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NASA SpeedNews To join NASA or get more information on their
programs, call (510) 232-NASA or check them
out online at www.nasaproracing.com.
Official Publication of the National Auto Sport Association
SpeedNews Briefs
The Amazing Expanding NASA-X your car is of the four-wheeled variety, that means a
Plans are underway to grow NASA’s autocross complete set of new tires every two wins.
program for 2008 and beyond. Jon Felton, who What’s more, if there are five or more starters in the
has spent 11 years as a key member of NASA class, the second-place finisher will earn one free tire.
Mid-Atlantic’s official staff, was appointed NASA-X Naturally, to qualify for the contingency you must be
National Director. running Hoosier tires and decals. Find the complete list
The NASA-X regions will be streamlined for 2008, of rules at hoosiertire.com/NASAawdg.htm.
and a standardized national ruleset and vehicle
classing structure are in the works. For 2009, Felton
expects the series to enjoy a firm schedule of national chris clark photo
NASA-X events. The 2009 season will culminate with
a NASA-X National Championship event modeled
after the successful NASA Championships formula.
The Bird Is the Word
Hawk Performance and NASA have announced that
Hawk components are the official brake products of
NASA for the 2008 season. Hawk Performance has
cooked up a large contingency program for NASA’s
entire membership, and the company will be heavily
involved with contingency at the NASA Champion-
ships and NASA’s signature 25 Hours of Thunderhill
event in California at the end of the year. NASA esti-
mates that the Hawk Performance contingency pro-
grams are worth as much as $600,000 in Hawk Bucks Hawk Performance has signed on as the official brake
and cash. The details are up at drivenasa.com. products of NASA in 2008. Upgrade to Hawk equipment,
put the decals on the car, and you could find yourself
Free Traction From Hoosier hunting for a piece of their $600,000 in potential support.
NASA drivers running Hoosier tires will be able to
win some rubber this year: Hoosier has announced
a contingency program for 2008 that will award Covini Moving Up
two free tires to each first-place finisher compet- Todd Covini, the NASA Texas American Iron/Camaro-
ing in a class with three or more starters. Assuming Mustang Challenge series director, has been promoted
to Chief of Directors of the NASA Texas region. Covini
and his colleagues will continue to focus on growing the
chris clark photo large variety of NASA racing series in the region.
Happy Trails, Bryan
Bryan Cohn, the National
Competition Manager for
NASA, is leaving his post.
Cohn spent two years in the
position and was an integral
part of the coordination and
implementation of the first-
ever NASA Championships in
2006. Although he’s taking
a job outside of the automo-
tive realm, Cohn promises
that he’ll still be a regular
sight at NASA events; he’ll
be donning his helmet and
NASA competitors running on Hoosier rubber will participating as a driver.
be able to cash in on some lucrative contingency
programs in 2008.
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NASA Class News
f&s enterprises photo
GTS Challenge March. The rent-a-racer program costs Spec Focus
Virginia International Raceway wel- approximately $2000 per day, and rent- Ford Racing Parts will pay more than
comed GTS Challenge drivers for a Feb. ers enjoy an arrive-and-drive format in $9000 in cash to NASA winners in both
22-24 NASA weekend. The Thunder run professionally-prepared, 400-horsepower the Spec Focus Rally and Road Racing
group was packed with 76 cars, and stock cars. Each GASS stock car has two programs for 2008. The sum includes
Olivier Raoust managed the traffic well to seats, making it easy for all the drivers to $1500 each for the East and West Coast
take the GTS3-class win and the overall get in-car instruction from professionals. rally champions, as well as the overall
GTS victory in his BMW M3. Call Chris Evans at (503) 228-0194 to champion at the NASA Championships
On Sunday, Pat Drinnen’s GTS4-class learn more about the series.—Tim Sharp in Mid-Ohio later this year. The latest
Porsche 911 put up a good fight against news on the series can always be found
Raoust, but the BMW found a way around GT America at specfocus.drivenasa.com
and took a second GTS overall victory. The thundering V8 stock cars of the
The GTS2-class cars ran with the Stinger GTA class echoed around MSR Houston in Spec Miata
group, and Jeff Curtis was victorious on February. Gregg Rodgers took the class win At MSR Houston in February, John
both days in his Porsche 911 ahead of a and was first overall in one of the races, Phillips took a trio of wins in the Texas
pack of BMWs. followed by Steve Coleman and Doug Har- region opener. Phillips bested a field of
rington. More info is up at texasgta.com. more than 20 other Spec Miatas, and he
944 Cup consistently broke into the 1:50s during
NASA’s 944 Cup series is partnering the races.
