Designer Night at the Races™ awards points just like Formula 1.  So it is only fitting that the last night of our west coast swing turned into a Formula 1-esqe competition between the studios of Nissan/Infiniti (as in Infiniti Red Bull) and Mercedes (as in Mercedes AMG Petronas).  Both teams brought 5 people to race and the results show that these two were the two most evenly matched studios in Southern California.

Thanks to our sponsors, a last minute change in schedule was instituted that allowed for a second qualifying session.  With the extra track time most drivers were able to cut their lap times down substantially during the course of the evening.

Since a few drivers had to leave early, all racers were combined into a single heat for the final race.  Autodesk managed their first podium of the week as Paul Smucker finished 3rd.  Thomas Nishida of Mercedes was 10 second sin front of Paul in second place and a fastest lap of 29.450.  But the winner, and defending Carlsbad champion, was Randy Rodriguez of Nissan with an unbelievable fastest lap time of 29.005.

A-Main: 2nd place Thomas Nishida/Mercedes, 1st place Randy Rodriguez/Nissan and Paul Schmucker/Autodesk

The staff here at AACS want to thank all those who came out and supported the events over the week and for their support of the Mercy Health Lacks Cancer Center.  If you made a donation at the event we thank you, and if you would like to make online donation we ask that you visit the website here.  Ihttps://www.doranfoundation.org/DesignerNightAtTheRaces

This fall we will have our 50th event, and we will have an awesome shirt celebrating the past 9 years for anyone making more than a $25 donation.  (Please note the link has a typo, shirts are golf style, not t-shirts and are available for donations over $25)

Thanks to to our fantastic partners who continue to support the SoCal Design Community; Lacks Enterprises, Plastic Plate and Autodesk.

At the end of 3 days of racing, the Fastest Studio in the West came down to a tie for on-track performance between Honda/Acura and Hyundai/Kia.  As with past events the tiebreaker comes down to how many people attended so let us all congratulate first time winners Hyundai/Kia.

You can find the pictures of the Carlsbad event here