What: 2nd Annual American Streetcar Series Autocross brought to you by Heidts driving experience, Wilwood, and BFG share the ride
When: Hot August Nights weekend – Thursday August 6th, Friday August 7th quite a bit of rain Friday morning making times during the afternoon quite a bit slower, Sat August 8th
Where: Reno Livestock Convention Center in Sparks, Nevada in conjunction with the H.A.N. Swap meet where there were over 100 vendors selling everything from rusty gold, vintage signs, vehicles, old magazines, clothing, and rare hard to find auto parts.

No autocross would be complete without slaying some cones!

Since the first Hot August Nights hot rod cruise event back in 1986, the event has expanded beyond the Reno Tourism boards wildest dreams. Nearly 30 years later for a week in August, Reno and Sparks, Nevada turn into one of the largest venues in the world for all things automotive.
Just a few amazing events that occur are obviously daily car cruise, a huge swap meet, autocross, concerts, and even the world renown Barrett-Jackson comes to town and holds a multi day live auction.

The 2nd annual American Streetcar Series autocross happened in the middle of one of the most visited events. The swap meet, where you can find cars for sale, vintage signs, old magazines, clothing, and rusty gold (very hard to find parts for your vintage hot rod)  from over 100 vendors.  Brought to the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center by Heidts Driving Experience and BF Goodrich Share the ride, there was a very spirited turnout during the three days of autocross despite some rain on Friday.

The BF Goodrich “Share the Ride” offers people in the crowd who might not have brought a vehicle to the event an opportunity to first hand experience what the fastest 40 mph of their life is like.  All it takes is to sign a waiver and you can get ride alongs in some official vehicles for free all weekend long. Through the program BF Goodrich hopes to get more people out of their lawn chairs and into a vehicle to enjoy the autocross hobby.

What also makes this such a great event is that it was free to run the autocross track as much as you like over the weekend for Hot August Nights competitors.  As long as your car is street legal and passes a simple tech inspection you can run your car as much as you like.  Over the days of the autocross there were over 60 vehicles entered. Ranging from vehicles including a Polaris slingshot, Pantera, 1928 Ford model a wagon, Shelby Cobras, Volkswagens, and even some sport compact vehicles there was no shortage of shiny to rusty eye candy on the track.

Some of the top times from Saturday were:
1966 Shelby Cobra driven by Tom Darhan – 30.470
1988 Pontiac Trans Am GTA driven by Valerie Prichette – 30.542
1968 Chevrolet Camaro driven by Josh Robison – 31.254

One of the most interesting rides on the weekend was a 1928 Ford Model A wagon built by Millers Chop Shop of Sparks, Nevada. The driver was Josh Prater who had never taken this car around a track.  You could see his nervous energy and excitement after just one pass. Awesome to see an event that can be fun and safe for even 90 year old vehicles. Praters best time was 37.452