ABQ Track Day at SMS 5/22/10!!!!

[Ivan @ Southwest Speed]

As featured on CAMARO5 HOMEPAGE.


Another brilliant day at the Sandia Motorsports Speedway today!

Even had a third Ligenfelter car come all the way down from Colorado to join us! Props to "GZTOYBX" for the effort!

With Ivan (a Camaro5.com member, Bad Karma) at the wheel, Albuquerque finally had its first Meet and Greet April 11th. We had 10 Camaros show up, a great success. It was a blast!

During this Meet and Greet, another Camaro5.com member, Curt (cjingle), suggested we take our cars to the Sandia Motorsports Speedway to run around the road track. The purpose is to have fun getting to know our cars, improve our driving skills, and to have some fun. It’s also a good way to hang out with friends, make new friends, and talk about the greatest car made, the Camaro.

The Sandia Motorsports Speedway has been operating for the past 10 years and just undergone a rebirth with new management at the wheel in order to better connect with the community of Albuquerque. Its goal is to get folks interested in the joy of racing across many venues, including Cruisers, Hobby Stocks, Modifieds, Slug Bugs, Street Stocks, X-mods, Factory 4/Lightning Fast Ladies, Legends, Bandoleros, and Kid’s Fun Karts.

One of the new venues includes a Driver’s Club where like minded people who love their cars can get together and enjoy some hot rodding without the worry of getting a speeding ticket. There are several car clubs in Albuquerque that meet at local restaurants to show off their cars and go cruising down Route 66. By getting involved with the SMS Driver’s Club, people can go further by taking their cars (and themselves) to the limit.

The new management for SMS is headed up by Jim Guthrie, a native car nut that’s been racing since childhood. He loves to compete and is committed to winning. As the Winner of the 1997 Phoenix 200 and 1997 Indy Racing League Rookie of the Year, Jim has reached the top of racing by competing in three Indianapolis 500's. Now, he’s bringing his experience back home and offering it to the community via the Sandia Motorsports Speedway.

Our first Camaro Track Day was held on May 8th. It was a cold and windy day, but seven drivers with their Camaros endured the weather and bravely showed up. Most of us arrived earlier at the Hotel Albuquerque Old Town and drove in a caravan to the Speedway. This small line of Camaros was still impressive sight on the freeway. Many of us were pretty nervous about taking our babies out on that treacherous track with fears of getting them hurt.

We arrived and hooked up with Jim where he offered us coffee and burritos. Jim gave us some instruction and a pep talk to get over our nervousness. After some good eats, we headed out to the track. Jim took Diana (Camaro5.com 2010 BADSS) out in her new Lingenfelter to push it to the limits. This is an awesome car. The rest of us followed behind. After a couple of laps, we started to feel more relaxed and pushed the accelerator a bit more. It was a blast!

Jim gave several drivers personal instruction in their cars. He, typically, would drive them around the track suggesting where to brake, where to cruise, and where to accelerate. Then, the driver would take over with Jim in the passenger seat. As we drove the track, he would point out our mistakes and our successes. You can’t get this kind of instruction anywhere. We learned a lot.

The following Camaro5 members were in attendance 5/8/10:

Ivan (Bad Karma)
Curt (cjingle)
James and Nancy (fnquick)
Tom (ZZTom)
Ryan (BigSquirrel)
Larry (Hellboy)
Diana (BadSS)


This time we added a few new members to the attendance roster:

Jamey (jruss1078) IOM/BLK stripes & Havoc Wheels
Rich (rharp) RJT/CGM Stripes 2SS
Darren (RS-SS2) Yellow/blk LPE 650
Garth (??) IOM/white LPE 650
Brian (IAS) Subby Imprezza
Beth (Bethgrce) Black w/IOM Stripes
Joe (jthibodaux) Black 2SS/Silver Stripes
Mike (Registered here yet buddy?) White/Red trimmed Motive TT M6 Car

..and a slew of local WRX/BMW guys who were very cordial and excited to see what the "new Camaros" were all about.

I even gave two of em a ride around the track....

Thanks to Curtis Jingle and Jim Guthrie for arranging this and taking such great care of us!

