Muscle Milk Pickett Racing cruised to its second straight victory in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón on Friday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. But another thrilling GT battle stole the show as Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner also took their second consecutive class win.

The last 90 minutes of the GT race undoubtedly was the highlight of the American Le Mans Monterey presented by Patrón. Seven cars in the class were within two seconds in the closing hour including the two Corvettes, BMW Team RLL’s two BMW M3s and Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs from Flying Lizard Motorsports and Team Falken Tire.

Gavin made what turned out to be the winning pass in his Corvette C6.R on Team Falken Tire’s Wolf Henzler with a little less than an hour left at the final turn. But the drama carried on for the next 60 minutes. Bill Auberlen in the No. 55 BMW M3 GT looked set to challenge Gavin for the race win before Jan Magnussen in the sister Corvette muscled his way past the BMW with less than 15 minutes to go.

“It was so tight in our class. You could never let off and think ‘I’m alright now,’” Gavin said. “I had a few close calls in the pitlane, and then Wolf passed me for the lead. He was hard but fair, and he gave me just enough room to get by at the last turn. I managed to sneak by a lot of people today, and we managed to catch all the breaks. It was a great race for me today.”

Two rare less-than-stellar pit stops seemed to take the No. 4 Corvette out of contention past the halfway point. First there was a refueling issue that sent the car from first to seventh under caution, and then the team couldn’t get the left-rear tire changed on another stop. It was a sickening feeling, Milner admitted but hope always remained.

“It was frustrating, but the car really was one of the best race cars I’ve ever had,” Milner said. “I knew it would be tough to make it back to the front there. From first on back to sixth, the cars were so competitive. Passing is pretty difficult and I knew I had to bide my time, and be careful in many situations. I had a few close calls and a little contact, but beyond that we got up to third or fourth, gave it over to Oliver and he took it to the finish. “

Magnussen and Antonio Garcia wrapped up the Corvette 1-2 after Magnussen’s daring pass. Their No. 3 Corvette also won the GT portion of the Michelin Green X Challenge due to its superior efficiency and emissions control compared to the rest of the GT cars.

Auberlen and Jörg Müller placed third in the GT standings.

At the front of the field, Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr dominated in their Honda Performance Development ARX-03a prototype. The duo trailed for less than a quarter of the opening lap after a strong start at the green flag by Dyson Racing. Graf regained the advantage at the third turn – he claimed Chris Dyson jumped the start – and the Muscle Milk car lapped the field within the first two hours.

“We had to keep pushing to keep our rhythm,” Graf said. “We did competitive laps; that’s what we wanted to do. It is the safest way to drive. If you go away from the path it is dangerous. We have to stay predictable in traffic too, so we can’t stray too much. You always have close calls, and there is no way to avoid that. Some guys don’t see you and that is the way it is. You have to look ahead and pay close attention.”

The Muscle Milk HPD ran flawless over the course of the race – a trait that carried over the entire weekend. It was quickest in every practice session, Graf was the fastest qualifier, and Luhr set the fastest race lap.

Dyson’s trio of Chris Dyson, Guy Smith and Johnny Mowlem placed third. The Muscle Milk duo moved into the P1 championship lead with the victory – a luxury the Pickett squad has never enjoyed in the ALMS.

“It was a good race for Muscle Milk Pickett Racing especially now that we have two wins in California in front of our home crowd,” Luhr said. “It was very important for the whole team and our motivation. It was very nice. There were so many friends and family of the Picketts here to support us. We can show them two back-to-back victories. I’m very happy Klaus did a very good job in the beginning, and we had a very good lead early. We had to keep our focus, stay out of trouble and bring it home. That’s what we did.”

The Muscle Milk car also won the prototype portion of the Michelin Green X Challenge for the second consecutive race. The HPD swept all three categories – clean, fast and efficient.

Level 5 Motorsports is three-for-three on the season in P2 following a victory for Franck Montagny, Scott Tucker and Luis Diaz. Their HPD ARX-03b overcame a couple of penalties in pitlane and a wild day for each of the three cars that led the class.

The winning Level 5 P2 car finished second overall.

“The team is very prepared to fight for overall wins,” Diaz said. “The P1s are a bit quicker in the straights to be fighting with them. Our goal is to develop race by race. The aero of this car is great, you can roll such a great speed in the corners. I think also the mechanical side of the car is great. It’s just an awesome car.”