with 944Fest for a combined event at stacy rodgers photo
Mid-Ohio from August 15-17. Drivers ed VW Drags
sessions, racing, car displays, camping, NASA rookie Doug Colley outran a
food and more will be part of the action. field of 22 competitors to take the first
Learn more at 944fest.com. win of the 2008 NASA VW Drag Racing
Furthermore, 944 Cup is establishing a Series season. Doug’s daily-driven 1968
championship for Canadian Porsche 944 VW Single Cab shop truck carried him
racers called the 944 Canada Cup. The all the way to the winners circle ahead
award will go to the Canadian driver who of Jason McCoey. The fastest pass award
accumulates the most 944 Cup points went to Brian Gomez, who tripped a
during a season. 11.452-second run at 113.895 mph.
American Iron At top, BMW M3s fared well at VIR in greg urrutia photo
NASA Texas held its first AI race of the the GTS Challenge. Above, Gregg Rod-
season at MSR Houston Feb. 9-10. The
gers felt gr-r-reat in his Tony the Tiger-
AI lap record fell to Matt White, who also
found a win in the cool conditions. John liveried GTA stock car at MSR Houston.
George racked up a pair of victories in
the weekend’s other races.
Spec E30
Camaro-Mustang Challenge NASA Southeast will be holding its
Jeff Burch and Mitch Warren set lap second-annual Inverted Field Unlimited
records at MSR Houston in February run- race for Spec E30 competitors at their
ning in CMC and CMC2, respectively. May 17 event at Roebling Road in Geor-
Steve Mulder was able to take a pair of gia. The race, which is open exclusively
victories, while a third win went to Warren to Spec E30 BMWs, features a starting
in CMC2. In CMC, reigning champ Jeff grid with the fastest qualifiers at the back
Burch had a clean sweep, leading all three and the slowest at the front. Last year, 21
races to the checkered flag. cars took part, and organizers Jim Pantas
and Chuck Taylor froze the race halfway
Great American Stockcar Series through its 50 minutes to reinvert the field, The usual suspects line up with NASA
The new GASS series teamed up with much to the surprise of the drivers. Learn rookie and event winner Doug Colley at
NASA for an event in Phoenix in early more at nasa-se.com. the 2008 VW Drag Racing season opener.
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NASA SpeedNews
MEET A MEMBER: Mike Peters
Any NASA driver who’s risen up to HPDE3 or higher in the NASA GRM: Tell us about your own racing adventures.
SoCal region has probably spent some time with Mike “Mad Dog” MP: Absolutely. I won the inaugural NASA Championships in
Peters. Mike is the primary HPDE3 instructor for the region, and Performance Touring D in a 1987 Trans-Am GTA. We call it the
it only takes a few seconds of exposure to his ten tenths attitude Tank. It came from a desire to race, sitting at Turn 1 at Willow
for him to make a lasting impression. If we had to guess, we’d and asking Don Trask—who ran CMC—if anyone had a car
say he instantly falls in love with anything that has a big snarling that I could build. I overheard a Marine right next to me; he had
V8 crammed in the hood. a junker beer-run car that they used out of Cal City. Two weeks
Mike is a teacher even when he’s not wearing his NASA hat, later I went and bought the car at one in the morning.
and he’s been crazy about motorsports ever since he was old My students tore that care apart, and through the efforts of my
enough to stand up at the track and peek over the fence at the students and fellow racers we turned it into the national champion
races—his first track experience was a trip to Torrey Pines at the car. Mike Arnheiter—he’s the American Stock Car dude—every
age of four, where he saw the famous Flying Shingle MG. time he got a new car I bought all of his old parts.
