NASA Super Touring News

NASA SoCal Super Touring 2 racer Ralph Warren was a long way from home when he took the ST2 win at Watkins Glen in April. Waiting for a full-course caution to clear late in the race, Warren used his spotters and his crew — and a well prepped E90 M3 — to his advantage to get an idea of what kind of traffic lay ahead of him, and put that to work on his last-lap dash with NASA Northeast ST2 standout Mark Petronis in his C5 Corvette. Traffic played a role, as did the draft, but Warren created his own opportunity [...]

NASA SoCal Regional Director and Deputy Director Tessa Kyriakopoulos have announced the appointment of longtime Super Touring driver Jean-Luc De Fanti as the new series leader for ST classes in the Southern California Region. A film producer by day, De Fanti started with NASA in HPDE2 in 2009 in his Alpina B7 BMW. De Fanti advanced to TT in 2013, earned his comp license in 2015, and began campaigning his E36 M3 in 2018. His Team Hemisphere Racing fields a Strom Motorsport-prepared and supported BMW E36 M3 in ST4 and E1 in the Western Endurance Racing Challenge series. In 2020, Team [...]

In a nod toward those old NFL spots that gave viewers the opportunity to play referee, we’re going to emulate the series with racing incidents when possible. In the following video, NASA Arizona ST2 racer Chris Wynne seizes an opportunity to pass three cars in one corner. Wynne made the pass on two cars, but ended up spinning off track to the inside due to contact. So, for the purposes of this exercise, stop reading now and watch the video clips. What call did you make? The NASA Arizona race director said initial contact was a racing incident, but the follow-up [...]

Arizona racers saw it all in March, with some late seasonal weather mixing things up a bit. Despite a last-minute track change to Wild Horse Pass, Super Touring had yet another great round of racing. For those in the social media game – check out the new group for the NASA Arizona Super Touring series here. We set this up because the forums are moving from the NASA Arizona website to the national website, and this gives us another great resource for asking questions, discussing races, cars, and coordinating activities. The great news is that our groups are growing! We have [...]

Back in the March 12 issue of Speed News, we ran an episode of “What Would You Do” as the Move of the Month. We now have another look at the incident from a car that gained a position as a result of the incident. In this video, which has a glorious BMW V8 soundtrack, driver Ralph Warren sees the leader get a bit sideways and lifts off the gas to see what develops, then takes advantage put himself in third place. The race director’s ruling was that the lead car was at fault for the contact and he was repositioned [...]

NASA drivers who race with “the blue oval” now can benefit from a new contingency program from Ford Performance. Spec Iron podium finishers in regional competition can net up to $250 in cash when there are three or more starters, with prizes for all podium finishers. In regional championships with five or more competitors, the winner can grab $700 in cash, with $500 and $250 for second and third respectively. This program applies to American Iron, American Iron Extreme, Spec Iron and Super Touring classes. At the NASA Championships Presented by Toyo Tires this September, first second and third places take [...]

The weather forecast for the March weekend at Road Atlanta was supposed to be cloudy and 50 degrees. Although, while sitting on the grid for qualifying, it began to sleet, and ambient temperatures dropped quickly. The number of racers in Thunder qualifying was astounding, and when the green flag waved it was difficult to find space for a fast lap. Scott Oliver qualified first of seven cars in ST3, and all of us were within 5 seconds of one another. The weather improved for the race, which included veterans Michael Moore, Jim Pantas, and King Shaw. Frank Acosta, Matt Bohall, Freddy [...]

Sometimes, there are no good moves available to you. In this clip, NASA SoCal ST2 driver Jim Tway rounds Turn 1 at Willow Springs hot on the tail of No. 921 Charbel Elian, who gets a bit more oversteer than needed. The track space available to Tway on the right closed up quickly and the cars behind him took the opportunity to get around him on the left. There was contact, but at least everyone kept their cars pointed in the right direction. Tway went on to finish second behind the No. 20 Corvette and ahead of Elian, who finished fourth. [...]

Racers in GTS3 in NASA’s Northeast region will probably send farewell balloons to Eric Magnussen as he moves into a new class this season. The sentiment is understandable because Magnussen won all the races he entered over the past two seasons. Now Magnussen is taking his 16-race winning streak to ST2 after sitting atop the GTS3 podium in 2019 and 2020. Participation in the Northeast GTS3 class had been waning, in part, because of Magnussen’s dominance. “I think I might have something to do with that. Nobody likes getting smoked every race,” Magnussen said. “In ST2, a lot of the racers [...]

We kicked off the NASA Arizona Super Touring 2021 season at Arizona Motorsports Park in January, and it was interesting to say the least. Some unusually warm weather led to some great racing conditions after a close call with rain the day before. Arizona Motorsports Park, known as “Arizona’s Safest Road Course,” is a 2.26-mile, 16-turn reversible track with a few passing zones and one big challenge: a sound restriction that forces the NASA crew to set up a single file of cones on one section of the track to ensure that competitors remain compliant with the local sound ordinance. Saturday [...]