The P2-leading No. 055 crashed out just after it lost the lead – ironically with Montagny driving that car as well – and Conquest Racing suffered a late-race mechanical issue that took it out of contention. Its Morgan-Nissan driven by Martin Plowman, David Heinemeier Hansson and Antonio Pizzonia placed second in class.

“I was not so happy,” Montagny said of his incident with the JDX Racing GT Challenge Porsche. “Especially for a team like this, you don’t feel good when things like that happen. But the team worked hard and put it back together and got it back on the track. They still finished P3 so they are happy. But I am a race car driver and I had to do my job.”

“On the radio I knew Franck was behind me, and then I realized he wasn’t anymore,” Tucker said. “I didn’t really know what had happened. It looked really bad but the team did a great job putting it back together. Then Luis drove the winning car splendidly and we ended up overall having a good day.”

Dempsey Racing’s trio of Hollywood star and team owner Patrick Dempsey, team co-principal Joe Foster and Jonny Cocker placed fourth in the team’s ALMS P2 debut with their Lola-Judd.

CORE autosport won for the third straight Prototype Challenge race as well, but this time Colin Braun and Jon Bennett were class victors in the No. 05 ORECA FLM09 of this time around. Braun passed RSR Racing’s Bruno Junqueira on the next-to-last lap as the two cars split a GT Challenge car on the last part of the lap.

“The last few laps were exciting. I was racing Bruno, and I had to push really hard,” Braun said. “I knew I had to set him up in traffic – that was going to be the only way I could get by. He went one way, and I went the other and it turned out right for me. We were two laps down at one point, but with race strategy and a great stint by Jon we were right there in position.”

The victory was the first in the ALMS for both Braun and team owner Bennett. The CORE squad has finished on the PC podium in each of the season’s three events.

“I’m fairly speechless to be honest. It’s been a long time getting here,” Bennett said. “I’m honored and proud to be part of CORE autosport. It’s been spectacular in the short time we’ve been together. I was impressed with Colin; we did some karting together early in the year, and I knew it would be a great season. He put on the move of the race in the last few laps for the win. It was awesome.”

Junqueira, Tomy Drissi and Roberto Gonzalez ended second. The other CORE entry of Alex Popow and Tom Kimber-Smith placed third. The top three cars were within 1.725 seconds.

Jeroen Bleekemolen drove storming stints to help give TRG its first GT Challenge victory of the season. The 2010 class co-champion (as part of Black Swan Racing) beat GMG Racing’s James Sofronas by 12 seconds at the finish. Bleekemolen drove the TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup with Bret Curtis and Emilio Di Guida.

“This is getting harder and harder to win,” admitted Bleekemolen, who drove for TRG after Black Swan didn’t enter its P2 Lola-Honda for the race. “You are getting a lot more cars out there with experience and a lot of great drivers. We didn’t have a lot of mistakes from the drivers and the teams, so it was just a good win.”

The TRG entry worked its way up from seventh in class near the start of the race and into podium position near the three-hour mark. A steady and consistent climb was the goal, Curtis said.

“I think we just drove a really hard race, but conservative,” he said. “The thing about (team owner) Kevin Buckler and TRG is he wants you to push, but he also wants you to pace the car. The strategy was really good. Everyone was putting in solid laps, and the crew did a super-super job. It was the strategy from the get-go. Some teams might have been struggling but we kept on and took the win.”

Sofronas, Alex Welch and Rene Villineuve were five seconds ahead of Competition Motorsports’ trio of Bob Faieta, Michael Avenatti and Cort Wagner.

The focus of sports car racing now turns to the 24 Hours of Le Mans where select ALMS teams compete on June 16-17 at the famed 8.3-mile French circuit in the world’s greatest auto race.

The American Le Mans presented by Tequila Patrón returns to action at Lime Rock Park for the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday, July 7. The two-hour, 45-minute race is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET from the 1.5-mile, 10-turn Lime Rock Park circuit. ESPN2 airs the race the same day at 4 p.m. ET. Live coverage is available starting at 2:45 p.m. ET on ESPN3.

