ROK The Rockies 2019 – Race Director

  By Jared | February 24, 2019 - 2:25 pm |
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I am honored to have been offered the position of Race Director for the 2019 ROK The Rockies kart racing championship. All events will take place at SBR Motorsports Park in Calhan, CO. This will be the 2nd year of the ROK The Rockies Series. I'll be working with SBR Motorsports Park owner Lee Seigel and members of the national ROK team in efforts to grow the series and make sure the events go off without a hitch. I am looking forward to this year at the kart track and meeting some new people in the Colorado kart racing scene.

I worked for the Florida Winter Tour Round #2 at The Hard Rock Stadium  (where the Dolphins play NFL games) and will be flying back out to Florida for Round #3 of the FWT at Ocala Gran Prix. Shadowing the national ROK crew and race directors at these events is great training and I feel that I will be more than prepared to direct the ROK The Rockies series this year.

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Pikes Peak International Raceway – Track Manager

  By Jared | February 5, 2019 - 5:30 am |
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It has been an amazing and rewarding experience working with the team at PPIR for over 3 years building our driving programs, events and community. After much thought and consideration I decided to step down from the Track Manager position at PPIR in January 2019. I am so grateful for the support that my colleagues, friends and family have given me in this decision to spend more time with my baby boy Asher. I will still be around the race track as an instructor and driver as needed for events and programs. Tommy Boileau and Brady Alberson have taken over the majority of my responsibilities as Track Manager and I believe they will do excellent work moving forward.

It has been a wonderful experience developing new driving programs such as the Performance Driving Xperience, Time Attack and Drift Series, Drive 365 corporate driving events, and more.  Seeing Hot Rod Rock and RUmble and a few of the other major events take off has been exciting and rewarding. I am sure that the team at PPIR will continue building programs and events with the momentum we established over the last few years.

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Fuji Speedway – Toyota World Conference with The Driving Connection

  By Jared | November 24, 2018 - 4:56 pm |
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In November of 2015 I worked with the Driving Connection once again at a pretty special location: Fuji Speedway, Japan. The last bout of work I had with Ron Nelson's unique company was on Alcatraz Island during a TV show premier shuttling folks up and down the narrow and steep roads on the island to a jail-house party.. This time around we were in Japan. I was one of roughly 150 driving instructors and professional drivers that flew in from the United States to work the Toyota World Conference. I spent my days at the track assisting in course setup and riding right-seat in the then totally new Toyota Mirai (Hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle).

Apex Speed Kart Racing School

  By Jared | July 24, 2015 - 2:44 pm |
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I started up the Apex Speed Kart Racing School LLC in 2015 at SBR Motorsports Park in Calhan, CO. After about a year of successful operation I was offered the position of Track Manager at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, CO. I made the decision to leave my efforts with Apex Speed Kart Racing School at that point in time to take the job at PPIR. SBR Motorsports Park still offers Apex Speed programs and high-end sprint karting experiences on their amazingly fun and challenging asphalt road course.

Check out www.sbrmotorsportspark.com

 

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Bosch Driver Training Program with SPDC

  By Jared | October 3, 2014 - 3:35 pm |
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Just wrapped up another 2-day corporate driver training program for engineers at Bosch who specialize in designing self-driving car software. The most entertaining portion of the driving school was the hour-glass skid car course on day-2. The drivers became better and better at this drill with practice, however linking the entire course and maintaining over-steer was only achieved by the instructors. I had a great couple of days working alongside fellow instructor and driver Aleks Altberg. Aleks filmed me testing the course out in the morning before the event. This is a FWD Chevy Cruze with a plastic doughnut for a right rear tire..  Fun stuff!  Thanks for the video Aleks!

IndyCar Weekend Hot Laps at Sonoma 2014

  By Jared | August 27, 2014 - 7:00 pm |
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IndyCar has come and gone once again, and another full season of major events has finalized at Sonoma Raceway for 2014.

I have been driving hot laps at the event for several years now.  Drivers Tony Brakohiapa, Andrew Shoen, and Greg Evans joined in on the action to drive 4 Toyota Camrys around the track as many times as possible in the morning before IndyCar practice took over.

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Breaking in the Thunderhill West Road Course

  By Jared | August 20, 2014 - 6:00 pm |
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On August 2nd 2014 I participated in the inaugural Thunderdrift event on the new west section of Thunderhill Raceway.  The new track is amazing for drifting with its many combination corners, blind crests, and hairpins.  This was my last day driving the Ford V8 powered Nissan 240sx.  I went out in style with the freshly painted and body kitted car pulling long continuous drifts in the top of 4th gear.  I spent one lap in-particular linking the drift through the entire course, even connecting the two longer straightaways in 4th gear by swinging the rear end back and forth (manji-drift) and timing the line to hit the turn in point of the upcoming corner.  The car is now in the hands of its proud new owner and I have plans of getting back into more road racing and some hill climb events once Alea and I settle into our new home in Colorado.

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Instructing at Autoweek Fantasy Camp 2014

  By Jared | May 15, 2014 - 4:28 pm |
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I was one of a dozen driving instructors for the 2014 Autoweek Fantasy Camp at Sonoma Raceway.  The participants had a true bucket list experience; they got to see what it's like to be in the shoes of the best performance automotive journalists in the world.  Autoweek brought a plethora of new sports-cars to the track for these car enthusiasts to drive.  It was a long day at the raceway and no doubt, very exciting for the drivers.  I spent a total of 6 hours in the right seat of the cars that were brought to the event with the participants driving on the road course and autocross.  At the end of the day the instructors took a turn behind the wheel to show the students exactly how to get around Sonoma Raceway.

My personal favorite car from the event was the new Dodge Viper.  The car is an absolute beast and although it may not be balanced as well as the Cayman, or a few other cars that were present, sometimes nothing beats raw horsepower and the sound of the V10 under the hood.20140510_081524 20140510_081543 20140510_081932 20140510_082350 20140510_082633 20140510_082840 20140510_083720 20140510_083740 20140510_084010 20140510_085042 20140510_085332 20140510_095138 20140510_114054 20140510_114335 20140510_114355 20140510_114614 20140510_163922 20140510_163948

Three-Sixty Drifts with Jared Thompson in V8 Nissan 240sx

  By Jared | May 15, 2014 - 3:28 pm |
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Last week on Wednesday evening, May 7th 2014, I made something happen that I have wanted to try for a long time..  I drifted the upper loop section of Sonoma Raceway and threw a 360 degree spin into the mix in between turns 3a and 4.  This is a somewhat sketchy place to try the 360 because of the high speeds and the close proximity to the outer k-wall.  It was an amazing feeling accomplishing this goal and I believe I am the first person to pull off an intentional 360 on this particular section of the road course without loosing drift.

Thanks to GoPro for providing the Hero 3 cameras to capture the action!