1989 Bridgestone ST Civic ~ Drivers: Stephen Yeoh and Mike Kazmierczak: Night of the Living Dead ~ Fontana CA

Welcome to the annual Night of the Living Dead held at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. This is the third NOTLD that I've attended and I have not enjoyed the first two. Like last year, we run almost at the tail end of the event, which pretty much means that we will finish very late. Last year was better than the first year because the car had extra lighting and we got a lot of attention - enough that we got some attention BEFORE this event about the extra lights - even from competitors that were not going to be attending this event.

Jason had sent me pictures of the light bar and lights, but this is the first time I'm seeing the car in person. The lights look incredible. Baja Designs has a really nice set up with these LED lights. Rally Innovations fabricated the light bar for us. Take a look at the photos to see how good the car looks.

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This time, I approached this event a little differently. Night events are not my strength with weaker night vision, so I just decided to have some fun and try to go fast. The course design helped. It had key turns that were critical to leading into the fast sections, so you really had to put the whole run together to get a good time event. At the same time, the course was straightforward enough that you could tr to memorize the key points. With that in mind, Jason and I walked a couple of times to try to memorize the course in advance. I felt that the lighting from the inside shining out was better this year compared to years past.

After the walk, we had plenty of time to kill, so we went off to have a pleasant, relaxing dinner before coming back to the Speedway. We still had many hours before it would be our turn to drive, so we hung out, talked about stuff and I also had a chance to meet some of Jason's Honda experts that have been providing behind the scenes technical advice.

It was around 12:30 before we got ready to drive. Jason goes out and makes a pretty good run and comes back with very good feedback on the course. The tires are a little cold and the tail is loose. I go out and miss a key apex, so I try to tighten my line to get back on my chosen line. That sends the tail out and I'm scrambling to regain control. In the process, I drift off course and DNF. I keep going through the rest of the course and miss a second key apex and slide around again. At least the tires are no longer cold.

I lay down a good second run, but it's dirty. At least I'm starting to feel more comfortable with driving at night. Jason takes his 3rd run and almost matches my raw time. I take my 3rd run and try to go flat in the back wallom as we had planned. However, I'm late and get out of shape and DNF again. Instead of trying to avoid a DNF and take out a wall (which would make my time worthless anyway), I elect to go around the outside of the wall and leave it intact. On my last run, I make a few mistakes in the key areas leading up to the fast sections and end up almost a whole second off my fast time, but it's clean. Night driving is still difficult for me, but it wasn't so bad after all.

At the end of the night, Jason finishes 2nd and I'm 3rd. Not a bad night out (actually pretty good for me). We head out, grab some food and head off to bed. It's almost 5AM before we get to bed.

Here is the video...