Night three was the final night of the East Coast Spring Designer Night at the Races™. Partners Autodesk, Lacks and Plastic Plate joined 5 of the 6 OEMs in the Detroit area (come on Subaru – we need you to come to an event soon) to decide the crown of the Fastest Design Studio and help raise money for Cancer.
If you wish to make a donation or read more about the the Mercy Health Lacks Cancer Center either check out the link or read our description about the charity on the first night of racing.
As much fun as racing and raising money is, comparing lap times with friends makes it even better.
Is anything more frustrating for a designer than having to listen to rules and regulations such as “color only in the lines”?
For the third night we moved the event to help accommodate those studios on the western side of town (working long hours is a virus that seems to be spreading across the industry and we hope that the studios get relief soon). Being closer to the studios certainly helped attendance as a great contingent from Toyota and Nissan battled their cross-town rivals Chrysler, Ford and GM (each of which sent a representative to do battle).
After two rounds of qualifying, the first race of the evening was the C-Main. Featuring drivers from Toyota, Nissan, Chrysler and sponsor Lacks, it ended up being a win for the lone Chrysler driver Pete Montero aka ‘Fred Alfonzo’ as he took advantage of the cars in front of him taking each other out. Zach Domitrz of Lacks was only 0.665 second behind with Scott Roller from Nissan in 3rd another half a second behind.
Fred Alonzo discusses race strategy after the C-Main win
The B-Main had racers from Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Plastic Plate and AACS and ended with Yasukazu Honda of Calty Toyota racing to a 8.5 second win. Ryan Lacks of Plastic Plate barely edged Loren Golden of Ford for 2nd place.
Yasukazu Honda of Calty Toyota relishes his trophies
The A-Main was a battle of the heavyweights as just about every company was represented. In the end David Wong of GM finished 3rd, and 3 seconds further forward Tyler Greene of Nissan managed 2nd. But the winner, almost 4 seconds clear of the closest competition was Mitsuhiro Kondo of Toyota Calty who had a 23.131 fastest lap.
David Wong of GM finished 3rd
Tyler Greene of Nissan finished 2nd in the A-Main
A-Main winner Mitsuhiro Kondo of Toyota Calty describes what a fast lap feels like.
Through the 3 events points are awarded for the top finisher from each company in the traditional 9-6-4-3-2-1 Formula 1 manner. Points are awarded for the Lacks Enterprises Individual A-Main Heat Race, for the Plastic Plate Enduro and Bonus points are awarded for attendance (doesn’t matter if they race or not). After tabulating the results, General Motors repeats as winner of the Fastest Studio and gets to keep the AACS Trophy until the fall events crown a new winner.
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David Wong of GM hoists the AACS Fastest Design Studio trophy thanks to his 3rd place finish in the A-Main
| DESIGNER NIGHT AT THE RACES – SPRING 2015 East Coast | 5/18 Lacks Enterprises Heat Race | 5/18 Plastic Plate Enduro | 5/19 Lacks Enterprises Heat Race | 5/19 Plastic Plate Enduro | 5/20 Lacks Enterprises Heat Race | AACS Bonus Points Attendance | SUB-TOTAL | |
| 1 | General Motors | 4 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 39 |
| 2 | Ford | 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 30 |
| 3 | Chrysler | 9 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 29 |
| 4 | Nissan | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 21 |
| 5 | Toyota | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 11 |
Many thanks to our sponsors and partners for a great week of racing;
And many thanks to my team at AACS (Advanced Automotive Consulting Services) for making a great series of events.
You can see all the pictures from night #3 here and you can see the results of the Car Show here.
Frank Schwartz