CURRENT 2008 IMSA-LITES L1 PRESENTED BY HANKOOK POINTS - Top 5 (Since Lime Rock)
1. Jonathan Goring - 116
2. Joel Feinberg - 104
3. Matt Downs - 76
4. L. Downs - 61
5. C. Shears - 50
2008 Grand Prix Of Mosport - IMSA Lites - Aug 21-24
Prac 1: 12th
Prac 2: 1st
Qual: 1st
Race 1: 1st
Race 2: 1st
2008 Northeast Grand Prix Lime Rock Park - IMSA Lites - July 9-12
Prac 1: 2nd
Prac 2: 1st
Qual: 1st
Race 1: 1st
Race 2: 2nd
2008 Miller Motorsports Park - IMSA Lites - May 15-18
Prac 1: 3rd
Prac 2: 4th
Qual: 1st
Race 1: 2nd
Race 2: 1st
2008 Unofficial Practice at Road Atlanta - IMSA Lites - April 14th
Quickest at the end of the day.
2008 Sebring - IMSA Lites - March 12-14
Prac: DNS
Qual: 1st
Race 1: 1st
Race 2: 1st
2008 Sebring Test Days - IMSA Lite - January 29-30
Prac 1: 1st
Prac 2: 1st
Prac 3: 2nd
Prac 4: 1st
Prac 5: 1st
2007 Star Mazda Championship
5th
2007 Laguna Seca - Star Mazda - October 18-20
Prac: 9th
Qual: 6th
Race: 6th
2007 Road Atlanta - Star Mazda - October 3-5
Prac: 2nd
Prac: 1st
Qual: 10th
Race: 4th
2007 Mosport - Star Mazda - August 23-25
Qual: 2nd
Race: 7th
2007 Three Rivers - Star Mazda - August 17-19
Prac 1: 3rd
Prac 2: 4th
Qual: 10th (with penalty for Road America incident)
Race: 16th - DNF
2007 Road America - Star Mazda - August 9-11
Prac 1: 3rd
Prac 2: 4th
Qual: 6th
Race: 24th - Penalty for car contact
2007 Toronto - Star Mazda - July 5-7
Qual: 6th
Race: 16th - Suspension failure
2007 Cleveland - Star Mazda - June 6-9
Qual: 2nd
Race: 1st
2007 Portland International Raceway - Star Mazda - June 6-9
Qual: 5th
Race: 10th
2007 Miller Motorsports Park - Star Mazda - May 16-19
Prac: 12th
Qual: 2nd
Race: 3rd
2007 VIR - Star Mazda - April 26-28
Prac: 12th
Qual: 4th
Race: 16th
2007 Houston - Star Mazda - April 20-21
Prac 1: 4th
Prac 2: 2nd
Qual: 5th
Race: 3rd
2007 Sebring - Star Mazda - March 12-16
Prac 1: 13th
Prac 2: 12th
Prac 3: 12th
Qual: 14th
Race: 10th
Skip Barber National final points standings, top 10 drivers:
Skip Barber National Champion!
1. Jonathan Goring, 649
2. Marco Di Leo, 647
3. Alexander Rossi, 613
4. Kyle Lawrence, 551
5. Mario Adrian Ochoa, 430
6. Alex Doman, 420
7. Jason Fennessey, 400
8. Peter Husser, 379
9. Richard Heistand, 351
10. Jonathan Gore, 314
2006 Miller Motorsports Park - Skip Barber National - October 25-29
Prac 1: 1st
Prac 2: 1st
Prac 3: 1st
Prac 4: 1st
Prac 5: 1st
Prac 6: 2nd
Qual 1: 1st
Qual 2: 2nd
Race 1: 1st
Race 2: 5th
2006 Lime Rock Park - Skip Barber Eastern Regional - October 12-14
Prac 1: 1st
Prac 2: 1st
Qual 1: 1st
Race 1: 1st
Race 2: 1st
2006 Road America - Skip Barber National - September 21-24
Prac 1: 14th
Qual 1: 10th
Qual 2: 5th
Prac 2: 2nd
Race 1: 7th
Race 2: 6th
2006 Trois-Rivieres - Skip Barber National - August 4-6
Prac 1: 1st
Prac 2: 1st
Qual 1: 11th
Qual 2: 1st
Race 1: 1st
2006 Road America - Skip Barber National - June 29- July 2
Practice 1: 5th
Qual: 4th
Race 1: 6th
Qual 2: 1st
Race 2: 2nd
2006 Lime Rock Park - Skip Barber National - May 18-20
Practice 1: 1st
Practice 2: 2nd
Practice 3: 2nd
Qual: 7th
Race #1: 1st
Qual #2: 3rd
Race #2: 2nd
2006 Virginia International Raceway- Skip Barber National - April 21-23
Practice 1: 4th
Practice 2: 10th
Qual: 13th
Race 1: 15th (DNF, fractured hand)
Qual 2: 16th
Race 2: 8th (switched cars)
2006 Laguna Seca - Skip Barber National - March 10-12
Practice 1: 3rd
Practice 2: 7th
Qual: 3rd
Race 1: 4th
Race 2: 3rd
2005 Racing Season
The 2005 season in the Skip Barber racing series was cruical for me. I
learned so much about how cars work and how they differ from go karts.
I began the season aimming to win the Skip Barber Eastern Championship.
