us majors tour – Racer on Rails: High Performance Track and Race Car Shop and Race Team based in Renton, WA

Posted on February 13, 2025February 13, 2025 by Gama Aguilar

MEGA Weekend at The Circuit @ Buttonwillow Raceway Park!

Double Podium and the top step for Dave and Ron!

The 2025 Racer on Rails SCCA racing program kicked off in California at The Circuit, the newly built racecourse at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. This was a weekend of firsts—not just for us, but for the entire everyone, as we took part in the first-ever sanctioned race on the new track!

Everything about The Circuit was new; new track, new tire brand for both slick and wet setups, new coaching program, new competitors, and new adventures. Our drivers and crew had plenty to learn, and we approached the weekend with specific goals and a detailed game plan for each driver. With two days of testing, racing, and strategy calls, the team made incredible strides, achieving personal bests, podiums, and a 1-2 finish in Race 2 on Sunday.

Meet the team

Ron Tanemura & Car Chief Reid Morris

#63 SE46 BMW 330i | SCCA Class – Touring 3 (T3)

2024 ICSCC SPM Class Champion 🏆

First-ever SCCA U.S. Majors Tour event

Entering Racer on Rails’ SCCA Competition Program

Ron has been racing with Racer on Rails in the Pacific Northwest for a few years, but this was his first-ever SCCA Majors Tour race and his fist season working full time with Reid. After earning the 2024 ICSCC SPM Class Championship, he stepped up to challenge himself further in national competition. This weekend was a big new challenge —a brand-new track, new competitors, and a stomach bug. But Ron came ready to party, and nothing was stopping him.

Rene getting Dave strapped in for race 1.

David Orem & Car Chief Rene Perez

#6 BMW Z4 M Coupé | SCCA Class – Touring 3 (T3)

Touring 3 podium finisher

Has mastered Heel-Toe Shifting during the off-season

Goal-Oriented approach

Dave returns to our SCCA program looking to reach the sharp end of the T3 field. With a fresh rebuild on his Z4 M Coupé including a stunning new vinyl wrap, Dave arrives fit, focused and determined. The pairing showed steady progression all weekend, culminating in a checked bag fee on the flight home for a bag containing new hardware.

Simon’s sweet Porsche GT3 Cup Car in post race impound

Simon Asselin & Car Chief Jordan Allen (“The Doctor”)

#81 Porsche Motorsport 991.2 GT3 Cup | SCCA Class – GT2

2023 SCCA Touring 3 Points Champion

Racing in one of the most competitive SCCA grids, GT2

Third-fastest GT2 lap time of the weekend

Simon and Jordan have been working together for multiple seasons, and after a strong debut year in GT2 last season, they returned to challenge for the podium in 2025. This series offers the challenge of multi-class race groups including a large Spec Corvette field, Simon’s consistency and pace kept him at the front of the GT2 field, all while navigating the pack of slower class cars.

Friday Test Day – Cold Starts and First Impressions

We arrived at The Circuit before sunrise on Friday, greeted by well-below-freezing temperatures and frost covering everything—cars, buildings, and the track. Luckily, the team had already set up the night before, allowing us to jump straight into unloading and prepping for the 9:00–9:30 AM test session.

By the time the first cars hit the track, the frost had lifted, and the sun was breaking through. This was the first real-world drive for any of our drivers on the new layout, making it a crucial day of adaptation.

Driver Progress:

Simon Asselin: Locked in the 1:45 range, pushing near the expected top pace.

Dave Orem: Improved into the 2:06 range, showing steady progress.

Ron Tanemura: Battling fatigue, made strides before sitting out the final session to recover.

With simulator prep translating well to reality, we ended the day confident in the team’s progress heading into Saturday.

Saturday – Practice, Qualifying & Race 1

Saturday morning started with feedback sheets from Tyler Campbell, analyzing Friday’s data to pinpoint one or two focus areas for each driver. The goal: apply the learnings immediately in the morning practice and first qualifying session.

Ron had an early spin during morning practice, leading to the discovery of a failing battery. Missing part of practice, he rebounded well in qualifying. Dave executed perfectly, shaving seconds off his previous best lap.

Simon struggled with traffic in qualifying but still secures a start from row 2.