The Series’ website offers additional content such as live in-car cameras, and timing and scoring for all users around the world. Viewers outside the U.S. can watch the Lime Rock round and all ALMS races live on ALMS.com.

Visit ALMS.com for current and future event information including tickets and area accommodations. Follow the Series on Twitter, Facebook and the official YouTube channel.

American Le Mans Monterey presented by Patrón

Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif.

Saturday’s results

1. (1) Klaus Graf, Germany; Lucas Luhr, Germany; HPD ARX-03a Honda (1, P1), 242.
2. (4) Luis Diaz, Mexico; Scott Tucker; Franck Montagny, Brignoles France; HPD ARX-03b Honda (2, P2), 239.
3. (10) Colin Braun, Ovalo, TX; Jon Bennett; Oreca FLM09 (3, PC), 236.
4. (6) Roberto Gonzalez; Tomy Drissi, Hollywood, CA; Bruno Junqueira; Oreca FLM09 (4, PC), 236.
5. (7) Tom Kimber-Smith, England; Alex Papow; Oreca FLM09 (5, PC), 236.
6. (8) Michael Guasch, Palo Alto, CA; Memo Gidley, San Rafael, CA; Archie Hamilton, Hampshire, UK; Oreca FLM09 (6, PC), 236.
7. (12) Lucas Downs, North Mankoto, MN; Kyle Marcelli; Dean Stirling, England; Oreca FLM09 (7, PC), 234.
8. (9) Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Ken Dobson, Carmel Valley, CA; Oreca FLM09 (8, PC), 232.
9. (17) Oliver Gavin; Tom Milner, Leesburg, VA; Corvette C6-ZR1 (1, GT), 232.
10. (20) Jan Magnussen; Antonio Garcia; Corvette C6-ZR1 (2, GT), 232.
11. (18) Jorg Muller, Germany; Bill Auberlen, Hermosa Beach, CA; BMW E92 M3 (3, GT), 232.
12. (22) Dirk Mueller; Joey Hand, Sacramento, CA; BMW E92 M3 (4, GT), 232.
13. (21) Scott Sharp, Jupiter, FL; Johannes van Overbeek, San Francisco, CA; Ferrari F458 Italia (5, GT), 232.
14. (19) Patrick Long, Oak Park, CA; Jorg Bergmeister; Richard Lietz, Ybbsitz; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (6, GT), 232.
15. (24) Bryan Sellers, Centerville, OH; Wolf Henzler; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (7, GT), 232.
16. (11) Ryan Lewis, UK; Duncan Ende, Los Angeles; Henri Richard; Oreca FLM09 (8, PC), 231.
17. (16) Stefan Mucke, Germany; Darren Turner; Adrian Fernandez; Aston Martin Vantage (9, GT), 230.
18. (27) Marco Holzer; Seth Neiman, Burlingame, CA; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (10, GT), 230.
19. (25) Sascha Maassen; Bryce Miller, Hoboken, NJ; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (11, GT), 229.
20. (35) David Heinemeier Hansson; Martin Plowman, Indianapolis, IN; Antonio Pizzonia, Manaus BR; Morgan/Nissan (12, P2), 227.
21. (13) Anthony Nicolosi, Brooklyn, NY; Ricardo Vera; Oreca FLM09 (13, PC), 225.
22. (23) Guy Cosmo, Long Island, NY; Ed Brown, Las Vegas, NV; Ferrari F458 Italia (14, GT), 224.
23. (2) Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Johnny Mowlem, England; Guy Smith, Beverley, UK; Lola B12/60 Mazda (15, P1), 222.
24. (30) Emilio Di Guida; Jeroen Bleekemolen, Netherlands; Brett Curtis, Valencia, CA; Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (1, GTC), 219.
25. (34) James Sofronas, Newport Beach, CA; Rene Villeneuve, Woodland Hills, CA; Alex Welch; Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (2, GTC), 219.
26. (32) Michael Aventatti; Bob Faieta, Tujunga, CA; Cort Wagner, Pacific Palisades, CA; Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (3, GTC), 219.
27. (33) Anthony Lazzaro, Acworth, GA; Cooper MacNeil; Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (4, GTC), 216.
28. (28) Damien Faulkner; Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, Haarlem, NL; Peter LeSaffre, Rye, NH; Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (5, GTC), 211.
29. (3) Scott Tucker; Christophe Bouchut, France; Franck Montagny, Brignoles France; HPD ARX-03b Honda (6, P2), 207.
30. (5) Joe Foster, Lawrenceville, GA; Jonny Cocker, UK; Patrick Dempsey; Lola B12/87-Judd BMW V8 (7, P2), 202.
31. (14) Andrew Prendeville, Chatham, NJ; Rusty Mitchell, Midland, TX; Duarte Felix de Costa, Cascias PT; Radical SR10/Rousch Yates (8, P2), 185.
32. (29) Nick Tandy; Mike Hedlund, Woodside, CA; Tracy Krohn, Houston, TX; Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (9, GTC), 178.
33. (31) Martin Ragginger, Austria; Chris Cumming, Vancouver, BC; Matthew Marsh, Welwyn, UK; Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (10, GTC), 119.
34. (15) Tony Burgess, Canada; Antonio Downs, Minneapolis, MN; Chapman Ducote, Miami, FL; Oreca FLM09 (11, PC), 100.
35. (26) Townsend Bell, Santa Monica, CA; Bill Sweedler, Westport, CT; Lotus Evora/Cosworth (16, GT), 67.

