October 1st, 2017- (Tiburon, CA) This past Saturday, “Basic Instinct” and crew, with Memo Gidley at the helm, won the YRA PC Season Closer held on the San Francisco Bay. The Season Closer is a race that is hosted by the Corinthian Yacht Club in Tiburon with the course running out the Golden Gate Bridge to Pt. Bonita and back. "It feels fantastic to grab this win for me and the crew", said Gidley. “It was a come-from-behind win as we misjudged the start and were last across the start line.”
Unfortunately, the team had some radio issues and miss-heard the 5 minute call to start. Once underway, though, it was a matter of playing catch-up and judging the currents correctly to make up distance on the boats that were ahead. “The first thing I said to my crew as we crossed the start line dead last was that we can still win this race!” said Gidley. “This was not just me being hopeful but belief in my boat, my crew, and myself.”
An hour later as they made their way out the Golden Gate Bridge, the "Basic Instinct" team inched their way back towards the front. Another hour and some miles later, while rounding the Pt. Bonita mark, they found themselves the second boat in their class making the turn for home. “I was stoked with where we were but knew the trip home, against lots of current and very light wind, was going to be critical,” said Gidley. “Our route back was exactly according to my game plan but in an opposite direction of the lead boat, “Q”, and it wasn’t until a couple of miles from the finish line that we saw we were in front. We all shouted!” "Basic Instinct" continued on and crossed the finish line first. “What can I say? It was fantastic!” said Gidley.
This is Gidley’s fourth race in three weeks, the first three being his return to car racing after nearly four years following his 2014 24 Hours of Daytona race accident. For his first two races, Gidley drove the TKO Motorsports Porsche GT3R in the Pirelli World Challenge double-header at Sonoma Raceway on September 16th and 17th finishing in 13th place on both days.
Gidley then went down to Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway the following weekend to race in the IMSA Continental SportsCar Challenge for Motorsport USA in their Maserati GT4, the team running as high as fourth before going behind the wall for some repairs that put them seven laps behind. “Well, the last three weeks have been a result of years of hard work and it feels so satisfying to be where I am at, now” said Gidley, “however, more work is ahead as I want to get back to the front in my car racing career, and I'm giving it everything I’ve got to make it happen. Believe me - I'll make it happen.”