Saturday Qualifying Results:

Touring 3: Dave P2, Ron P5

GT2: Simon P3

Saturday Race 1 – Making History

T3 Race 1:

The first-ever sanctioned race on The Circuit was a split start, with Spec MX-5 Cup cars leading and Touring 3 cars behind. The race brings improving track conditions and with the help of lots of data and video analysis, defined goals and executing on our action plans, Dave charges to a 2nd place finish, while Ron continues to improve despite still recovering from food poisoning, finishing the race in 4^th.

GT2 Race 1:

Better track conditions and cool air set the stage for Race 1 in GT2. Simon has some great racing of his own, as he trades positions with a few GT2 cars before finishing the race in 4th place.

Sunday – Morning Qualifying, Wet Track, Big Decisions

Early morning rain rolls in leaving us with a damp but drying track. Our turn is up for T3 qualifying and mixed conditions still exist. We are forced to make a strategy call on tires, so we go to Jordo at our Weather Desk. The decision is slicks, and it pays off as the track conditions improve and we begin finding speed in quali #2.

Sunday Qualifying Results:

Touring 3: Dave P2, Ron P3

GT2: Simon P3

Touring 3, Race 2 – The 1-2 punch!

The race begins with a 6-car battle into the first corner making for an exciting start. Dave sets the pace in class, while Ron, after fending off some light contact from another competitor, sticks to the the Z4M’s bumper and RoR takes a 1-2 finish in Race 2 for Touring 3. BOOM!

GT2 Race 2:

Simon has a solid start and runs in P3, involved in a 3-car battle for most of the race. After a restart from a full course caution, several cars experience wheelspin, resulting in a loss of 2 spots. Despite the setback, he fights his way back up, improving his personal best lap time by nearly three seconds (1:44.5) and finishes in P4.

Wondering what it’s like on the new circuit? Check out a fast lap in Simon’s Porsche 911 GT3 991.2 Cup Car

Final Thoughts – Goals, Smiles, Memories

As we packed up, we reflected on an incredible opening weekend. The new track, unpredictable conditions, and intense racing made for an unforgettable event.

Dave & Ron delivered a 1-2 finish in Touring 3.

Simon clocked the third-fastest GT2 lap of the weekend.

No major damage, only progress.

Now, we prep for Race 2. Stay tuned!

#Goals #Smiles #Memories

Posted on January 20, 2022January 20, 2022 by Gama Aguilar

Race Report 1: Buttonwillow SCCA US Majors January 14 – 16 2022

Fully loaded team for SCCA weekend at Buttonwillow

2022 is going to be a busy and exciting race schedule for the Racer on Rails crew and the first stop was this past weekend at Buttonwillow Raceway Park.

Note, originally we were supposed to be at Sebring International Raceways for the SCCA Hoosier Super Tour but the beautiful white Christmas we had in the PNW overstayed its welcome and by the time we need to have the trucks on the road to the SE, all the passes out of WA were closed due to blizzard conditions and the alternate route going down the west coast and across the SW was riddled with freezing or snow conditions in New Mexico, Texas and even parts of Alabama.

So with about 10 days’ notice, we made the change to instead to go sunny southern California where last year, we attended this same race but it was held at Autoclub Motor Speedway in Fontana, CA.

The Team

For the first race, we had three Spec E46’s running in Touring 3 (T3) trim and one Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport running in GT2 class.

Racer on Rails drivers - 3 Spec E46's and one Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport — #44 Dave Orem, #81 Simon Asselin, #109 Gama Aguilar and #4 Ann Doherty

The normal crew of Jordan, Bryce and Gama were on hand but this was also the first official race weekend with our new Motorsports Director, Memo Calderon and our service advisor, Reid Morris.

The Fog

Not going to mince words here, it was a tough weekend and mostly due to dense fog that rolled in each night and resulted in each morning’s scheduled run groups to be postponed due to low visibility conditions. One of the locals at one of the on-site race shops with a retail space mentioned that it had been close to 27 years since they had seen such thick fog and turns out that the volcano eruption in Tonga might have contributed to the fog conditions.

In the end, each day we didn’t get started on-track until 11am – 12noon. On the Friday test day, the run groups ran per the schedule as the organizer simply picked up when we started and had the 3 run groups doing 20 minute sessions each hour, until 5pm.

Racer on Rails cars ready to go on-track but under a fog hold on the Friday test day

Thank You Safety Equipment!

There is never a shortage of reasons to not skimp on safety equipment choices, design and preventative maintenance as we never plan on having an issue where safety equipment is needed but we’re always glad when it’s there and it works.

