AIRAID Sponsored Driver Jordan Priestly Starts Race Season In New 2016 Chevy Camaro

The MAVTV camera crew documented AIRAID driver Jordan Priestley’s success as he placed second and third overall in the GT Class at the Optima Thunderhill Raceway

Before attending his first official race for the year, AIRAID driver Jordan Priestly took advantage of a local SCCA event in his 2011 JDP Motorsports Camaro for some extra seat time. The plan was to take both his 2011 and 2016 Camaro to Thunderhill Raceway for Optima’s Search for the Ultimate Street Car Race Series. Priestly is no stranger to these events. In fact he has done very well in the Optima Series, placing podium several times throughout last year as well as receiving multiple invites to compete at the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational throughout the past couple years.

Jordan’s race schedule includes the Optima Series, NMCA West Autocross, SCCA, NASA, and the upcoming CAM Challenge

The JDP Motorsports 2016 Camaro was purchased mid December of last year. There was a lot of work to be done if Priestly planned on taking both cars to the first Optima event in California. Very few, if any, drivers had registered two different cars at an Optima Race with the intent for one driver to race both vehicles. Yet, this is exactly what Priestly had planned on doing at Thunderhill Raceway.

Surprisingly the 2016 Camaro, named Evilynn, did exceptionally well, placing second in its class after day one. Priestley’s 2011 Camaro had some grip issues on the autocross resulting in a fifth place ranking Saturday evening. By the end of Sunday Priestly took podium once again with a second and third place win in the Optima Series GT Class. Frankey, the 2011 Camaro, had pulled through after completing the Hot Lap Challenge with a second place overall finish while the 2016 Camaro took third. Jordan had commented that if not for the Design Challenge, Evilynn may have won first. This was pretty impressive since the 2016 Camaro was close to stock. Unfortunately, the stock appearance of the car resulted in a lower Design Challenge score, pushing Evilynn out of first and into third place overall.

Though almost stock, the AIRAID sponsored 2016 Camaro had no problem keeping up with the other competitors at the NMCA West Autocross

Once back at JDP Motorsport, Priestly swapped the tires on the 2011 Camaro for a new set of BFGoodrich Rival S tires in addition to some freshly built Ultimate Performance Detroit Speed/JRI dampers. As for the 2016 Camaro, there were no plans for upgrades before Priestly’s next race in Fontana. Before Optima Thunderhill Raceway, Evilynn did get a new set of Forgeline GA1R’s along with BFGoodrich Rival S tires. Though Priestly had kept the car almost stock, his plans for further modifications was just getting started.

Priestly placed first in the Modern Muscle Class at the NMCA West Autocross in his 2016 JDP Motorsports Camaro

Both vehicles were loaded into the JPD Motorsports trailer once again for round two in Fontana, California. Priestly registered both Camaros to compete, this time at the NMCA West Hotchkis Autocross. The two-day autocross was the first of four throughout the 2016 season. In order to compete for the overall Hotchkis Cup at the end of the year, a driver must compete in all four two-day events. Once again Priestly jumped between the drivers seat of two cars, not only shaking them down for the next Optima race, but also trying for a chance to win the Modern Muscle Class at the NMCA West Autocross.

Priestly left the 2011 Camaro at home to focus on the 2016 Camaro in Las Vegas, earning a second place win in the GT Class and securing him an invite to compete at OUSCI

By Sunday, the 2011 Camaro was not cooperating with Priestly, but the 2016 Camaro was handling exceptionally well. Priestley’s main competition was a 2011 Corvette driven by a father and son team, who had remained in first all of Sunday. On one of Priestley’s last laps Sunday evening, the 2016 JPD Motorsports Camaro pulled ahead of the Corvette’s time and into first for the Modern Muscle Class win.

The drive back to Utah was followed more upgrades for the ’16 Camaro including a harness bar and changes to the interior just in time for the Optima Las Vegas Motor Speedway event. New decals were also added; similar to those Priestly was sporting on his 2011 Camaro. Priestly decided to keep Frankey at home for this race and focus his attention on the ’16 Camaro.

Priestly was in good company as his wife Aimee and three-month old daughter came out to Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Priestly was in good company during the Optima Las Vegas Race as his wife and three month old daughter joined him for the weekend. Weather was good, track conditions were ideal and Evilynn was running great. Priestly found himself once again in a battle for first with AIRAID driver Ken Thwaits in his 2014 Z28 Camaro. By the end of Sunday Thwaits took first in the GT Class while Priestly and Evilynn placed second. Since Thwaits had also won the Thunderhill Raceway event, he had already won an invite to the Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge (OUSCI). This meant that Priestley’s second place win would include an invite to OUSCI. This was a huge accomplishment since only five competitors would be going home with invites after the Las Vegas race.

We can expect to see Priestly behind the wheel of both the AIRAID equipped 2011 and 2016 Camaro throughout the remainder of the 2016 race season

Priestly will be making his way back to Fontana, California for his next race in two weeks. We have not heard if Priestly will be competing in the CAM Challenge with both Camaros or just Evilynn. As Evilynn gets faster, it is more likely that we will see Priestly behind the wheel of this Camaro, though he will also have Frankey out at certain race events throughout the remainder of the season.

It can become very tiring to race two vehicles in the same race, but we have been extremely impressed by Jordan’s ability to jump between the two cars. Though Frankey and Evilynn are very different cars with different suspension setups, it does not look like Priestly is having trouble going from one car to another. We will continue to follow-up on AIRAID driver Jordan Priestly, Frankey, and Evilynn as they continue to race their way through 2016, hopefully seeing them place podium several more times throughout this year.