My first ever car race took place at Virginia International Raceway (VIR).
I had qualified 7th for the race out of a full field of cars and was looking
to have a decent finish to start off my car racing career. I worked my
way through the pack, dicing with two different people, and moved up to
5th place. This is where it gets interesting. This next lap changes the
race completly. Unannounced, the skys opened up and it began to pour rain
like I have never seen it pour rain before. The rain was so sudden that
exiting the last corner onto the straight it was a perfectly dry race
track and by the time I had reached the braking zone for turn one the
track was soaking wet. I thought to myself, "All I have to do is stay
on the track, and allow everyone else to win the race for me." I knew
that there was going to be a lot of spins, accidents, etc because of this
sudden rain storm. Coming into turn 14, cars were flying everywhere! Two
cars in front of me had spun and put themselves out of contention for
the race. This was perfect, I thought to myself. I knew I was now in 3rd
position and had a chance of getting a podium finish for my first ever
car race. Coming to start/finish that lap the red flag was displayed.
The rain was just too much. We came to a stop in pit lane and all I kept
saying to myself was to not go off the racetrack and play smart. On the
restart, I had second place going into turn one, slid wide, and found
myself back in 3rd. "Don't do this, don't fight for position, drive our
own race," I reminded myself, and I stayed in 3rd for the remainder of
the race. I was extremely happy with these results and had a very good
attitude towards the upcoming race at Lime Rock Park, my home track.
At Lime Rock Race Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, I had a problem in qualifying,
which set my position all the way back in 11th for the start of the race.
As the green flag flew, I gained a couple of positions into turn one.
I slowly worked my way through the field and up to 3rd place. The battle
of the race was for second position. I diced with the #66 car for lap
after lap, corner after corner. On the last lap, going into the uphill
turn, I presented myself next to the #66 at the entry to the corner. He
turned in, not seeing me, and we had a little car contact. We both managed
to keep it under control and on the track. I had worked my way through
the field and into 3rd place by the end of the race. I was ecstatic by
both of my finishes, scoring a podium each race. The next race was to
be held at Road America.
Oddly enough, the drama began a week before the event. We had sent in
our entry form too late, and all the spots had been taken for the eastern
regional race. This only left us one option: To race in the National series.
I thought it over, and came to the conclusion that it was a blessing in
disguise. I wanted to see how I would do in national competition after
only having two car races under my belt. At the track, I had came off
of the track after the first practice in a startling 4th place. I knew
I had a good session, but I never expected it to be that good! I reviewed
my notes and went out to qualify. 2nd position. I had qualified on outside
pole in a national race. I was very excited about how I was doing, but
knew that I couldn't let it get to me and that I had to do the two most
important things in racing perfectly: Think and Focus. Beginning on the
warm up lap, I had a strange feeling and a burning desire to win this.
I remember telling myself out loud in my helmet, "I am going to win this
race." The green flag flew and I was in second position behind Jordy Vorrath
going into turn one. I bobbled a bit exiting the corner, and let Cole
Nelson by into third. I thought "okay, this is fine; I want to be 3rd
place for the long back straight so I can have a good draft." I set the
draft up perfectly, did everything right, and out-braked both Jordy and
Cole for the lead. At this point I was extremely excited and could not
believe I was leading not only a national race, but my first national
race! I was distracted by the thought of this and made another bobble
in the next corner, turn 6. I barely caught the skid and I remembered
something that an instructor from Skip Barber had told me. It was "turn
the page." This meant to think of the race a book. Everytime you make
a mistake, you "flip the page." Pretend it never happened, don't do it
again, ignore it, the mistake is in the past, don't let it effect you
later on, shake it off. I did this and after a couple lead changes, went
on to win the race, just as I had promised myself on the warm up lap.
I remember exiting turn 14, the last turn coming onto the straight, and
I had a huge rush of emotion. I was overwhelmed by this emotion and was
unbelievably happy; words can not describe how happy I was. I now crossed
start/finish, and it was official. This set my standards real high for
the rest of the season and I was going to race in the national series
the rest of the year because I had done so well.
The rest of the year was a steep learning curve. I had some bad luck and
made some mistakes. I knew that the rest of 2005 was going to be in preparation
for next year, which would be a crucial year in advancing me in my career.
I feel that all those mistakes were good, and also the bad luck. By making
the mistakes, I had learned what to do and what not to do. I was going
to have to learn eventually, and its a good thing I did in 2005 as apposed
to this upcoming year. I am more ready than ever for the 2006 Formula
Dodge National Championship.
2005 was a very exciting and challenging year for me for go karts also.
I competed in two different karting classes at Oakland Valley Race Park,
Easykart 125 and ICC shifter. I raced in 18 races out of the 21 race championship,
and won 16 of those races in ICC. These were good results, good enough
to clinch the 2006 ICC OVRP championship. I began the Easykart 125 class
on the theory that it taught better driving than shifter karts do. Both
of which you have to be smooth in, but I felt Easykart taught to be smooth
better than shifter karts did. I started just as the season was winding
down, and won my first ever Easykart race with a last lap, last corner,
pass. From here I went on to win another Easykart race, and the last race
of the season I was running a close 2nd in pursuit of #99 Dalton Hardy,
and in the 2nd to last corner of the race the chain fell off of the rear
sprocket. I ended up finishing 4th, coasting across the finish line powerless.
Can't wait for 2006,
Jonathan