We had two incidents on the test day:

Failed front-right lower ball joint in the control arm (SE46): The #109 SE36 running in T3 trim got a near complete overhaul prior to the 2021 SCCA Runoffs at Indy, which included brand new lower control arms. Unfortunately it got taken out on lap 1 of the race which resulted in a front end impact with at least energy going through the suspension components but not a direct hit or contact. All in, the control arm and lower ball joint had 1-1.5 hours of run time prior to this weekend. On the very first session when the fog broke, lap 2, braking for Sunset corner (the last corner before s/f), the inner lower ball joint failed and the car went plowing through the corner and came to a stand still on the exit of the corner. On top of needing to make repairs to get the car back up and running, it also caused a black flag which ended running for everyone else.
Rollover on the exit of the kink before Phil Hill: With the fog and being in mid-January, the track was not just green each morning from fog moisture but also stone cold. It was 38F on Friday morning and barely broke 50F once the fog cleared for the afternoon. This meant really tough conditions in terms of finding grip and in the 3rd session of the test day, the #44 took the same line as in previous laps with maybe a tiny bit more steering angle, hit the curb of the kink like normal but this time it upset the car a tad bit too much and the backend came around. The car slid off-track and when it hit the dirt, which with the moisture and temperatures was more like mud, the wheels hooked into the dirt and the car barrel rolled. We’ll have another post in the future to dissect and share how the cage and all the safety equipment faired.

Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

New track, very limited run time and low grip conditions – what do you do? Make the most of it and work on the learning process! Expectations for big results are low, so instead focus on developing and that’s exactly what each driver did, with the help of driver coaches Seth Thomas and Ray Phillips!

Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport driver, Ann Doherty, studying the track notes and areas of improvement. — Ann D studying her track notes and mentally preparing for the next time on-track.

Through the coaching from Seth and Ray, each driver made progress across the limited running and culminated in a podium position for each driver! Below are some areas that were focused on throughout the weekend:

Squaring off corners better in low grip/wet conditions and to setup exit of the following straights
Timing of transitions from brake to gas and vice versa
Establishing a connection or translation layer between what driving Buttonwillow in the simulator felt like relative to real life
Mentality to have when going into a race with changing conditions (both getting worse and getting better)
How to explore grip when conditions are improving

Ray Phillips doing a quick debrief after a session while in post-session tech.

Moving forward to COTA in February

So we came out of Buttonwillow with 3 of the 4 cars running, 4 trophies, 1 race win, 5+ second improvements in dry running lap times from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, a new T3 track record for Buttonwillow CW14 configuration with a 1:55.376 and ready for the next round at Circuit of the Americas February 4 – 6, 2022.

Simon made gains across both races and had an epic battle with a T3 Porsche Boxer, having led a good part of Race 2
Ann made a massive step from Saturday to Sunday, dropping 8 seconds in one day and snagging two podium positions in GT2
Dave had limited running due to the incident but was fully healthy after being checked out by medics and will be back on track for COTA
Gama won race 1, broke the track record by multiple seconds and was leading race 2 (and in a battle with an STU car) but the coolant expansion tank failed, resulting in an overheating engine which forced him to retire the race but not before improving on the track record

With one new track for most of our drivers under our belt, we can adjust the preparation in the simulator and the development plans for the test day and each of the on-track race sessions.

Thanks to the team, Ann, Dave, Simon, Ray, Seth and everyone from the Cal Club who made this weekend possible and making the most out of a pretty tough first race of the year.

Stay tuned for more of our adventures in 2022!

Posted on January 24, 2021January 24, 2021 by Gama Aguilar

Andy Porterfield Memorial SCCA U.S. Majors @ Auto Club Speedway

Not even a couple weeks into 2021, we kicked off the racing season with a trip to Southern California for our very first SCCA race weekend and a U.S. Majors Tour event at that!

We love the Spec E46 class and series because it’s a national class where these cars can be raced all over the country in a variety of series. In 2019 we did a NASA National Championship run, racing in California at Sonoma and Thunderhill to qualify for the National Championship at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. We were all set for a similar campaign and with more cars and the national championships at Utah Motorsports Park but COVID threw a wrench into those plans (and everything else in the world).

