In the days following the 2011 SEMA Show here in Las Vegas there is a new motorsports mega event making its debut on the racing scene. The event is called the North American Festival of Speed and it features an action packed schedule for race fans! The event is held at Las Vegas Motor Speedway inside the famed NASCAR super speedway oval on November 4-6. The event is using the “ROVAL” configuration of the road course for the first time since 2005 which features an infield road course and a large portion of the oval track where cars will be hitting some crazy top speeds!
One of the events on the schedule for the weekend is the Hot Lap Shootout which will pit a handful of drivers against each other and the clock to see who can post the fastest lap time around the 1.1 mile infield road course in a 2012 Honda Civic Si provided by Honda North America. From the North American Festival of Speed website: “Each driver will be provided two opportunities, 1 lap each attempt, to set their fastest lap time around the course from a standing start. This pits the drivers against one another using the same car, on the same track on the same day. to see who reigns supreme!”
Mike Bonanni has been one of the lucky few invited to participate in this shootout and will go up against some highly respected names in the motorsports industry! Here’s a quick rundown of Mike’s competition:
Jeff Westphal – Driver of the GST Motorsports Time Attack Subaru Impreza L as well as a driver for the Insight Racing Grand-Am team, Westphal has an impressive resume of wins, and track records in all types of cars.
John Krolewicz – Driver for APD Motorsports. John has raced everything from go karts to Le Mans Prototypes. With more than eight years of experience with Honda platforms, John should be quite familiar with the 2012 Honda Civic Si.
Bucky Lasek – This multiple X-Games gold medalist is most well known for his talents on a skateboard, but what many don’t know is that Bucky is an avid race car driver. Driving for Rockstar Energy and Scion in the MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Championships the same weekend, Bucky is eager to prove his worth behind the wheel.
Oscar Jackson Jr. – Son of legendary Honda tuner Oscar Jackson, Oscar Jr. is well known for being a genius behind the wheel of a front wheel drive car. Oscar Jr.’s resume highlights a number of time attack championships and victories as well as highlights in endurance racing, currently leading the WERC Endurance Racing Championship with the 949 Racing team.
It’s plain to see that Mike Bonanni will be up against some stiff competition in this Hot Lap Shootout.
“While my resume is much shorter and my front wheel drive experience is much less extensive than my competition I do have one thing on my list of advantages and that is tons of laps around the infield road course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Although 99% of those laps were in the passenger seat of a car rather than the driver’s seat and we’ll be running the track in the opposite direction than I am used to, I still feel that for this format of competition, I still have a small advantage on my competition.” – Mike Bonanni
The Hot Lap Shootout competition will be held from 1:00pm – 4:00pm on Saturday November 5th. This event will also feature the Best of Vegas Drift event, Pirelli Drivers Cup race, Radical Challenge series race, the MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Championships race, and a time attack invitational!
Fans and spectators will get a unique experience to get access to the drivers, the cars, the pits, etc. and will be able to partake in the awesome Neon Garage setup built and used for the NASCAR Sprint Cup series!
For more information, click the links below and follow Mike Bonanni on Facebook and Twitter to get updates from the event!
Link Love:
www.SpeedFest.us
www.Facebook.com/BonanniMotorsports
www.Twitter.com/MikeBonanni
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Bonanni Motorsports is proud to announce UpRev Engine Management as the newest partner of our Project 370Z! If you’re involved in the Nissan community at all, you know UpRev. They are the masterminds behind the engine management of the new A.M. Performance Grand-Am 370Zs, the Performance Motorsport Time Attack 370Z, and virtually every other 370Z race car out there!