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The New Hampshire Motor Speedway hosted its annual Vintage Racing Celebration last week, split into 4 days with Thursday and Friday dedicated to the oval course, and the weekend brings a change with a move to the road course. On the “Oval” a good number of cars were out on display including midget, sprint, champ, Indy, modified and stock cars that will certainly provide a high speed exhibition of vintage racing, – racing around “The Magic Mile”.

On the weekend, the track will transform from the “Oval” and be reconfigured into the 1.6-mile road course for the rest of the weekend. Vintage racers from all over the world will test their skills against the winding road course. Racers will feature classic cars, and bikes as well a thrilling sidecar race with a very different version of the monkey you are used to seeing.

The event is appreciated by a close knit group of drivers who look to ensure these cars are seen and raced to ensure these cars do not get lost or forgotten about. One car out on the track was the first Chevy-powered Indy Car which won the Little 500 in Anderson, Indiana, which was a paved quarter mile in 1964. It was driven at Indy by Mike Magill and was built by Chuck Chenworth.

The Legends race topped off the weekends activities on Sunday with Reid Lanpher taking the chequered flag from Beaulieu in second with Buffington third, Bourgoine fourth, and Nick Ladyga rounded out the top five. After five races now, there have been five different winners on the Tour. Will we see winner number six next weekend when the cars return to NHMS for the first 2012 oval race at the track? It will be an interesting race for sure.

Racing is set to start around 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 19th. You won’t want to miss it as this season has proven to be one of the most competitive with a new driver up front each week. For more info, news and how you can get into a Legends Car, please visit the Nelcar Legends tour website.

With all this vintage racing I am eagerly anticipating New England’s largest sporting events the two NASCAR events held in July and September at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

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Yamaha’s Josh Hayes continued his mastery of Infineon Raceway on Saturday, taking the victory in the 22-lap feature for AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike at the Great Clips West Coast Moto Jam.

It was Hayes’ fifth-career SuperBike win on the 12-turn, 2.32-mile road course and his fifth in seven races in Sonoma. Blake Young (Suzuki) took second, with Danny Eslick (Eric Buell Racing) third in the AMA Pro Road Racing event.

Hayes hopes to make it a sweep of the doubleheader weekend on Sunday.

“Obviously the race went really well and went to plan,” said Hayes, who started on the pole and led wire-to-wire. “I was glad to get a good start. I’ve been getting beat up on the starts so far this year, but got a good run at the line and had a clear track. I think there is some more pace in the bike, and I feel like I can maintain a faster pace, if push comes to shove.”

It was Hayes’ third SuperBike win of the season and 20th of his career, tying him with Fred Merkel for fourth place all-time. He maintains his SuperBike points lead, 148-135, over Young.

Martin Cardenas (Suzuki) and Jason DiSalvo (Triumph) staged a thrilling battle in the 22-lap feature for AMA Pro Daytona SportBike, with Cardenas taking the checkers. It was the 20th career win for Cardenas, 19 coming in SportBike, an ongoing AMA record. With the victory, Cardenas remained atop the SportBike point standings.