Mike teaches students how to wrench on cars, and he loves
tinkering in his own garage, too. When he’s not instructing at the GRM: What’s the most common mistake that students make?
track or working in the shop, Mike straps into his Pontiac GTA MP: I think the most common mistake that people make is
car to terrorize Performance Touring D; he took the 2006 NASA underestimating their ability to improve—applying the lessons
Championship win in that class. that are given to them in the next session. If you do that, you
improve greatly. If you don’t, you don’t improve.
Grassroots Motorsports: What was your first exposure
to NASA? GRM: What’s your favorite thing about a NASA weekend?
Mike Peters: I had a friend who was dating a NASA member, MP: That’s an easy answer. I got this from Betty at 7s Only
and I said, “Geez, I like racing, but I haven’t been in a car for Racing. I was going to the Championships that year that I won,
a while.” She said [her boyfriend] races and he was running at and she stayed at 7s Only till like 10:30 and helped me get all
Buttonwillow in American Iron. I went out there at night with my my tires out, get my toolbox, get my canopy and label everything.
camper—I’d never been there before. That—being ready to help somebody—is something I don’t see a
When we opened the door that morning I thought I’d died and lot of places. You come to race originally for the cars, she said,
gone to heaven! We were right next to an ASC car, and those but after a few years you keep coming back for the people.
dudes were so amazing—they were so cool. I found [Camaro-
Mustang Challenge drivers] Ed Varon and Nick Steel. They were GRM: Anything you’d like to add?
having brake problems, so we just dove in and started helping MP: I think that one of the things that’s an absolute joy—and
them out. I thought, “This is a great deal.” that doesn’t get enough credit—is both Ryan Flaherty and John
Lindsey’s stewardship. I’d like to thank them for the opportunity to
GRM: So how long before you were out on track with NASA? teach the students. NASA is a place where people can grow to the
MP: I met Ryan [Flaherty, the regional director], and I asked best of their ability—a fun, safe and challenging environment.
about getting a license. He asked if I had a car, and I said no. He
said he had a friend with a car—Gus Heredia. I rented [Gus’s] scott r. lear photo
car and went to Driving Concepts at Willow Springs, and it was
heaven again. I drove like a damned grandma, but everyone
was so accepting and ready to help.
Good story: I’m a pretty competitive guy. We had restarts in
the Driving Concepts deal, and there was a restart coming into
Turn 9. I tried to squirt out to the front of the pack and looped it,
right in front of everyone. [Driving Concepts CEO] Carl McGinn
asked, “Who was in the red Corolla out there?” I raised my hand.
He waited a couple of beats and said, “I wasn’t too impressed
with that.”
My first race was sobering. It was a big step going from a fast
driver to a race car driver. You need seasoning. It’s amazing how
aware you have to be.
GRM: Why did you decide to become an instructor?
MP: I’m a teacher and I’ve been around racing all my life, so I
watched it from the other side. As I became more and more fluent
in what was going on, I overheard after a few races that there
was a way you could defer some of your track fees by teaching.
I asked John Lindsey, and he laughed and said, “It’s called the
hook-a-brother-up program.”
I started teaching with NASA—I think [their decision] was based
on personality. It was out of John’s kindness and the need to have
good instructors. Then I got really serious about it because I’m a
teacher. I bought all the books, all of Carroll Smith’s stuff, went
online, researched it. I have car building and engine building
as something I’ve done all my life.
It’s my mission to get the person I’m teaching to understand Whether he’s instructing, racing or simply hanging out
exactly what they’re doing. The mental part of the game is abso- after the track goes quiet, Mike Peters seems to smile
lutely key. You’ve gotta get rid of the g factor—we’re all g force quite a lot. The NASA HPDE3 instructor is very popular
junkies. You’ve got to approach it somewhat intellectually. It’s art. with the students in the SoCal region.
You have equal parts precision and understanding, and you start
to get a visceral and physical understanding of car control.
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