-Ivan

Credit writeup: Curtis Jingle!

Link to the innagural C5.com SMS Track Day...Fantastic pics!:
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77359

Link to Southwest Speed's Facebook page with more pics!:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13913&id=119356238086357&saved#!/pages/Southwest-Speed/119356238086357

[2010 BADSS]

Thanks for that Awesome write up Bad Karma! Today was Camaro5 locals getting together for a fabulous, fun and fantastic day at the Track! This is what it's all about. Great cars, awesome people having fun in a safe environment with Indy car driver Jim Guthrie and his staff providing driving instruction! Camaro 5 helped us locals all have a way to meet each other and set up these awesome get togethers. Thanks! Here are some pictures of today's great event.

[rharp]

Nice wright up Curt & Ivan. That was one hell of a good time, totally worth gettin up for. I came home and told Tane & Baylee that the next time they need to schedule their nail appointments for a different day cause they would have had a freakin blast, that goes for you too Beth! Lol!! anyway had a great time, can't wait for the next one. We'll see all of you on June 6th for the regular meet & greet, ( after Vegas baby) untill then be safe. Oh oh oh I almost forgot post up some pics!!!!!!! See ya. Rich

[rharp]

Originally Posted by rharp

Nice wright up Ivan. That was one hell of a good time, totally worth gettin up for. I came home and told Tane & Baylee that the next time they need to schedule their nail appointments for a different day cause they would have had a freakin blast, that goes for you too Beth! Lol!! anyway had a great time, can't wait for the next one. We'll see all of you on June 6th for the regular meet & greet, ( after Vegas baby) untill then be safe. Oh oh oh I almost forgot post up some pics!!!!!!! See ya. Rich

Wow I need to learn to type quicker. I swear those pics weren't there when I first started. Very nice shots!!!!

[ZZTOM]

Great morning everyone, lots of perma grins from all. Lookin forward to the next one.
Meet a new red jewel owner on the way home, he will be joining us!
Been trying to put some pics up but not happening right now, will try later.

Got some up now!

[2010 BADSS]

Originally Posted by Bad Karma

Another brilliant day at the Sandia Motorsports Speedway today!

Even had a third Ligenfelter car come all the way down from Colorado to join us! Props to "GZTOYBX" for the effort!

With Ivan (a Camaro5.com member, Bad Karma) at the wheel, Albuquerque finally had its first Meet and Greet April 11th. We had 10 Camaros show up, a great success. It was a blast!

During this Meet and Greet, another Camaro5.com member, Curt (cjingle), suggested we take our cars to the Sandia Motorsports Speedway to run around the road track. The purpose is to have fun getting to know our cars, improve our driving skills, and to have some fun. It’s also a good way to hang out with friends, make new friends, and talk about the greatest car made, the Camaro.

The Sandia Motorsports Speedway has been operating for the past 10 years and just undergone a rebirth with new management at the wheel in order to better connect with the community of Albuquerque. Its goal is to get folks interested in the joy of racing across many venues, including Cruisers, Hobby Stocks, Modifieds, Slug Bugs, Street Stocks, X-mods, Factory 4/Lightning Fast Ladies, Legends, Bandoleros, and Kid’s Fun Karts.
One of the new venues includes a Driver’s Club where like minded people who love their cars can get together and enjoy some hot rodding without the worry of getting a speeding ticket. There are several car clubs in Albuquerque that meet at local restaurants to show off their cars and go cruising down Route 66. By getting involved with the SMS Driver’s Club, people can go further by taking their cars (and themselves) to the limit.
The new management for SMS is headed up by Jim Guthrie, a native car nut that’s been racing since childhood. He loves to compete and is committed to winning. As the Winner of the 1997 Phoenix 200 and 1997 Indy Racing League Rookie of the Year, Jim has reached the top of racing by competing in three Indianapolis 500's. Now, he’s bringing his experience back home and offering it to the community via the Sandia Motorsports Speedway.
Our first Camaro Track Day was held on May 8th. It was a cold and windy day, but seven drivers with their Camaros endured the weather and bravely showed up. Most of us arrived earlier at the Hotel Albuquerque Old Town and drove in a caravan to the Speedway. This small line of Camaros was still impressive sight on the freeway. Many of us were pretty nervous about taking our babies out on that treacherous track with fears of getting them hurt.

