What is better than racing karts 2 nights in a row?  Duh, racing karts 3 nights in a row!  The third and final night of Designer Night at the Races™ moved south from Irvine to Carlsbad.  An intimate group of designers came together for an evening of competition, camaraderie and charity to finish out the week and generate almost $500 for the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute.

Of course, a week of racing and socializing cannot happen without a great team of people to make it happen.  Many thanks to my staff at AACS including Alison for managing the awesome food, Katherine and Lindsay for Hostess duties, and Steve for the regsitration software.  We also cannot forget Brad of AACS and F1RCLab for the posters and championship trophy and Brook and Judith of Middlecott for the awesome event graphics.

In addition to my staff, thanks to Lacks Enterprises, which is comprised of Plastic Plate Inc., Lacks Trim Systems and Lacks Wheel Trim Systems,  for their continued support of the event.  Lacks has been around Designer Night at the Races™ since the first event in 2006 (that makes 34 in a row) and has committed to bring the event back to SoCal in the July time-frame.  We will also be announcing a major addition to the event in the next couple of months so keep your eyes and ears open, you are not going to want to miss the next events.

The 2015 Audi A8 features new wheel and finish technology from Lacks

The 2015 Chrysler 200 interior contains numerous pieces from Plastic Plate Inc.

In addition to our long time partnership with Lacks, this is the first events with new partner Dassault Systemes.  Dassault has some awesome events of their own in the SoCal area – make sure to let us know if you wish to be invited to their 2014 event.

But we digress, so let’s get back to the racing.  The B-Main was a run away as sponsor Jeff Chiu used his week of practice to qualify on the pole and run away and hide from the rest of the field.  He finished over 10 seconds ahead of 2nd place Gavin Hookway of Nissan and Charlie Cheowanich of Intersection Inc..  Gavin was also the evening’s most consistent racer as his fastest race lap was less than 1/2 second off his average.  Intersection Inc. also featured the evening’s most improved driver as Marisa Anchondo knocked 0.649 seconds off her qualifying time in the race.

B Main: Gavin Hookway, Jeff Chiu and Charlie Cheowanich

In the A-Main we had the first occasion all week where the top 3 in qualifying all ended up on the podium.  Unfortunately a last lap spin changed the order and almost changed all of that as Mike Rydwell of F1RCLab got into leader Randy Rodriguez of Nissan and handed the win to Marcus Quach of Nissan.  Randy had set the fastest lap of the evening with a 26.111 in qualifying but couldn’t pull away in the race.  Frank Schwartz from AACS improved the most positions after starting last and finishing 4th, just missing a podium by a little more than 1 second.

A Main

So with Nissan, Mobis and Honda all winning a race this week, how do we pick the winner of the Fastest Design Studio in the West?  Points are awarded for finishing positions and attendance in the following manner.  Points are awarded 9-6-4-3-2-1-1-1-1 just like Trans Am in the 70’s.  The top 2 finishers per Studio are counted at each event.  For sponsors and others who may run more than one event in a week, only their best finishes are counted.  Finally, attendance is awarded in the same manner and used as a tie-breaker when the points are equal.

So, based on all that, Honda is the new Fastest Design Studio in the West!  Here are the full points:

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Be sure to check out the full list of results and pictures at:

http://www.supplierconsultants.com/designer_night_2014_02

Until we see you in July at our next events, Happy Motoring