Since the new season is upon us and I’ve officially joined the Prima Racing team, I thought I would give some background about myself.  I met Andrie about 10 years ago in the San Francisco Bay Area car circle.  We both owned the same type of cars and saw each other at track events.  After months of making fun of each other (mostly about how slow the other person was), we started to coordinate our schedules so that we would go to the same track events together. 

Fast forward a few years to 2003, when Andrie and I both started to race competitively.  Andrie chose Honda Challenge while I took up Spec Miata.  In 2005, we both raced in U.S. Touring Car (Andrie in a Honda Civic and me in a BMW 328).  The highlight of that year was the exciting inaugural San Jose Grand Prix where we ran as high as 4th (Andrie) and 7th (me) before crashes late in the race claimed both our cars.

This year, I’m looking forward to teaming up with Andrie and the entire Prima Racing crew, learning more about racing and improving my skills at driving a FWD race car, and generally having a good time with the team.  If you see us at the track, we hope you’ll stop by our paddock area and say hi.

Prima Racing captured the 2009 USTCC Championship with another win in the season finale.  This win was their 5^th win of the season and makes it one of the most dominating season by any team with 5 wins out of 7 for the season.

The Prima Racing team of Hartanto/Lepper led the championship by a comfortable margin and only needed to finish in 6^th place to capture the championship.  However, being the competitive racers that they are, they were not satisfied with just sitting back and cruising to the finish to take the championship.  They went out to win the race and fought the entire weekend to take the win and capture the championship in convincing fashion. (more…)

It all came down to this. After two years of absence, the Prima Racing/RedZone Performance team is back at Monterey Raceway Laguna Seca for Speed World Challenge. The majority of the year up to this point was spent running the car and trying to fine tune it for its debut at this very event. But with the past few race weekends full of engine breakdowns, suspension failures, and trouble shooting of one problem after another, it was safe to say that the team wasn’t sure if the car was going to cooperate. (more…)

We were at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah for Round 5 of Nitto tires USTCC race. The race track presented a challenge for most competitors, since this is the first time USTCC visits Miller Motorsports Park and a first for most competitors. Team Prima Racing/RedZone Performance consisting of Hartanto and Lepper are leading the championship points, followed closely by Andy Chittum of BTM Motorworks and Curt Simmons of Team Dodge in 3^rd.

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Round 4 of Nitto tires USTCC were held at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.  This is the only roval in the schedule this year.  The weather for this weekend is sunny and hot and expected to be in 100 degrees.  Championship leader, Team Prima Racing of Hartanto and Lepper is looking for another win to maintain their unbeaten streak.  While second place, Team BTM Motorwerks and Andy Chittum is gunning for his first win in the series.  Curt Simmons, which is in distant third this weekend has a strongest chance to win, given the track favor a big HP car such as his Dodge Neon SRT Turbo. (more…)

Round 3 of United States Touring Car Championship (USTCC) were held at Infineon Raceway in beautiful Sonoma Wine Country. This is one of the most beautiful and challenging track in the country. Weather is expected to be sunny and hot, in 100 degree range. Infineon Raceway is also one of the track that suits the BMW very well. Coming into the race weekend, BTM Motorwerks BMW is the favorite, despite not leading the championship points. Championship leader, Hartanto is cautious and up to the challenge. (more…)