BACK SEAT DRIVING—Why are you and I and our uncle Louie not professional race drivers? Because we can’t get in a car going speeds so fast that, as Ryan Hunter-Reay said, “there’s no time to think out there,” and know how to drive it just by feel. Brian Kennedy reflects back on Hunter-Reay’s climb to world champion status.

BACK SEAT DRIVING—The Izod IndyCar World Championship. That’s what they call it, and this weekend at Fontana, it all comes down to what happens Saturday afternoon in a 500-mile race that begins at 4:30 local time. Other than Indy, it’s the longest race of the year, the longest oval race in a decade, in fact, aside from that at the Brickyard.

BACK SEAT DRIVING— Car culture is a lot of things. It’s tracks and dragstrips, road tests and cruise-ins. In So Cal, it’s as varied as the landscape. Once a year, it’s the Long Beach Grand Prix. The weekend of September 14-15th, car culture in So Cal is centered on the IndyCars for the second time this year. Only this time, it’s the Autoclub Speedway in Fontana, and the best North American open-wheel series will bring its cadre of cars for their season-ending showdown at the MAVTV 500.

BACK SEAT DRIVING— Being the worldly car people you are, you LA Car readers might from time to time drive in foreign lands, like, say the UK. Should you find yourself there, I thought it might be good to give you some hard-won advice so that your travels, whether they be in a vintage MG or a modern Vauxhall, will be successful and fun.

HOT WIRE—EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future named Mississippi State University its Year One winner at the EcoCAR 2012 Competition in Los Angeles. The 15 universities competing in EcoCAR 2 gathered for six days of judged competition with $100,000 in prize money up for grabs. EcoCAR 2, a three-year competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), General Motors (GM) and 25 other government and industry leaders, gives students the opportunity to gain eco-friendly automotive engineering experience while striving to improve the energy efficiency of the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu.