I drove my Ford 5.0 powered Nissan 240sx on Saturday December 21st 2013 in the Winter Jam Mayhem Course (continuous lapping around a walled up skid pad configuration).  The day was really amazing as this was the first time in over a year that I have driven the car without running issues..  The Ford 5.0 is dressed with trick flow heads, cam and intake, 30lb Ford Racing injectors, a Pro-M MAF, and headers.  Can't wait to drive soon with friends and Team Animal Sytle.

Winter Jam is an annual drifting competition at Sonoma Raceway which utilizes the NASCAR chute and Turn-7 area on the road course.  The competition brings in a large turnout of drivers and some of the most competitive drifting action on the west coast. Thompson will be testing his V8 powered Nissan 240sx on the Meihan  Course Dec. 21st and will be directing the competition on Dec. 22nd, 2013.

Still troubleshooting the Nissan 240sx with a Ford 5.0 V8 under the hood. We believe that the car has a wiring issue buried within the harness.. The car will likely be converted from fuel injection and mass air flow to a carburetor setup. Winter Jam is in late December and we hope to have the car sorted out by then.

My wife Alea had her first track day in a 2003 Honda S2000.  She had a great day at the track! I drove a session in the car as well, it was a great day with the top down at the racetrack.

Driving the Simraceway Performance Driving Center's stock cars for hot laps during the 2013 NASCAR race weekend at Sonoma Raceway was a blast.  I drove along side pro drivers such as Tom Dyer, Matt Bell, Greg Liefooghe, and others.  The school's stock cars are available for racing programs, go to pdc.simraceway.com for more information or call 1-800-733-0345.

Thompson drove the Ford 5.0 V8 powered Nissan 240 in the year end event for Wednesday Night drifting with Sonoma Drift at Sonoma Raceway.  The night was full of wall tapping action.  Thompson's 5.0 blew out a radiator hose during the third round of open drift practice in the expert group. Go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MspReFDyJPg  

I was privileged to be the lead speaker and instructor at Race Sonoma for a media day which covered the effects of distracted driving. Go to the link below to see a video of the educational event. http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/distracted-driving-experiment-at-the-raceway-in/vgN63/

Tuesday, September 11th was a long day at the raceway.  I tested the SNT Motorsports Development Spec Miata in the morning, coaching WTCC driver Charles Ng.  In the afternoon I drove hot laps for 4 hours in the raceway's Toyotas for a blood drive event.

Last night was the season's last points race night for the NASCAR Whelen series at All American Speedway in Roseville, CA.  Tony D'Alessandro owner and driver for AD3RACING did an amazing job through the course of the night.  I was spotting for Tony all day and watched the car go from an ill handling dump truck to looking like a race car out there.  With some setup advice from Chris Scribner, we dialed out the push and got the car to free up enough to drive up towards the front. Tony qualified 10th, with a wickedly bad setup on the car.  However he managed to drive it up to a 5th place finish last night, achieving his best finishing position in a NASCAR Late Model race to date, also pulling off a really clean save and maintained position as a competitor car was rubbing him loose into a corner at nearly 100 miles per hour. Perhaps one of the best parts of the night was the fan appreciation event where the cars were all parked along the front straight and the spectators were allowed onto the track for about an hour.  Tony decided to have the fans sign his car with Sharpies.  Check out the pictures below, we definitely made some new fans last night. I had a blast hanging out with the crew and with Tony.  Looking forward to spotting for D'Alessandro again next month for a money race at All American Speedway.

I officiated the timing system to capture a new track record for electric vehicle lap time at Sonoma on 9/7/12.  The Kleenspeed prototype electric racecar set a quick time of a 1:35.99 around the 12 corner 2.52 mile road course.  Paul Charsley and I drove hot laps in the new 2013 556 horse power Cadillac CTS-V.  Cadillac is the newly acquired luxury car sponsor for the raceway at Sonoma. It was great seeing Matt Klein and Mario Miranda from Kleenspeed at the track.  We were on the UC Davis Formula Hybrid Team together in 2011.