Cardenas and DiSalvo dueled throughout the race, with the Colombian native taking the lead for good on Lap 20. He took the checkers by just 1.460 seconds over DiSalvo.

Dustin Dominguez (Triumph) took the win in the AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport 18-lap feature on Saturday, with James Rispoli (Suzuki) second and Jake Lewis (Suzuki) third. It was the first win of the season for Dominguez. Discovery Bay’s Elena Myers (Suzuki) placed 13th.

In qualifying for Vance and Hines VR1200, Kyle Wyman took the pole.

To find the complete results, you can track them down here on the AMA Pro Racing website.

Action returns on Sunday at Infineon Raceway with four main events scheduled in Vance & Hines XR1200 (12:30 p.m.), Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport (1:15 p.m.), Daytona SportBike (2:15 p.m.) and National Guard SuperBike (3:30 p.m.). There will also be main events in TTXGP eGrandPrix Championships and Supermoto USA. Gates open at 8 a.m. For more information, visit www.infineonraceway.com/ama. All times Pacific.

Suzuki’s Blake Young benefited from an early-race mishap by Yamaha’s Josh Hayes and went on to take the victory on Sunday at the Great Clips West Coast Moto Jam at Infineon Raceway.

Hayes, who won Saturday’s AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike feature and was heavily favored to make it a sweep on Sunday, lost control of his bike on Lap 2 at Turn 9, opening the door for Young to take the lead and power on to victory. Hayes, who had won five of the last seven SuperBike features in Sonoma, rebounded from the mishap to take seventh place, his worst showing of the year.

“I saw Josh go down and thought ‘wow,’ ” said Young. “I saw him moving around so I knew he was OK and I just thought’ this is the race we need.’ We had been struggling all weekend long, but the Yoshimura Suzuki guys have been working hard and we were able to put it on top of the box today.”

Said Hayes, “I was just riding hard. (Teammate Josh) Herrin was right there, and I wanted to stay in front. I rode too hard into the turn.”

Young was followed by Roger Hayden (Suzuki), Geoff May (Eric Buell Racing), Ben Bostrom (Suzuki) and Chris Fillmore (KTM). It was the third victory of the season for Young and his first at Infineon Raceway. It couldn’t have come at a better time as he closed the gap to four points with series-leader Hayes (166-162).

“Josh isn’t going to give it to me, we’re going to have to earn it,” Young said.

“Well, it puts on a better show for the championship, right?” Hayes said. “It’s not what I wanted. I didn’t want it to happen, but that’s what it is now.”

Jason DiSalvo (Triumph) posted his first win of the season by taking the checkers in Daytona SportBike. Tommy Hayden (Yamaha) was second with Antelope’s Joey Pascarella (Yamaha) third. Points leader Martin Cardenas (Suzuki) suffered a late-race mishap and was well off the pace in 22nd.

It was DiSalvo’s third-career win in SportBike in Sonoma; he swept the doubleheader last year.

In Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport, James Rispoli (Suzuki) took the victory by just 0.411 seconds over Dustin Dominguez (Triumph) in a hotly-contested battle. Tomas Puerta (Yamaha) rounded out the top three. It was Rispoli’s fourth-career SuperSport win and his second of the season. Discovery Bay’s Elena Myers took 11th.

Michael Barnes took the win in both the TTXGP eGrandPrix Championship feature, as well as the Vance and Hines VR1200 main event.

For the race results, head over the the AMA Website.

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The 24 Hours of LeMons is a series of endurance races held on paved road race courses across the United States. The 24 Hours of Lemons is a parody of the historic 24 Hours of Le Mans series. Teams compete in race-prepared cars that cost no more than $500 (i.e., lemons) for up to 24 hours. These races set themselves apart from the typical road race by the unusual penalties and punishments meted out by judges.

Last weekends event “Loudon Annoying” took place at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. With over two days of racing it led to some great action on the track and even more action inside the pits. The 24 Hours of Lemons is renowned for its penalties and punishments, the weekend was no exception. With this past Saturday being Cinco De Mayo the Lemons introduced the Cinco De Mayo, in which a participants keys were dropped in a Cost-co size jar of Mayo. Needless to say much fun was had. I have also failed to mention the Mitt Romney inspired driver in a dog cage being driven around the pits.