We arrived and hooked up with Jim where he offered us coffee and burritos. Jim gave us some instruction and a pep talk to get over our nervousness. After some good eats, we headed out to the track. Jim took Diana (Camaro5.com 2010 BADSS) out in her new Lingenfelter to push it to the limits. This is an awesome car. The rest of us followed behind. After a couple of laps, we started to feel more relaxed and pushed the accelerator a bit more. It was a blast!

Jim gave several drivers personal instruction in their cars. He, typically, would drive them around the track suggesting where to brake, where to cruise, and where to accelerate. Then, the driver would take over with Jim in the passenger seat. As we drove the track, he would point out our mistakes and our successes. You can’t get this kind of instruction anywhere. We learned a lot.

The following Camaro5 members were in attendance 5/8/10:

Ivan (Bad Karma)
Curt (cjingle)
James and Nancy (fnquick)
Tom (ZZTom)
Ryan (BigSquirrel)
Larry (Hellboy)
Diana (BadSS)


This time we added a few new members to the attendance roster:

Rich (rharp) RJT/CGM Stripes 2SS
Darren (RS-SS2) Yellow/blk LPE 650
Garth (??) IOM/white LPE 650
Brian (IAS) Subby Imprezza
Beth (Bethgrce) Black w/IOM Stripes
John (jthibodaux) Black 2SS/Silver Stripes
Mike (Registered yet buddy?) White/Red trimmed Motive TT M6 Car

..and a slew of local WRX/BMW guys who were very cordial and excited to see what the "new Camaros" were all about.

Thanks to Curtis Jingle and Jim Guthrie for arranging this and taking such great care of us!

-Ivan

Link to the innagural C5.com SMS Track Day...Fantastic pics!:
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77359

This was posted by Bad Karma on the Southwest Section, but I'm adding it to the Media section because it really was too awesome of a day not to share with everyone. I will never forget what I experienced by seeing what mine and everyone else's cars are capable of with expert driving skills like Jim Guthrie's! My permagrin is not going away any time soon. And with more and more practice around the track, I'm really starting to experience what these amazing cars are capable of!!! Thank you Curt, Jim, Ivan, Beth and most of all Camaro5, for helping us all get together for events like this. http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showth...11#post1891411

[2010 BADSS]

Hi everyone. I posted Ivan's writeup and my pics in the media section. http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85018 Maybe you guys can add some of your pics and videos there. I really had a great time today. It was nice to see everyone again having fun enjoying all these amazing cars!

[2010 BADSS]

Originally Posted by ZZTOM

Great morning everyone, lots of perma grins from all. Lookin forward to the next one.
Meet a new red jewel owner on the way home, he will be joining us!
Been trying to put some pics up but not happening right now, will try later.

I really can't wait till they're all finished with your amazing car so I can see the Permagrin on your face too!

[mws444]

Sounds like you guys had a blast! Still need a few thigs to make me and my hualer legal then I hope to join you guys! Great Pictures!

[rharp]

Originally Posted by ZZTOM

Meet a new red jewel owner on the way home, he will be joining us!
Been trying to put some pics up but not happening right now, will try later.

AHHH !!!!! Red Jewel, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside...

[Racer-X]

tom email me the pics bryanp@innovatiecars.net and I willge them up for you.

[2010 BADSS]

Originally Posted by mws444

Sounds like you guys had a blast! Still need a few thigs to make me and my hualer legal then I hope to join you guys! Great Pictures!

It was awesome, MWS. Having Jim drive the snot out of your car would be worth the trip right there. Just go like this when he takes it up next to the wall! LOL!

[RS-SS2]

Today was more fun than I could ever have imagined. To have your car pushed to the limits by a professional driver, and then getting instructions and driving tips on top of it. It truly was an awesome experience.

[ZZTOM]

Got a few pics to load in my first post finally.