The 2010 race season has started..  We open our season with the Honda Challenge season opener at Infineon Raceway.  This year, Prima Racing will utilize two drivers in a one car team.  Each driver will alternate their driving duties and Andrie Hartanto will be the first driver to participate in Round 1 of the Honda Challenge competition.

The first day started off wet with some rain drizzles in the morning.    Andrie opted not to participate in the first practice session since it is risky.  Also, since the race will be run in dry conditions, there is no point to run in the wet when the setup will be totally different for the dry race.  The rain stopped by 10AM and the track is mostly dry by the time qualifying rolls around.  During qualifying, Andrie was able to capture the pole, albeit with slower lap times due to some part of the track still being wet.

In the Round 1 race, Brandon Kraus took the lead with a fast start, with Andrie following close behind.  Andrie was able to use race traffic to his advantage and made a pass to recapture the lead.  A short while later, while giving Andrie a hard chase, Brandon suffered a mechanical issue and was forced to retire.  As a result, Andrie was able to cruise to victory for the first win of the season.  This is a great way to start the season for Prima Racing.

For Round 2, Telly Chang took over the driving duties.  Since Telly is new to the car, his first practice session was intended to get him comfortable with the car.  It was obvious that Telly was struggling as he spun on the first lap after hitting a wet section of the track.  The next qualifying session for Telly was also a challenge, when Telly locked up the brakes and end up stuck in the mud off turn 3.  This happened on the 2^nd lap of the session and he spent the rest of the session sitting idle in the mud and waiting for the tow truck to come pull the car out.

Telly’s race itself was pretty uneventful, since there was no competition with Brandon Kraus having retired due to mechanical issue the day before.  The good news is that Team Prima Racing is 2 for 2 to start the season, and we’re happy to take the wins anyway we can get it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.