With the 2021 NASA National Championships to be held at Daytona International Speedway, we decided to instead participate in the SCCA Run Offs (SCCA’s National Championship) which is set to be held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. To be able to compete in the Run Offs, you have to qualify by competing in a minimum number of US Majors/Hoosier Super Tour events (minimum 3 weekends and finish minimum of 3 races in the same class) or participate in 4 Divisional race weekends and finish in the top 3 of the divisional points race in that same class.

This race weekend would be the first of our “winter” Southwest road trip, followed by a Hoosier Super Tour event at Circuit of the Americas in February, Buttonwillow in late February and Thunderhill in March. With this “trip” we should have all the races taken cared of to qualify for the Runoffs before the PNW racing season gets going.

New track, trailer and tires

By the time the cars hit the track on Friday mid-day, we had gotten through three new firsts:

New track: This would be a new track for everyone on the team but being able to get some simulator time on iRacing in the Mazda Global MX-5 Cup Car helped us get up to speed on the track and some sense for braking points and a rough setup direction.
New trailer: With a few cars to transport and what is looking like a packed racing year, it was time for us to invest into the shop and buy a larger trailer. This was our inaugural outing in the new truck and trailer. We’ll still be seeing our trusty individual trailers for other weekends but the new trailer made this trip much easier to manage.
New tires: This also was the first time we strapped on Hoosier tires for T3 competition on any of the SE46’s in our fleet. While the Hoosier’s are technically more narrow in diameter 225/45/17 versus the 255/40/17 spec for the Toyo RR’s. We measured them and the Hoosier is still wider than the Toyo RR. 😮

Learning a new track and an roval

Having some time on the simulator really helped out and after a couple sessions, each of the three drivers started developing a rhythm and we were able to start focusing on specific sections of the track. While a decent sized track, it ended up being relatively simple. Kind of like Portland International Raceways, it felt like figuring out how to get the first 85-90% came relatively easy but that last 10-15% took a good amount of discipline and intestinal fortitude.

The track is made up of a two chicanes which are similar to the PIR chicane, one very tricky decreasing radius right hander, a deceivingly simple final sector that leads to oval section and longest full throttle sequence and a turn 1 and 2 on the oval that requires a good amount of commitment to stay full throttle the entire time. It wasn’t until after Saturday’s qualifying and race sessions that we were convinced it was possible to stay 100% full throttle through the whole oval and bets were laid out to see who the first one was to stay flat on Sunday AM’s qualifying.

Gama Aguilar in the #209 Full Throttle in the Oval Section

Saturday Podiums and Progress

The story of the day on Saturday was to keep learning and bring back some hardware. With a limited field in T3, podium spots were almost guaranteed but there were other cars from other classes that qualified amongst the T3 runners, which were made up of our fleet of 3 BMW E46’s and the #12 BMW SpecE46 of Brian Ghidinelli.

Racer on Rails customers John Hennessy and Russell Seewald had an incredible battle the entire race where Russell was able to hold off a late race charge from John to hold on for P3 in T3.

Gama Aguilar (person writing this article 😁) got behind Brian Ghidinelli, who qualified on pole and stuck behind him for the majority of the race, waiting for an opening to make a pass. About 3/4 of the way through the race there was an opening going into the last chicane of the track. I came out of his draft right before going to brakes, moved into the inside and got side by side. As I started trailing to turn in, I looked at the body language of Brian’s car and it looked like he didn’t see me so I started backing out of the move but he turned in too quickly and we ended up making contact with Brian spinning out.

I made sure the car was still working (it was) and while I thought it was a clean move, I didn’t want any questions or discussions with stewards so I backed off and waited for Brian to catch up. Once he did, I waived him through to give the position back and resume racing. The goal is to qualify for the Runoffs. Winning every race is a goal and would be awesome but that’s not the ultimate goal.

Saturday Race Results: 1. Brian Ghidinelli, 2. Gama Aguilar, 3. Russell Seewald, 4. John Hennessy

Sunday AM Qualifying and Final Race

After getting the bets on the table for who would got flat through the oval first and John Hennessy strapping on some sticker tires, we went out for qualifying. Gama and Russell both went out on scrubbed but still fresh Hoosier A7’s and with qualifying time of 8am PST, the track conditions were going to be near perfect.

Everybody improved across the board, dropping at minimum 1.5 seconds. John Hennessy put in a MEGA lap of 1:52.106, less than 1 tenth of second behind Brian Ghidinelli with a 1:52.048 – both of which broke the previous T3 track record. Gama came in with a 1:52.652 and Russell came in with a 1:54.655.

