KANAVAS KOMPETITION

Johnny Kanavas _ professional driver
Johnny K _ blog

Seeking competitive drive for 2014 25-Hours of Thunderhill…


Contact Me

Resume

Some TV Time…


Was recently featured on the #BitchinRides TV series on #Velocity (Episode #4).  Dave Kindig and friends came out to the #FordRacingSchool to spend a couple days with us.

Show Info: www.velocity.com/tv-shows/bitchin-rides

Kindig-It-Designs: www.kindigit.com

Coaching @ #WatkinsGlen to coach for the 1st race of the new #TRG -AMR GT4 Challenge Series of North America. #AstonMartin

Johnny Kanavas visits Motor Week LIVE radio show – TONIGHT (4/28/14)!…

www.motorweeklive.com
______________________________

To listen to the show click here for the MotorWeek Live archive –  show date = April 28, 2014

2014 Sebring International Raceway Full Race…


Watch Round-2 of the 2014 IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge from Sebring HERE

Sebring CTSCC Coverage…

IMSA.com

SAME DAY COVERAGE FROM DAYTONA…

Same Day Coverage of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race from Daytona to be broadcast Friday January 24, 2014 on Fox Sports-2

TV Listings here > http://msn.foxsports.com/tv-listings

#ContinentalTireSportsCarChallenge  | #34Nissan | @IMSA | @ContinentalTire | @SkullCandy | @johnnykanavas

Local Support…

Thanks to the San Clemente Times Newspaper for publishing this in the Jan. 2014 issue.  Local support like this is very much appreciated…

KANAVAS JOINS SKULLCANDY TEAM NISSAN FOR 2014…

Daytona is right around the corner.  Can’t wait…

KANAVAS JOINS TEAM SKULLCANDY NISSAN FOR 2014

Back to Elkhart…

Last weekend I headed back to one of my favorite places.  A place I have been coming to for as long as I can remember and where my racing career began – Road America for the VSCDA Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival.  This time I was invited back to drive the gorgeous #93 1976 Chevron B-36 owned by Chip Halverson.  I was fortunate enough to first be offered a drive in the car (along with a beautiful Brabham BT-29 Formula B car) during “The Hawk“ event back in July of this year, where we had to start in 40th, from pit lane, and finished 6th…  The car is prepped and maintained by the Yard Racing team out of Milwaukee, which is the team I began my racing career with.  I really enjoy and have missed vintage racing with these guys as it is truly some of the most enjoyable racing around with the most incredible cars of all time.  I was excited to head back to one of my favorite places and this time I brought my dad and my better half with me.  So, after a couple busy days coaching out at Miller, I flew home, repacked, grabbed the Mrs., and headed out early the next morning to Milwaukee.

Night one was a good night of catching up with the guys over dinner along with the obligatory visit to Seipkins for a beverage or two…

Friday was the 1-hour enduro race that I would drive in with owner Chip Halverson.  We originally planned to run the race with my good friend Bruce Sutherland as my co-driver, but because of VSCDA rules, only one “guest driver” was allowed.  So the plan was simple – Chip start the race and has to run at least five minutes, then hand it over to Johnny.  The race went green and after two laps Chip would pit the #93 for a top-off of fuel and driver change.  I jumped in and prepared for what would be an incredibly fun stint.  After our stop, we re-entered the track in the 30th position.

Remembering how much grip the car gave me back in July, I was determined to trust and push the car further this time, seeing what B-sports racing was really like back in the day.  Soon after we pitted a full-course caution came out for a car that had a big incident in the treacherous “Kink”.  When the thing went green again it was time to start moving and we did.  I fell into a groove with the car and was really able to find how much corner speed the car had.  This thing was a blast to drive and I began to run harder laps finding that the car would just keep going and going.  The Hewland gearbox shifts like butter, the Ford Cosworth YBM 2-liter just screams with torque, and the Yard Racing boys have the setup dialed.  However, as time went on I began to experience a few  uncomfortable moments in the car.  Coming into a few of the extreme brake zones (Turns 1, 5, 8, 12) the brakes would become too hot and stopping power dropped A LOT!

