NorCal honored their 2010 944-Spec series champions with a awards luncheon and a go kart race.

From left to right:  Jerry Whitteridge was the recipient of a special Ironman award for attending every race weekend of 2010, Steve Lewis took 2nd place trailing just 5 points behind 1st place and 2010 series Champion Richard Lofgren, Sidney Lee took 3rd place.

The awards luncheon is a time to celebrate with families and friends.  A delicious lunch of prime rib roast, chicken sandwiches, salad, bake beans, rice, lots of snacks, drinks and pies with ice cream round out the menu.

Well deserve applauses were given to all of our 944-Spec series champions.

NorCal is unique in its grass roots sponsorship and we were able to put together another prize table due to the generosity of all of our local sponsors.

Prize table eligibility was as simple as participating in at least three NorCal 944-Spec races.

Steve Lewis was the first name drawn and he selected the craftsman 9 gallon shop vac with accessories.

Jerry selected the digital picture frame which can store and play back pictures/videos.  It can also play back pictures/videos on the larger screen from the iPod/iPhone dock.

Rick selected the 1TB Media share which acts as a Network Attach Storage and also a media server which can stream videos, pictures, music to DLNA clients such as Xbox 360, PS3, DLNA Bluray players and media players.

Ken selected the portable 16:9 widescreen format LCD TV

Steve H. picked the Sunset Sailing Cruise for Two on a 55' catamaran adventurecat.com

Ron and Kim with a $50 gift certificate to the top rated Palio D'Asti Italian Restaurant in San Francisco

Sid with a $50 Gift Certificate to City Beach, a 42,000 sq ft venue with full restaurant and bar, rock climbing, indoor courts, billards, ping-pong, air hockey, bocce ball.

Cameron with a $50 Gift card to any of the California Pizza Kitchen restaurants.

Ivan selected a Segway tour for four people.

Dan won the $50 Gift card to Wolfgang Puck restaurants

Greg's prize was the electrically operated Airsoft MP5 replica.

A show of appreciation to David Saliba with a Gift card.  David took a lot of great pictures for NorCal 944-Spec.

After lunch and a little rest, it was time for the go kart races.

We split the group into two with the racers in one group and friends & family in the other group because some of the wives felt the racers would be too aggressive on the track.  Format was practice/qualifying, a break while the other group goes out and then the group race.   At the drop of the green flag everyone raced hard.  There was some rubbing because of the close racing and if you spin you're almost guaranteed to collect the person behind you because they're right on your rear bumper but in general the racers group kept it pretty clean.

It's ironic that the friends and family group had more contact and had multiple black flags thrown but everyone had fun.   Special thanks to Loretta Buck and her staff at Umigo Indoor Kart Racing for taking care of the room rental for us and making sure everyone has a great time!

The guys got together and honored me with a customized letterman jacket and I really appreciated it but the truth is I'm honored to be associated with them.  They are a great group of people who race hard but clean and always ready to help out a competitor with tips, spare parts or labor which makes 944-Spec one of the coolest race class in NorCal.

Looking forward to a fun 2011 racing season.