Action on the weekend came down to the last few laps with the top ten featuring vehicles such as a Honda Accord, Ford Excort, Volvo 244, Acura Integra, Nissan 240SX, Nissan 300ZX, Mazda RX-7, Pontiac Firebird, BMW 318ti (E36), Volvo 262. The race ended up going to the wire, when the chequered flag dropped the Accord-driven by Bill Danger and the Road Hazzards came out on top. The Keystone Kops Volvo 244 Turbo finished the race in third, missing a class win by seconds. The team would have taken the overall win if not for a couple of late-race penalties and a turbocharger failure.

The top prize of the race, the Index of Effluency, was glommed in decisive, no-other-choice fashion by the Speedycop and the Gang of Outlaws entry, a Viking pop-up camping trailer built around a Suzuki X90. It certainly drew the most interest of the race weekend and it was a well deserved winner. I am very much looking forward to the race returning to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in late October, not only will it feature the Lemons the event will also include “Wife Carrying” and a “Potato Gun” firing competition, see you then!

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The beautiful cars of the Ferrari Challenge North America series returned to Infineon raceway for their seventh consecutive year this past weekend and their 20th year overall. The weekend was highlighted by the return of the purpose-built Ferrari 458 Challenge. The Ferrari 458 Challenge made its debut last year in Sonoma, and is the fifth and latest generation of the Ferrari Challenge car. Adding to the weekends excitement is the Corse Clienti Department’s XX and F1 Clienti programs will also provide onlookers with further excitement over the weekend.

One familiar face who competed during the weekend was Robert Herjavec, star of ABC TV’s Shark Tank, unfortunately his weekend was cut short after an accident on Saturday, with his vehicle badly damaged it was unable to take to the track on Sunday. What makes this event so great is the access to the vehicles the spectators get. Infineon and Ferrari provide visitors to the race an open paddock area which is very rarely seen in one racing these days. Being able to get up close and personal with an Ex-F1 car can be quite a sight for an F1 fan, but nothing compares to the sound you hear when one accelerates away.

The Ferrari Challenge Series is organized by Ferrari North America, Inc. and sanctioned by the Grand American Road Racing Association. Complete Ferrari Challenge information can be found on www.ferrarichallenge.com.

With this being essentially a one marque series this lent itself to some great wheel to wheel racing. You can catch the series at Laguna Seca between the 18th and the 20th of May, before they head to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix in June. The results for last weekends race can be found here for Saturday, and here for Sunday.

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Kaizen Tuning Open House

The Kaizen Tuning 2012 Season Opener and Facility Farewell will go down as a great event with a surprise car celebrity appearance from Nakai San of Rauh Welt made it certainly the event to beat of the year thus far.

Cars lined up early to get a premium spot every before I arrived an hour before the Open House was to “Open”, and it certainly made for an enjoyable time walking across the road finding out what had pulled in and going over and talking to people, all on a great Summer’s day. The event must have had at least 500 cars from all different walks of life and different parts of the world come through which made for certainly an interesting show.

The Kaizen crew were good to their word and provided a DJ, games, prizes, giveaways, and of course some of the “BADDEST” cars in New England! However don’t let me forget the grill that was going all day, mmmmm grill. One of the highlights for me was the “Kaizen Tuning GT5 Time Attack Challenge!” Where competitors were scored on time racing around the track for prizes.

All of the proceeds of the event went to benefit Guardian Angel Motorsports. Guardian Angel Motorsports mission is to use motorsports to raise public awareness and funds for children who suffer from severe illness or abuse and to provide monetary support to improve the quality of their lives. Which goes without saying is a very worthy cause indeed.

Kaizen Tuning is a company that was born out of the need for a true enthusiast workshop in the Northeast. Kaizen Tuning is operated and owned by car fanatics, and offers customer service for an enthusiast, by enthusiasts who live the car lifestyle. Kaizen Tuning was started so that we could bring improvement not only to the performance of our customer’s vehicles, but to the customer experience in the Northeast.

I just can’t wait for the “Open House” of the new facility later this summer!

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This weekend gave me my first opportunity to check out some grassroots drifting with the guys from Drift Spot. Drift Spot are a great team of guys and girls who enjoy drifting, they organize a series of events throughout the year both for learning how to drift or Drift 101 they call in and a drifting competition with it’s first round happening on the 5th of May.

