Over a dozen Hotchkis customers join E-max for a weekend of first times, first places and flying cones 

The Orange County Get Together is the fourth event in the Good Guys Street Challenge Autocross series and it was a fantastic weekend for the Hotchkis team. Hotchkis-equipped cars finished first in the Vendor, Truck and Participant classes and we had more than a dozen customer competing in this fun So Cal event. 

The Street Challenge Autocross is set up right in the center of the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, and this year’s competition was packed with over 60 cars – a new GoodGuys record. We invited friends and customers to come out for the race, and they responded in amazing numbers. Besides our faithful E-Max Challenger and the incredible 2nd gen Camaro owned by Mary Pozzi , there were Chevelles, pickup trucks and several Mopars flying Hotchkis colors at the event. 

Hotchkis TVS-equipped Mopars running alongside Aaron Ogawa in the E-max included Elana Scherr’s b7 blue ’70 Challenger and Shannon Hudson’s green ’69 Valiant currently featured in Car Craft Magazine. Dan “the man” Weishaar was gunning for top Mopar with new wheels and tires on his ’68 Roadrunner, and he eventually drove a 30-second lap – a HUGE 6-second improvement over his first runs in Del Mar last month. Mopars are notoriously underrepresented at autocross events, so the Hotchkis four-car Chrysler team made quite an impression. Show-goers were literally crawling underneath the cars! 

On the GM side, several magazine editors were in attendance with their personal cars, including Nick Licata and Steven Rupp from Camaro Performers, Jonny Hunkins from Popular Hot Rodding and Henry De Los Santos and Sean Haggai from Chevy High Performance. There were also plenty of Hotchkis-equipped bowties in the mix, including three blue Chevelles. Greg Hohman’s ’71 and Dick Etchison’s 4-door ’65, both did extremely well riding on complete TVS and A-arm packages, and our friend Deanna Marengo drove her TVS-equipped ’67 Chevelle Super Sport to several low-30 second passes. Dan Kahn’s low-mileage ’99 Camaro SS was flogged around the track by Mark Hotchkis (Dan’s a good sport), running back-to-back 31-second runs. Also of significance – Trish and Rob Byrd brought out the very first 5th Gen Camaro to compete in a GoodGuys autocross, and both did very well with their Track Pack equipped RS. 

The newly created Truck class was the showplace for not one but TWO Hotchkis equipped C-10 pickups. Mike Hickman drove his citrus orange 1968 C10 into the low 32s, showing off the full Hotchkis C-10 Total Vehicle System that’s about to go into full production. Rob Phillips gave him a run for his money in the Phillips & Co. ’67 C10, which is running front and rear Hotchkis Sport Sway Bars. Truckin’ Magazine editor Dan Ward also showed up in his ’99 Silverado, which is running Hotchkis Sport Sway Bars front and rear, and ripped through the course for the Editor’s Challenge putting on a fantastic show. 

Speaking of competition, the field at a Good Guys Street Challenge has never been so full or so fast! Lap times dropped into the high 28s on the very first day. On Sunday the cars were run by class and when the cones settled the results were clear. There wasn’t a speck of dust on the Costa Mesa GoodGuys Autocross course because Hotchkis swept the event! Aaron claimed his first title in the Vendor class with a flawless 29.32 run. Aaron’s win made him the first Mopar to win in Street Challenge Autocross. 

Mike Hickman took the orange Hotchkis C-10 to First place in the Truck class with a 32.01. That’s faster than most of the cars that were running. No one will be surprised to hear that “Fast” Mary Pozzi deserves her nickname. She destroyed the competition in the Participant class with the fastest time of the entire weekend, a 28.73. The lady is incredible! We couldn’t be more proud of all our Hotchkis cars and drivers. 

Each GoodGuys event we attend blows us away with the quality of cars, participants and vendors. It’s wonderful to see old friends and meet new ones. We’d like to thank Chad Reynolds from BangShift.com for his excellent and hilarious announcing during the Autocross and of course our biggest thanks goes to our friends and customers that make attending these events such a pleasure. We look forward to meeting our Midwestern friends at our next event, the 2010 Motor State Challenge June 18-20 in Michigan. 

Winning Times:
Mary Pozzi – Participant Class – 1973 Camaro – 28.733
Mike Hickman – Truck Class – 1968 C-10 – 32.017
Aaron Ogawa – Vendor Class – 1970 Challenger – 29.320