GALLERY> The Irwindale Experience
When I arrived at LAX on Thursday, I got my rental car and drove straight into L.A. traffic to get to Irwindale Speedway, working my way though all that traffic while trying to find a good radio station to listen to. I finally arrived at the Speedway about 45 minutes later.
Walking though the pits, watching all the vendors getting set up for the event, I noticed the pit area is so much bigger than the one we have at Evergreen Speedway where Round 5 was held . This was a subtle hint that more vendors and drivers would be attending this event than the one at Evergreen.
Another thing that I noticed was the weather. Seattle summer includes two months of decent heat and sun after which it's back to the infamous rain season that happens to have started a couple of weeks ago. So, even though I caught myself wiping sweat off my forehead every few minutes, I was enjoying every minute of the sun. I wish it was like this in the Northwest.
Fast forward to the opening day of the Final round of Formula Drift. I got there bright and early to start taking photos and meet lots of new people. Since I'm pretty new to MotorMavens, a lot of people didn't know my name or my face. I took that as the perfect opportunity to introduce myself to the locals. The attitude that California people have is really great! Everyone was friendly and awesome to hang out with! Read more...
NEWSWORTHY> The Loss of an Icon: Shaun Carlson
By now, it’s no secret that Shaun Carlson, one of the true greats of import racing, passed away Sunday morning. We could go on and on about his achievements in the industry – he was a photographer and journalist; a great fabricator that built record breaking race cars; an entrepreneur that built his own company, Nuformz, around his passion for racing; a successful Sport Compact FWD racer who raced everything from Honda to Ford to Mopar – he even raced NHRA Pro Stock. And after all of that, he still found a place in the drifting community with Team Mopar.
These are all things that Shaun was known for, but Shaun was more than just that. More than anything else, Shaun was a truly great guy. He never let any of it go to his head. He was always giving his full 100% and he was always thankful for the opportunity to have a successful career doing what he loved. And he meant it.
Shaun was that guy. That guy who is serious about what he does, but never takes himself too seriously. That guy who works his butt off but still manages to give credit to all of the other people on his team who were also working their butts off behind the scenes. That guy who feels like a close friend from the moment you first meet him. That guy who turns people who think they’re going to dislike him into his best friends. An honest to goodness, really good guy. And guys like that are in really short supply.
So we here at Motor Mavens would first like to thank YOU, Shaun… Thank you for putting so much of yourself into this industry – your impact was felt and you will be sorely missed, because you were a truly great person. And we would also like to give our condolences and thanks to Shaun’s family and friends. Without all of the things that you guys poured into him, he would have had far less to pour into all of us. Thank you.
:Motor Mavens
John Naderi‘s Tribute to Shaun Carlson (on Cardomain)
Join the Shaun Carlson Memorial Facebook page for details on the memorial service
Jay Canter’s Photo Tribute to Shaun Carlson on Facebook
Jay Canter and Ed Bergenholtz’s old school photos of Shaun Carlson’s cars and Nuformz