With the starting grid for Sunday’s race based on fastest lap from all officially timed sessions on Saturday and Sunday so far, we ended up being gridded across multiple cars from other classes.

The start of the race was a bit faster than of us expected as the overall pole setter had us well into 4th gear before the green flag flew. John got caught off guard a bit with that start and missed opportunities to tuck into the inside lane and lost some spots by the time we were braking for the chicane.

Russell took advantage of that and stuck behind John but on the second lap going into braking for the first chicane, he had a spicy downshift into 3rd gear which locked up the rears and sent him on a ride. Fortunately, no walls or bumpers were hurt during the spin. Russell got back on the track, finished the race and made the most of some flat spotted rear tires.

John got into a rhythm but the lost positions at the start created a gap to the P1 and P2 battle that was unfolding.

Gama (err… I) got a couple of positions on the start of the race and was behind Brian by mid-way through lap 1 but an out of class Corvette was getting around me on the big straight aways and getting in the way for the braking zones. It took a couple of laps but eventually created enough space to not have to worry about it.

I started putting my head down to eat away at the gap Brian had created (probably around 3-5 second gap) and around lap 4, a spun out Mazda Rx7 GT2 car almost took me out in the first chicane. Was able to put down some fast laps and eventually, the Rx7 got around me and while it slowed me down a little, it eventually went out of sight and caught up to Brian.

About half-way through the race, the RX7, Brian and I were all bunched up and it became apparent that the RX7 didn’t have the braking or handling performance to hang with us in the corners and while it would motor away on the straights, the lap time gap wasn’t big enough to create separation. It would turn into who would be the last person to have a lap or a sector screwed up by the RX7 and giving the opportunity to the other driver. We both benefited and took hits from managing the RX7 but unfortunately for me, it ended up being on the second to last lap (as I was leading) that the RX7 parked it on the sequence that leads on to the main start/finish straight. I had to lift and adjust my line to not take us both out and by the time I was back on throttle and had cleared the RX7, I looked to my left to take the inside line (and thus make Brian go around me on the outside to overtake), he was already tucked in with some overlap.

This turned into the most exciting sector of the weekend where we went side by side through the entire oval sector for the last lap and I stayed flat for as long as possible to try to keep the position but Brian had the inside line for the chicane and unless he completely over slowed, it would have been near impossible to keep the position by going around him on the outside.

#12 pulling away on the final lap as the RX7 refuses to go away.

From then on, the RX7 hassled me on another two corners which sealed the deal for Brian. Overall, was a great race and incredible time at our first time as a Racer on Rails team, going to a super speedway and roval course.

Sunday Race Results: 1. Brian Ghidinelli, 2. Gama Aguilar, 3. John Hennessy, 4. Russell Seewald

Thank you to everyone at the SCCA Cal Club, Hoosier Tires and all the volunteers who made this race weekend happen without a single issue and in the middle of a pandemic. THANK YOU!

Speed Nerd Bonus Content: What changed over 1 day?

From Saturday to Sunday, the qualifying laps, average race laps and fastest race laps all came down by at least 1.5 seconds. So what happened? Below is a comparison of the fastest race lap time on Saturday versus Sunday. Here’s what we think happened:

More seat time: Saturday was only the third or fifth time any of the RoR drivers had ever driven on the track in real life. Each session would help find more speed.
Staying flat on the oval: Every little bit counts and as we got comfortable with the track, it became clear that you could take it flat every lap and while a little sketchy, it was possible. Just had to believe and trust that it was possible and it appears to have resulted in almost .75 seconds gained before hitting the brakes for the chicane.
Patience on the exit of corners: This is likely tied to #1 but as I understood the track more and more, I started focusing on corner exits – do anything possible to not need to lift or hesitate too much when ascending to full throttle. Still not perfect at all but I think it got much better.
Use that purple crack: The additional grip of these Hoosier A7’s relative to the Toyo RR’s is significant. For example, on sticker tires in the Toyo’s, coming out the hot pits I can drop it into 1st or 2nd gear and light up the rear tires. That was near impossible with the Hoosier tires. I think we got more comfortable with the tires and what they could take under all aspects of a corner. I think we still left grip on the table but that just gives us something to look forward to.

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