What felt like 24 hours was really only 3 and a half as an evening of computer timing software glitches failed to spoil a great evening of racing.  On a windy Monday evening in April, BMW Designworks, General Motors 5350 Design Studio and first time participant Volvo Monitoring and Concept Center battled it out at MB2 Raceway in Thousand Oaks.

Designer Night at the Races™ brings together the automotive design community for an evening of competition and camaraderie.  Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, specifically Title sponsor Lacks Enterprises, the events are designed such that the Design Studios compete for the title of Fastest Design Studio in the West.  Points are awarded at each event, and bonus points are included based on participation to arrive at the champion.  

In the past the events were held in a central location and people came from all over Southern California to attend.  Unfortunately, with today’s workloads, staffing levels and competitive marketplace, rarely can we take the time to travel these distances.  This is where our sponsors like Lacks and Bunkspeed stepped up to add a northern and southern event to give everyone a better opportunity to come out and race.

Car Designers keep getting younger and younger

The idea is to have fun, hang out with old friends and make new ones, yet keep enough of the competitive juices flowing that studios can take pride in winning.  A saying started a few years ago that job seekers in the design studios needed a resume, a portfolio and a copy of their track times.

Thanks to Darren Yasukochi of BMW/Designworks for some of the great pictures you see here

In the B-Main Anders Tylman-Mikiewicz of Volvo streaked off to a flag to flag victory.  Anders managed a 3 second victory over fellow team mate Steve Goodrich.  Steve battled with eventual 3rd place finisher Brian Spencer of BMW Designworks the entire race, the two swapped positions several times over the 14 laps.

B-MAIN RESULTS – 3rd – Brian Spencer/BMW, 1st Anders Tylman-Mikiewicz/Volvo, 2nd Steve Goodrich/Volvo

In the A-Main General Motors pulled off a 2-3 finish as Jo Grima of BMW Designworks started in third place and used a wreck between the leaders to run off and hide from the rest of the field.  A half a lap further back was Cullen Quantock of GM who managed a last lap pass of John Lazorack III, also of GM for the position.

A-MAIN RESULTS – 3rd John Lazorek III/GM, 1st Jo Grimas/BMW, 2nd Cullen Quantock/GM

Fastest lap of the evening went to John Buckingham of BMW with a 19.388.

Jeff Chiu with sponsor Plastic Plate (part of Lacks Enterprises) poses with the fastest lap winner John Buckingham of BMW Designworks

Going into night #2 of racing BMW Designworks leads the championship with 51 points.  General Motors is in second with 39 points, the Sponsors are in third with 32 points and newcomer Volvo follows behind with 7 points.  Points are awarded based on a modified Formula 1 system 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1-1-1-1 through every finisher.  For California Bonus points are added based on Studio turnout, 1 point for every person who attends, whether they race or not.

Thanks to sponsor Bunkspeed, the top 2 finishes from each event are invited to the following night of racing.  Tomorrow night BMW and GM will battle it out with Honda, Toyota and Tesla in Torrance as we continue to see who is the fastest design studio in California.

Many thanks to our sponsors who made the event possible

A full list of results and points can be found here.

Pictures will be posted here as soon as they are available.