John H. O'Hara, Jr.

Bountiful, UT

United States

Profile Information:

About Me:

I am a lifelong Sportscar Buff, I went to my first sports car race at Laguna Seca in 1960.

In 1964-65 I owned and competed in a 1958 Austin-Healey 100/6, and in 1966-68 I owned and competed in a 1963 Corvair Monza Coupe in what are now called "solo events".

I have attended the Monterey Historic Races on several ocasions and the Vintage races at Miller Motorsports Park, in Tooele, Utah

This year, 2009, I retired from Electrical Engineering after 45 years.

In March I joined the Track Staff at Miller Motorsports Park, in Tooele, Utah. In addition to the regular events, open track days; testing days, professional and amature; local series, auto and motorcycles; and Utah SCCA Events;

In May I worked ALMS, and two weeks later FIM World Superbikes at Millers.

I traveled to Denver to work the first "Freedom Sprints" at the new High Plains Raceway over the 4th of July weekend.

The end of July the NASCAR Camping World West Series was at Millers.

In August I went to Laguna Seca to work the Monterey Historics.

In September we had Historic Motorcycles, NASA National Championships, and Rolex Grand Am on three succeeding weekends at Millers.

In October I returned to Laguna Seca to work the last ALMS Races of the year. I had the privilege of working turn 8, the "Corkscrew" for three days and turn 3 on the final day.

In 2010, I returned in March for a second season on the track staff at Miller Motorsports park, and after an extended training period this year we went to work with the usual open track and test & tune days.

In early April we had the first major event of the year with The Ferrari Challenge Series. Beside the Challenge Cup cars we had the 499XX and the FXX cars for practice and racing for three days.

In mid May I returned to Laguna Seca and worked the ALMS races for four days in Turn 4, this time. Turn 4 turned out to be one of the places to be for an eventful time. The main event was a six hour endurance "Racing into Darkness" on Saturday afternoon. After a quick trip home to Millers it was time for World Superbikes again. I was fortunate to be on the Grid Team and assigned to be at the "Pit Out" which put us at the entrance to turn 1, which is at the end of the 3500 foot straight. The "superbikes' were entering turn one in excess 190MPH. This made for a very eventful three days, without many dull moments.

June was a quiet month with mostly local events, and the Lucas Oil Off Road Series. This was a new series to Millers this year and did not require track staff support, and I sat this one out.

In July ALMS returned to Millers, first USA event after LeMans. Starting with an open track practice on Wednesday, we had ALMS cars on the track for five straight days. We had an exciting event with a lot of really good races.

What car(s) do you own?

2003 Mazda Protege5
1986 Pontiac Fiero GT
1970 Volkswagen Bug (Baja)

What clubs do you belong to?

SCCA - Utah Chapter

Location

929 So. !75 West

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