SEMA 2021
As someone who has loved cars from a very young age, there are marquee events, and shows that are bucket list items that you always dream of going to. SEMA has always been at the top of that list. Having friends and family that are in the industry that are able to attend, I one day hoped I’d be able to go with them. Of course, the pandemic changes a lot of peoples plans, but an opportunity opened up for me through my work to go. Naturally, I jumped at the chance to make the trek out to Vegas for the event.
The only stipulation is that I was only able to attend for one day, Tuesday. I had to be back in California on Wednesday as I had tickets the Tame Impala concert that night at the Hollywood Bowl. No matter, send it!
I left Monday afternoon after work, taking my time and enjoying the drive. Minimal traffic made the drive nice and easy in the ‘ole IS300. I arrived that night, checked in, grabbed a bite and planned my day for SEMA.
Tuesday morning, woke up from my lovely hotel room, overpaid for Starbucks before getting to the shuttle, and made my way to the Vegas convention center.
Once I got there, I checked in and headed to the booth organized by the amazing company I work for!
Staying in the Central Hall, I headed towards the smaller vendor booths to the right of the Honda booth.
I had always seen pictures in magazines, various website articles, tv shows, and all sorts of other media from the SEMA show in years past. Nothing can quite prepare you for when you see it for the first time. It is total sensory overload.
I am the type of car enthusiast that is into pretty much everything, if it is a clean, tasteful, creative, or innovative build, it will absolutely peak my interest. Having been raised around classic JDM cars, American muscle, various trucks (street style mini-trucks and lifted offroaders), all sorts of vintage and modern racecars (oval and road race cars), and having my own interest in European and exotic cars, I am pretty open-minded when it comes to cars and trucks.
Spending a good portion of the morning being on Cloud 9 experiencing this incredible show for the first time and all the amazing vehicles and companies present, I continued to explore and made my way towards the front of the Central Hall.
I grew up in SoCal, so I’ve been to the LA Auto Show many times and seen a lot of public debuts of cars before. For some reason, seeing the new C8 Z06 at SEMA was kind of surreal. The space that Chevy had setup for it, the openness of being able to get so close to it without those tiny little ropes, and just they way they had setup the lighting for both cars they had present (the convertible and coupe). An absolutely stunning car that I can’t wait to see and hear more of.
I continued my journey to the front of the building with a couple stops along the way…
As I am making my way to the front, I begin to realized how much free swag I’ve acquired. At this point I’ve collected various magazines, cups, koozies, Hot Wheels, keychains, stickers, lanyards, etc. My backpack is starting to fill up and get heavy, no matter, keep going. I am almost at the front of the building!
As I made my way around the Ford booth, there were some smaller vendors at the front of the building. I took a quick lap before heading outside
Gridlife had a booth at the front end of the Central Hall. They had an iRacing simulator setup and said: “Everyone come post a time, fastest 8 people of the week get to compete in an e-sports event.”
I figured well, I play iRacing, I am a big fan of the track they’ve selected, Road Atlanta, and I’m decently quick. So I set my lap time, didn’t feel amazing about it, but still felt pretty good because it was a decent lap considering I had not driven the car they had chosen before, the brand new 992 911 GT3 Cup car. They handed me a card with my time on it, and said to me “that was one of the faster times we’ve had so far, I know its only Tuesday, but you’ll probably still be up in the Top 8 by Thursday, we’ll see you then.” I smiled, said thank you, and went on my way. I felt pretty good after that interaction, immediately thinking about how I need to get back into iRacing more often.
I made my way outside of the convention center right by the Ford-Out-Front display, the sensory overload of cars began again. So many interesting, unique builds scattered around the streets and sidewalks of the convention center. Too much to take in almost. There were some amazing cars that I had missed, but I didn’t discover that until I had returned home the next day. No matter, here are the incredible builds that peaked my interest on the outside of the convention center.
Some builds caught my eye more than others, I found myself staring at a number of cars for quite some time. I continued walking around outside, stopping by the Ford Out Front tent for a little bit. Watching some GT500’s drifting and the new Broncos on the ridiculous obstacle course that was setup, showing off how capable this new machine is.
I continued walking over towards the Hoonigan area, where they had a number of projects and other cars on display.
A quick walk around to the Main Entrance again where check-in was, and a dip back inside to check out the Mopar section to get out of the sun real quick.
I decided to head back where I started, the Honda booth, and hit the Central Hall again to see if there was anything I had missed on my first pass. I took a quick walk through the Toyo Treadpass where some of the most beautiful cars were on dispaly
The Toyo Treadpass always seems to have the most creative, innovative, and upbeat builds at SEMA every year. There is almost never a car on display that goes unnoticed. These cars were my favorites from this years display.
After completing my walkthrough of the Treadpass, I noticed that I was beginning to run out of time for the day, so if I wanted to make sure that I could see as much as possible, I’d have to start moving quickly. So I practically jogged through the Central Hall again, back to one of the entrances, another quick look outside, and a run through the North Hall
My favorite machines upon my 2nd pass through the Central Hall
Another quick step outside to grab a few pics of cars that caught my eye earlier in the day
And finally, a quick trip through the North Hall…..