The Drift 101 clinic opened up the 2012 season. This year’s event featured 20 drivers, who were ready and willing to learn. Three stations were setup for the drivers, each increasing in difficulty. The first station allowed drivers to focus on creating simple donuts from their drivers moved to larger circles and figure eights, for the final station a mid-speed course designed to use all of the skills introduced at the previous stations was created and drivers were allowed to run at their own pace.

In speaking to the folks at Drift Spot I understand they introduced a limited, invite only, test & tune session. This session took place on the final station and allowed the more experienced drivers to work on shaking down their vehicles and test out new setups in a low pressure, low risk environment. As the day wore on that low pressure, low risk environment didn’t stop some of the drivers from stepping up their practice and turning these simple runs into all out tandem battles. Judging by what we saw, this year’s competitions are going to be very interesting and very exciting.

Those getting their early in the day were treated to an appearance by local Formula D driver and special guest, Ryan Tuerck, in his personal car aka the drift missile, a Nissan 240x with a Toyota 1JZ motor. Ryan is a huge supporter of grassroots drifting and was taking part in the test & tune portion of the day. Unfortunately, some mechanical gremlins which ended up being a failed transmission ended his day very early. I just hope when he come back for the next one we get to see more than three runs from him.

Drift Spot was founded in 2009, by an enthusiastic group of drivers whose goal is to provide quality drift events, including instructional and competition style events, with a focus on community and a grassroots atmosphere, to the growing New England Drifting Community. DriftSpot’s 2009 season surpassed all expectations, holding the highest attended grassroots drift event in New England. As a result of this the events have grown and now in 2012 they are almost bursting with drivers and volunteer’s.

If you want to learn more about “Drifting” then these events are an absolutely fantastic step into that realm to either watch and learn about something new, or even to learn about car control and how to “drift”.

I would really suggest checking out the Drift Spot website or the Drift Spot Facebook Page to find out more details on events or just more info about the group. The next event is the first stage of the 2012 competition and will be held again at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. I very much look forward to seeing you there.

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The Open House for European Auto Solutions was held this past weekend to round out a great day of Open Houses here in Boston. It was great meeting the team and being able to check out a super clean workshop and hear about some great Mercedes Benz’s.

E.A.S. have over 20 years experience in working on Mercedes Benz vehicles with a team dedicated to servicing and restoring Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

A series of different Mercedes Benz AMG vehicles all in black, highlight the variety of cars that turned up to the open house.

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Yesterday I had the please of visiting Aston Martin of New England/Lotos Motorsports Open House.

I got to see an unbelievable workshop with the kind of cars you dream about or even had pictures on your bedroom wall. Having the opportunity to check out one of the finest dealerships in the North East is something I couldn’t pass up so please take a look.

It was great meeting the team at AMNE seeing some very interesting and rare cars and hearing stories about current project cars in the workshop.

The workshop certainly had some very interesting vehicles including a Ferrari Dino, a Jaguar E-Type, an Aston Martin V8 a Mercedes Benz 300SL to name a few of the classics and a plethora of more modern machinery from the likes of Aston Martin, Lotus and Ferrari.

I am looking forward to going back to more events and chatting to the team about other projects that are going to be on the go.

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Herb Chambers Cars & Coffee is a new addition to New England’s cars and coffee series. The day out for automotive enthusiasts of all kinds featuring antiques or classics, exotics, hot rods, track cars and anything else you can imagine. The cars come from all over New England however they started out all over the world. This first event of the season featured over 100 cars and was held at the very nice Herb Chambers BMW dealership in Sudbury.

I am very much looking forward to coming back and seeing what else comes out from garages across New England.

The most impressive vehicle on display at the event was the Bell 429 Helicopter, I mean why would you not want to choose to just jump in your own Helicopter to head to event early on a Saturday morning.

We will be lucky enough to see another series of these events throughout the rest of the year, I hope to see you at one of the following events.

May 12 – Herb Chambers Porsche of Burlington / Audi Burlington

June 9 – Herb Chambers Lexus

July 14 – Flagship Motorcars of Lynnfield

August 11 – Herb Chambers Infiniti of Westborough

September 8 – BMW Sudbury

October 13 – Herb Chambers Lexus

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