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2nd Round of the 2019 NASA Western Endurance Racing Championship

Photography by ©2019 Toni Avery

For the second three-hour of the NASA Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC) season, team Jackson Racing and HG Trackside headed to Buttonwillow Raceway on Saturday April 6th to race Vincent “Hollywood” Piemonte’s E1 Class Ford Mustang GT again.

Piloting the GT would be Oscar Jackson Jr. of Jackson Racing and team HG Trackside driving instructor, Dieter-Heinz Kijora, team HG Trackside Team Principal, and Vincent Piemonte, a Hollywood stunt performer that has been working with Oscar Jackson for a few years now. Going into the second endurance weekend with the Mustang, the team knew what they needed to work on and proceeded to prepare for the night race.

With Crew Chief Oscar Jackson Sr. in attendance, the team went to work on preparing the vehicle and themselves for the race ahead. Oscar Jr. went out for the teams qualifying session, qualifying on pole in E1 for the race. With the race starting at 6:15pm, Oscar Jr. would take the first hour stint in the Mustang. The team had planned on two scheduled pit stops, all of which coincided with driver changes. Oscar Jr. gained a significant gap to the second-place car until a full course caution and safety car brought everyone back to the same pace. With that gap now gone, Oscar Jr. worked to get some time between him and the second-place car before heading in to switch to the next driver. As the sun started to set, Dieter-Heinz took the second stint with fueling and no tire changes in that stop. The last stint was driven by Vincent with that stop including fuel where he also encountered a safety car session. This was Vincent’s first trip into night racing and was picking up the pace as his stint carried on. Consistency over the 3 hours is critical and great pace was found in the BFGoodrich R1 tires utilized by the team, while also never having to change a tire during the 3 hour race!

With all this, team Jackson Racing and HG Trackside placed fourth. While it wasn’t the position desired, the team now has an even better idea on what needs to be improved both in the car and in strategy for the next race.

Team Jackson Racing and HG Trackside will be attending the next three-hour endurance race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA.

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1st Round of the 2019 NASA Western Endurance Racing Championship

Photography by ©Toni Avery and Herb Lopez

March 16, 2019 – HG Trackside and Jackson Racing team up in Vincent “Hollywood” Piemonte’s E1 Class Ford Mustang GT racecar at Willow Springs International Raceway for the 1st round of the NASA Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC).

The race day started quite early getting the car through annual technical inspection and giving each driver time during practice sessions to get acclimated to the car. There were three drivers in rotation for the evening endurance race; Oscar Jackson (far left) of Jackson Racing and driver coach for HG Trackside, Dieter-Heinz Kijora (center), HG Trackside Team Principal, and Vincent Piemonte (far right), a Hollywood stunt performer that has been working with Oscar Jackson for a few years now.

After spending the day preparing for the 6:00 pm race start and getting important practice laps in, the Jackson Racing/HG Trackside team set up at the pit wall for the three-hour timed race. With normal crew chief Oscar Jackson Sr. not in attendance for the start of the race, Oscar Jackson stepped in as interim crew chief for the first hour of the race. The team made final preparations for fuel stops and tire changes in the pit lane and one more once over of the Mustang.

It was decided that Vincent would take the first stint with plenty of daylight and fresh fuel and tires. Dieter-Heinz ran the middle stint, which left the final and darkest stint for Oscar Jackson. During the three-hour race the team performed 4 total pit stops, two scheduled and two unscheduled, the unscheduled being for excessive tire wear on the soft Hoosier A7. Each stop the crew performed flawlessly, showing their endurance experience. It was an exciting race with cars from so many different classes all battling for position. Towards the end of the race Oscar started to catch the leading E1 class car and there’s a good chance that with one less pit stop Team Jackson Racing/HG Trackside would have caught the first place car. Overall, a 2ndplace in this car’s first endurance outing is a great result!

HG Trackside and Jackson Racing plan to bring the E1 Ford Mustang GT out for the 2ndround of the WERC Championship at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in April.

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2018 SCCA Runoffs

 

In the world of US amateur auto racing, the SCCA Runoffs is the most highly anticipated event of the year, where racers from all over the country travel to compete for the title of SCCA National Champion. With transportation support from HG Trackside, Jackson Racing traveled to Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, CA to qualify and race in B-Spec and Touring 3 (T3) classes.

The driver of the Jackson Racing/BFGoodrich B-Spec Ford Fiesta is Oscar Jackson Jr., from Chino, CA, who has been racing in the SCCA for 12 years. Oscar has already taken home the SCCA National Championship in the Touring 4 category, driving a Jackson Racing/BFGoodrich Scion FR-S to the top step at the 2016 Runoffs. Piloting the Jackson Racing T3 Ford Mustang Shelby GT is Vincent “Hollywood” Piemonte from Burbank, CA, a professional stunt performer and is attending his second Runoffs.

Testing began on October 13 where Jackson Racing worked on setup and preparation for qualifying the next week. Qualifying spans over three days for the Runoffs with the first day of racing on Friday October 19. Jackson qualified on pole each qualifying day and set a new qualifying lap record of 1:59.3. Piemonte qualified seventh in T3, improving throughout the week to a fast lap time of 1:50.2, only tenths separating 4th-12th.

Saturday October 20, T4 and B-Spec went out for the last race of the day where Jackson chose an outside starting position, which helped him maintain his pole position going into turn two. Jackson led the entire B-spec field in the Ford Fiesta from start to checkered maintaining a four and a half second gap over second place for most of the race until the last lap where the second-place driver Pipal closed the gap to about half a second due to T4 traffic.

Sunday October 21, the T3 race began with Piemonte in seventh place and there was no shortage of action. At one-point Piemonte dropped down to ninth and the two cars in front started to battle for position and came into contact with each other, which gave Piemonte the advantage. The sixth-place Ford Mustang of Scotty B. White became Piemonte’s next target, which Piemonte closed the gap quickly. A great Mustang battle commenced, with traffic on the last lap causing problems. In only his second Runoffs, Piemonte finished in the top ten in seventh place, a two-position improvement over his 2017 race.

The SCCA Runoffs 2019 will take place at Virginia International Raceway (VIR), October 8-13.