 3rd overall.

GoPro is continuing a sponsorship agreement for 2014 with Jared Thompson and now Drift Team Animal Style (team principles: Julian Jacobs, Ryan Kado and Jared Thompson). GoPro offers the finest action cameras on the market and Drift Team Animal Style is proud to sport the GoPro logo on all of the team's cars and represent the company in future video productions.  Drift Team Animal Style is all about bringing light to grassroots drifting and super aggressive driving styles.  The amazing camera company has supplied the team with a dozens sets of cameras and gear in order to film demonstration drift events coming up in 2014 which will take place at Sonoma Raceway and other locations.  Thanks GoPro and the Director of Sports Marketing Rod Rojas for the opportunity and helping Drift Team Animal Style to gain more popularity and reach over the course of 2014 and beyond.







 

 

On Saturday January 18th 2014 Sonoma Raceway hosted a first time event called Laps for Charity. This 3 lap track-tour sold out within just several days and raised over $8,000 for children's charities in the Sonoma Valley. I was the lead instructor and speaker for the event delivering 11 track talks to over 100 people over the course of 6 hours. Professional drivers Memo Gidley, Ken Dobson and Andrew Shoen lead the participants around the 2.52 mile road course in the raceway's Toyota Camrys. The participants had a blast and absolutely loved seeing the track from the racing surface rather than from the stands. The event was a complete success! Thanks again to Sonoma Raceway for the amazing opportunity to help with this awesome children's charity event.

2013 was a very busy year for me as I took over a management position for the kart track at Sonoma Raceway, the Simraceway PKC.  One of the most rewarding experiences was running a three day long summer camp for kids.  I found this nice write up by pro driver Memo Gidley:

http://memogidley.com/2013/07/gidley-guest-speaker-at-simraceway-kids-summer-camp/

In 2013 I directed the Arrive and Drive Karting Series for the SPKC and created several new programs and curriculum for the racing school.  It was a very exciting year indeed and a lot of time spent at the kart track.

Each month I helped baseline test the karts for the arrive and drive race series which was a nice way to get out of the office.  Here is an in-kart video of my favorite Simraceway PCK track configuration: National Reverse.  This was a cold morning after a rain the day before, so the lap time is a bit off but definitely fun pushing the kart to its limits.