I called it a day and got back on the Shuttle back to the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat and reviewed some of my pictures for the day and went to sleep.
The next morning, Wednesday, I wake up and pack my things. I grabbed a quick pick of the sunrise from my hotel room and headed back to California.
I hit the the road, stopped for gas at the Worlds Largest Gas Station, which you should definitely check out. It’s crazy to see that many operational gas pumps at once place.
I get back home and attend the Tame Impala concert I had tickets for and then went to work the next day, Thursday.
Right around lunch time I get a phone call from the people at Gridlife. They first congratulated me on qualifying for the event, I was 4th of the Top 8! They then asked if I would be attending the event that night. On a whim, I said “Yes, I’ll be there!” I had never been invited to an event like that before, and if you don’t take those opportunities, you never know what could happen! I thought that it would be a fun experience and a great story one day. And who knows, I could do well or I could be absolute trash, either way I was going to go have a good time.
A rushed phone picture of the card in case it got lost in the car on the way to the event.
I called a couple friends, and Danny was free that night and was in. I left work right as the clock struck 4pm, rushed home and changed. My dad gave me his old 2000’s era radar scanner that I mounted in the sun visor. We had less than 3 and a half hours to get back to Vegas. Danny met me at my house and we left as soon as we could. We had a quick stop in Victorville to top up on fuel and do our one and only driver swap, Danny drove so I could be rested and ready for the Esports race.
We aren’t sure if we are going to make it on time. At the time we were driving out there, I was mistakenly under the impression that I had to get there right at 8. We later found out that I didn’t have to arrive until 9, but better early than late! The goal was still 8pm, when doors open.
As night fell, speed picked up as we shot across the desert towards Las Vegas. The Lexus’ 2nd trip East in 3 days.
Danny behind the wheel
We arrive at the parking lot of the Luxor Hotel, find a parking spot, run through the casino to the Arena at get to the check-in desk, I shit you not, at exactly 8pm.
We walk through this amazing Arena and check out the art, the PCs, and the old arcade games they have. Absolute gamer nerd heaven. We check-in with the Gridlife folks and they give us the breakdown for how the evening festivities are going to go. I am scheduled to begin driving at 9:45pm. In the meantime, we help ourselves to some food and just soak up the atmosphere.
It is finally time to hop on stage and into the simulator. I begin my practice laps and I soon realize that I am not the same car that I had set my lap time in a couple days prior. Instead of the new 992 GT3 Cup car, we are now in the slightly older 991 GT3 car. More downforce, shorter gears. At Road Atlanta, this adds up to better corner speed through the esses, but a nearly 10mph deficit on the straights. I also realized as the first race began, that the pros we were competing against, we taking part in the final race of their championship. Thus explaining the difference in cars and why we ended up being towards the back of the pack. No matter, this was still going to be a fun and unique experience.
The first race went okay, still ironing out some issues I was having with my driving style and the car. Getting tagged at the start didn’t help as I was driving with a slight bit of damage.
The second race went better, although I was once again struck at the start, this time the damage taking more of a tole as I drove the majority of the race with some right hand down, steering damage. I managed to put in some consistent times and keep my nose cleaninsh the remainder of the race.
The third and final race, I finally started feeling comfortable in the car and was off to a much better start, I was able to avoid contact in the beginning and did not pick up any damage for the duration of the race. I managed a respectable finish, after making a dumb mistake by doing a half-spin coming onto the back straight. Although still outside the top 10, I was 3rd of the 8 SEMA finalists in the final race that night, a position I felt solid after getting called out on the broadcast for having the most consistent lap times of most anyone in the field, including several of the pros they had driving!
I came away feeling good about my drives, but do feel that I left some on the table. Regardless, I am glad I went out and did it, because who knows if I’ll ever have the chance to race in an esports arena again! I would absolutely love to have another crack at it and in some equal machinery to the pros!
“I will be getting some more seat time in real life and in iRacing after this event.” I think to myself walking back to the car.
Danny and I hop in and head back to California, leaving just before midnight. I took the wheel for the first part of the trip back home. At Midnight, on the 15, on a Thursday, it was a lot of Semi Trucks and just us for a good 45mins. We were able to blast our way back into California. We swapped about an hour and a half into the journey after I got a weird migraine. I took a quick nap and woke back up as we entered Victorville. We stopped for a quick second to stretch our legs in the 30° desert, then blasted through to get back to Santa Clarita, finally getting back home at 3:30am. Less than 4 hours later, I went to work that Friday.
The 2021 SEMA show was incredible, and my return trip to Vegas for Gridlife Game Night on Thursday was equally entertaining. I am so lucky to have been able to go this year and I hope I can go again in the future! Thank you to HPD and Honda for putting us up in a nice hotel and allowing me to attend SEMA. Thank you to Gridlife for having the opportunity for myself and 7 other lucky people from SEMA to take part in such a fun and cool event at the Luxor. Thank you Danny for doing the banzai run to Vegas and back to support my first esports race. And a thank you to Austin, Clay, and Kevin for watching the livestream of the race at home and hyping me up in the comments.
I can’t wait to see what awaits at the 2022 SEMA show!