It was the VERY fast entry of Turn-12 that first woke me up.  As I rolled out of the throttle flat out in 5th gear and began to dip into the brakes I was immediately awaken by the fact that I was NOT slowing down.  The pedal was still solid, but the pads were just NOT biting…  (brake ducts were half taped off and they got too warm).  I quickly began to go down through the gearbox, taking some pressure off the brakes, then began to turn in to the corner to help scrub some speed then brush the brakes which all seemed to work out and we carried on, thankfully.  The lack of brakes did happen a couple more times, so I was just a little more aware and careful, but still pushed.

Towards the last ¾’s of my stint I could see that I was catching a Lola T-70 Spider.  The Lola was not in the same class and is a Can-Am car (vs. our B-sports racer) with at least twice the horsepower.  As I came by the team on the front straight I saw them signaling me to go and catch the Lola, so I put my head down and pushed.  I began to push the Chevron even harder and could catch the Lola through the tighter stuff, but as soon as we hit the straights he would pull away with big HP and again open the gap.

Once the checker came out we found that we finished 1st in our class, 6th overall and clicked off the second fastest lap time of the race, only two-tenths off the Lola T-70 Can-Am car’s time.  Not bad for a little B-36…  Overall it was a very good race, a hell of a good time, and we turned a few heads with many asking, “Who was in the Chevron in the enduro…?” after a good chase with the T-70…

The night that followed was another classic night in Elkhart with some great friends and family.  A phenomenal dinner at Swartz’s hosted by Mr. Halverson followed by a some time at Seipkins made for a great evening.  The next couple days were sprint races for all classes and I spent the rest of the weekend watching, helping the crew, doing a little driver coaching, and just enjoying Road America.

One of the best parts of the weekend was having my very good friends Neil & Thanh Dombroe, and my cousin Steve up to the track to hang out with all of us.  It’s been a long time since all of us were together…  Saturday night the Osthoff Resort had a Pebble Beach-esque car show on the grass, complete with jazz band, perfect Elkhart Lake sunset, and some cool vehicles.  Saturday turned into perhaps the biggest night for all of us as we found ourselves closing Seipkins at some ungodly hour.  Dad and Bruce were having WAY too much fun and that is what this trip was all about…

Another highlight of the weekend was seeing Formula Ford driver Mike Popp win his very first race ever in his Sunday race.  I spent some short time coaching Mike through the weekend and am so happy for his win.

We ended our weekend in Milwaukee with T and I staying downtown for the night and eventually heading over to the Yard Racing shop the next day to visit where it all began for me…  I can’t thank Dan Wilke, the Yard Racing guys, and of course Chip & Patty Halverson enough for their generosity and hospitality throughout the weekend.  I feel so fortunate to be able to sit behind the wheel of such an incredible and historic racecar with such good people at my favorite race track.  This was one of the most enjoyable weekends we’ve had in a long time and can’t wait to do it again…

Road Atlanta Preview Vid Featuring Johnny K…

Continental Tire previews GRAND-AM’s visit to the classic Road Atlanta

ROUND-3 2013 GRAND-AM | CTSCC FROM BARBER ON SPEED…

Round – 3 of the 2013 GRAND-AM | Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge _ Barber 200 – from the Barber Motorsports Park on SPEED, April 13 @ 11:00am (PT) / 2:00pm (ET)…

Watch to see a special feature on Mitchum Motorsports as they rebuild the #63 BMW and return to race after a horrific incident in qualifying…

SPEED channel

> Highlights available at – GRAND-AM TV

ROUND-2 2013 GRAND-AM | CTSCC FROM COTA ON SPEED…

Round – 2 of the 2013 GRAND-AM | Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge _ GRAND-AM of the Americas presented by GAINSCO and TOTAL – from the Circuit of the Americas on SPEED, March 09 @ 1:00pm (PT) / 4:00pm (ET)…

