A Post By Steve: Guys' Weekend

Last month, our boys suggested that I come up to their area, and that we all attend a two-day road race at Sonoma Raceway, as it was going to be part of the national circuit for the GT3 and the Toyota GR Cup Series, which only comes around once each year at that track.

The GT3 is class of super fancy and highly modified (and expensive!) race cars, including AMG Mercedes, BMW, Lamborghini, Porsche, Audi, and others in that realm. Fast and powerful, they are pretty entertaining to watch and hear going through their moves on the track and against each other.

The Toyota GR Cup series is based around a production Toyota GR coupe which anyone can buy for about $30,000. However, the ones here are factory-prepped for racing. That version costs $130,000 plus you must enter and compete in the GR Cup racing series, and travel around the USA racing it... Well, that's nice work if you can get it (and afford it). In any case, we had perfect weather, and it was super entertaining to watch, as all the GR cars are mechanically identical, so it comes down to driver skill, and that makes for some very close racing.

While there, our tickets to the event also let us wander about in the pits and get a close-up look at all the race cars. They had virtual-driving simulators on site that were based on Sonoma Raceway's track, promo hats, food vendors, and really just lots of other cool racecar stuff.