report by: brian g.
photos courtesy of: CalSpeed Karting and Diego Morales

Leading the Sport Class during the 2010 Machismo 500

I can’t believe it’s 2011 already. First of all, thank you all for all your support in 2010. As with most people, 2010 has been a challenging but interesting ride. Second, apologies for the lack of updates. I know it’s been a while since my last post in September discussing the results of CalSpeed Karting’s Round 3 of their newly formed Super Series. All I can say, is that a lot has happened since then, both good (racing the 2010 Machismo 500 and winning the Sport Class) and bad (finishing poorly in Round 4 of the Super Series).

2010 Machismo 500

Towards the end of my last post, it didn’t seem like I’d be able to race CalSpeed’s 2010 Machismo 500 due to my hectic work schedule at the time and lack of funds. Fortunately, an opportunity opened up at the last minute to race and I was able to clear up my schedule and gather up the funds I needed to make it out to lovely Las Vegas.

I was ecstatic when I heard I’d have an opportunity to race the 10-hour, 500 mile race, even if I was teamed up with total strangers. A few days before the race, I was told I’d be teaming up with Bryan Armbrust (from Victory Lane Karting in North Carolina), Brian Starr, Richard Griffin and Paul Ciralli (who I’ve raced previously with in CIRKL), thus forming Team B3RP, racing in the Sport Class.

Team B3RP From Left to Right: Brian Guevara, Bryan Armbrust, Richard Griffin, Paul Ciralli and Brian Starr.

CalSpeed Karting ran two classes for the Machismo 500: A Pro Class with 390cc, 4-stroke karts and a Sport Class running Sodi Karts with 270cc, 4-stroke, 9HP Honda engines.

Race night, we qualified 13th out of 15th (or 4th/6th in the Sport class) with Kart #15, and worked our way up the field to 9th (1st in the Sport Class) by the 2nd hour. We battled Team Spectrum Dromo, Team Spectrum K1, Team D.A.R.T., Media Barons Team Edward and Media Barons Team Jacob along with Team Ironclad and team Night Shift in the Pro Karts for the rest of the race.

21mins Remaining. 1st in Sport, 8th Overall. Next team was 2 laps down.

After 10 grueling hours of racing with over 500 miles clocked in, we ended up finishing 1st in Sport and 8th overall. Much credit to Team Spectrum who fielded two teams with seven guys, and putting up a great fight with us. They were catching us towards the end of the race but they paid dearly for their efforts when Team Spectrum Dromo miscalculated a fuel stop towards the last 30mins of the race. With plenty of fuel left in our kart, Paul Ciralli continued to run consistent lap times, giving us a 4-lap win over Team Spectrum Dromo.

Epic sunrise with 5 mins remaining.

I wish I could tell you more about our (not my team members but a few of us) smart-but-poorly-executed plan of pre-race preparation the night before or our pre-race lunch the day of, but let’s just say staying up as late as you can to trick your body into a temporary sleeping schedule does not work. And, I also don’t think eating bags of garlic spiced Cajun shrimp and Seafood from Hot and Juicy Crawfish was a great idea either…unless of course you don’t mind burping and breathing in your own garlic breathe in your helmet every time you hit a bump or dip on the racetrack. Lessons learned? Have a pre-race regime, and eating plan that is tried and true.

Sport Class Champs: Team B3RP

In the end, racing the 2010 Machismo 500 in Las Vegas and taking the Sport Class win with such a wonderful team was a fantastic experience. It was especially more rewarding when you are surrounded by such supportive and friendly people, even though they are in fact your competitors on track. Congratulations to the Magnus Racing- Lifeyo.com squad (consisting of Craig Stanton, Mike Kai and Efrain Olivares) who made no mistakes and pulled the overall win, just narrowly beating team GoShootingToday.com (with Taylor Hays, Sam Brumley, Jober Velasco, and Dave Messimer) by just one lap. Again and always, thanks to the crew at CalSpeed Karting who always run such a professional and fun-filled event. I don’t mind giving them my hard earned cash, to support my drug racing addiction.

Team B3RP Podium: Brian Guevara, Bryan Armburst, Paul Ciralli, Brian Starr, and Richard Griffin

If you want a full race report on the 2010 Machismo 500, IKN (IndoorKartingNews.com) has the full report.

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Super Series – Round 4

Trying to Keep Up

Well, there isn’t much to say about Round 4 of the Super Series, which was held on Dec. 4th, 2010, other than finishing poorly and ending up in the E.R. a few hours after the race. There were a lot of new faces in the field, some of whom I thought were experienced (judging from their oil-stained, grimy suit covered with what looked like sponsors) and actually raced “properly” (read: able to pass without ramming and shoving people out of their way). I guess that was my ignorance and lack of experience setting my expectations too high. I had nothing but a slew of bad karts all day and actually ended up getting t-boned and rear-ended pretty bad during the Sprint Grand Prix and Ironman Enduro races. I guess having full wrap-around bumpers encourages a little “love tap” here and there? Anyways, congratulations to Miles Calvin, Taylor Hays, Diego Morales for taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively, for the Sprint GP race along with Sergio Bravo, Jon Kimbrell and Craig Stanton for taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively, for the Ironman Enduro.

Round 4 Sprint GP Podium Finishers -- From Left to Right: Taylor Hays, Miles Calvin, and Diego Morales

Round 4 Ironman Enduro Podium Finishers -- From Left to Right: Jon Kimbrell, Sergio Bravo, Craig Stanton