SPEED channel

> Highlights available at – GRAND-AM TV

Round-1 2013 GRAND-AM | CTSCC from Daytona on SPEED…

Round – 1 of the 2013 GRAND-AM | Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge _ The BMW Performance 200 on SPEED, February 02 @ 1:00pm (PT) / 4:00pm (ET)…

SPEED channel

> Highlights available at – GRAND-AM TV

[Not the finish the #63 Mitchum Motorsports team had hoped for, but tune-in and watch the last few laps if you want to see one of the dumber moves in CTSCC racing...]

Live From Daytona…

I sat in on the Magnus Racing 2013 Rolex 24-Hours of Daytona webcast in the early hours of Sunday morning.  Thanks to Efrain, Sean and The Media Barons for the invite. Here’s a portion of it.

Watch live streaming video from magnusracing at livestream.com

The Fiat finished the 25…

The Rimicci Corse Fiat 500 Abarth faces an extreme amount of adversity and comes through to finish the 25 Hours of Thunderhill.

Visit the Rimicci Corse Facebook page to view the race coverage, photos and videos…

2012 @5-Hours of Thunderhill live timing & scoring…

We qualified our little Fiat 8th in the E0 class today for the 25-Hours of Thunderhill. Unfortunately our straight-line speed is suffering due to a mysterious engine misfire at high RPM along with a a few other small issues that come with

a car that rolled over the day before… BUT Rimicci Corse is back and ready for 25 hours of racing!

Race starts tomorrow (Sat) @ 11:00am (PT). Driver order will be Johnny, Anthony, Fabrizzio, Efrain. Live timing can be found on the Race Monitor app…

http://www.race-monitor.com/

Getting to Know You – Johnny Kanavas…

A little Q&A with the Rimicci Corse guys…
http://rimiccicorse.com/news/post/135602/getting-to-know-you-johnny-kanavas/

Seven Spots in One Lap…

Some footage from our recent test with the Rimicci Corse Fiat 500 Abarth in preparation for the 2012 25-Hours of Thunderhill.
in this qualifying “fun race”, we had to start from the back (transponder issues) and had fun working the the field with this little beast…

25-Hours in a Fiat 500 Abarth…

Excited to be a part of the Rimicci Corse Fiat 500 Abarth effort at the 2013 25-Hours of Thunderhill…

Details about the car, team, and effort at:
http://RimicciCorse.com

CTSCC Finale From Lime Rock On SPEED…

Round – 10 of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge _ The GRAND-AM Championship Weekend at Lime Rock on SPEED, October 13 @ 11:00am (PT) / 2:00pm (ET)…

SPEED channel

> Highlights available at – GRAND-AM TV

In Memory Of…

This weekend’s Round 10 of the CTSCC at Lime Rock is in memory of my late grandfather Walter Rydzon, who’s ashes are being spread over Yosemite this weekend. We have had his name on the car for the entire 2012 season. RIP Grandpa…

Continental Tire Sports Car Festival on SPEED…

If you missed the first airing, the Continental Tire Sports Car Festival from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is replaying on 9/17 @ 2:00am [ET] / 9/16 @ 11:00pm [PT] on SPEED Channel.  Watch the Mitchum Motorsports / Destiny Deep Sea Water #63 BMW bring home a top-10 finish…

SPEED channel

> Highlights available at – GRAND-AM TV

Top-10 @ Laguna!

Top 10 at MRLS!!! With the rough season we’ve had, coming from 29th to 10th feels like a podium and was great to share it with my co-driver and longtime friend Byron Payne. Thanks to Mitchum Motorsports, Destiny Deep Sea Water, Oakley, Drift Innovation, and Bill Brewster Automotive for the opportunity and support…