Meet Our Team

PRESIDENT

Do you believe in racing genes? Well Cris Vandagriff does! Starting with Cris’ great grandfather, Harry Buchanan Grey, who began as a riding mechanic at the Indy 500. Cris’s father, Chic Vandagriff, raced SCCA in the 1950’s. Cris attended his first race held at Dodger Stadium in 1962. He traveled with his dad’s Hollywood Sport Cars racing team from 1968 – ‘72. Cris began driving after attending the Johnny Kasner driving school at Willow Springs. His first race was in 1973.

His racing picked up again after attending USC and growing Hollywood Sport Cars into the largest Ferrari dealership in North America. In 1987, he began vintage racing, driving such great cars as a Corvette, Ford GT40, McLaren Mk 6B and a Ferrari Daytona. Cris opened Ferrari of Beverly Hills for the Ferrari Factory in 1993. In 1994 he campaigned a Ferrari 348’s in the Ferrari Challenge series and won the dealer championship. Also in ’94, Cris managed David Donahue’s IMSA Supercar Championship team. David drove a semi works BMW M5 and won the IMSA Super Car championship. The following year in ’95, while having lunch with racing legend Phil Hill, Phil mentioned that his son, Derek, wanted to pursue a driving career. A close family friend, Cy Yedor, sponsored Derek Hill and they were off to the championship in 1995.

Taking a change in direction, Cris decided to leave the Ferrari dealership and the retail automotive business and pursue his interests in the vintage racing community. He started working for the Vintage Auto Racing Association (VARA) full time as General Manager from 95-98, where he was responsible for all aspects of the sanctioning organization and produced large events such as the Palm Spring Road Races, Tustin Thunder and the ‘97 LA Grand Prix.

In 1999, Cris bought Historic Motor Sports Association (HMSA) from Steve Earle, the premiere historic racing organization.

And that is how a childhood passion and love of cars turns into a career.

TECH CHAIRMAN

Lucas Pacheco is the Project Coordinator of the Hawthorne High-School of Manufacturing and Engineering. He currently manages and teaches in a Pre-Engineering program designed to engage 300 “at risk” high school students into post-secondary education or workforce options with emphasis in Manufacturing and Engineering. Using his industry background in manufacturing, he has helped create a work force development pipeline that facilitates partnerships between major industry partners and education with the goal of providing hands on experiences with working professionals as mentors. The school of Manufacturing and Engineering was an early adopter of Pre-Engineering curriculum and has become a model school for the State of California.

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING

Llew Kinst’s career path has always taken two roads. One as a graphic designer and the second as a life long automotive enthusiast. On the graphic design path he has worked in Silicon Valley with companies such as AMD, Intel, and Bell Microproducts to name a few. He established Autograph Designed as an independent marketing communications company in 1987 and is currently its creative director. At the same time he was working with professional IMSA teams in the 1980’s and served as crew chief on two SCCA championship teams. He led his two Porsche 356 teams to over 40 victories and four SCCA Northern Pacific Championships. As a driver he has competed and won regional PCA championships driving a Porsche Speedster. In the 1990’s he restored and raced a Porsche 914-6 GT in selected vintage events. He joined HMSA in 1998 as their Director of Marketing. In recent years he has merged his design career with motorsports with publication of 9 Over 9, the yearbook of Monterey Car Week.