With the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s first race longer than three hours in seven months, there are some notable additions for the Sept. 5 race at the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta circuit in Braselton, Georgia.
Several prominent teams are adding third drivers for the six-hour TireRack.com Grand Prix, notably 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner and 2012 NTT IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay joining Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell in the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports Mazda in DPi. Mazda also will have Olivier Pia teamed in the No. 77 with full-time drivers Oliver Jarvis and Tristan Nunez.
Other third drivers in DPi entries: Tristan Vautier will join Joao Barbosa and Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 5 Cadillac of Mustang Sampling Racing / JDC-Miller MotorSports, and Filipe Albuquerque will team with Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing.
In LMP2, Colin Braun will join the No. 18 ORECA for Era Motorsport.
There also will be some shuffling among the GTD championship leaders. AIM Vasser Sullivan is teaming Daniel Morad and Michael De Quesada with Jack Hawksworth to the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 and moving Aaron Telitz to the No. 12 with Townsend Bell and Frankie Montecalvo.
Hawksworth is tied for the driver points lead in GTD with 115, three points ahead of Telitz, who has co-driven the No. 14 since July after racing the No. 12 in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
There are 28 cars on the IMSA Road Atlanta entry list: eight in DPi, two in LMP2 (after the late pullout of Performance Tech Motorsports), six in GTLM and 12 in GTD (with a late addition of the GRT Grasser Racing Team). That is a decrease of three (two in LMP2; one in GTD) from the last time all four WeatherTech SportsCar Championship division raced together last month at Road America.
The Sept. 5 race at Road Atlanta will begin at 11:35 a.m. ET with coverage on NBCSN, the NBC Sports App and TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold.
Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.
At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.
Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.
Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.
“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”
805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”
Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.
The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.
“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”
Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer
While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.
“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”
Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.
Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.
Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer
“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.
“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”
The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.
“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.
“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”
