The weekend started just like any other weekend.   Saturday morning became a rush to get the new front splitter installed and getting the car ready.   Nothing really heavy, just the typical small stuff to put on after transport, and small setup stuff to ensure the car is ok and ready.   Saturday was pretty relax with lack of competitors.  We used the day to get Hartanto re-acquainted with the car, the track, and to find a good setup for the car.    The day progressed well with Hartanto finding good setup and improving his lap time every time he goes out.  The new engine sound healthy and seem to perform well and provide ample of power. 

Going into the weekend, Hartanto was confident that he would be able to pull a victory going wheel-to-wheel with Kraus.   Kraus’ Prelude has a weight and power advantage over us, but Hartanto felt our car’s setup was more suited to the technical nature of Infineon, as opposed to the long straights of Thunderhill.   Hartanto’s confidence on Saturday was reflected upon his qualifying result on Sunday.   We were able to out-qualify Kraus by a little over 1 second to grab pole position for the race.

For the race, Honda Challenge was gridded behind USTCC, and the traffic from the standing start allowed Kraus you get by Hartanto a few turns into the first lap.  Traffic between Kraus and Hartanto widened the gap between the two.  By the time Hartanto was able to get past the slower cars, the gap was around 7 seconds.  With a clear track in front of him, Hartanto was able to close the gap, gaining about 1 second per lap on Kraus.

That was, until the 6th lap. Hartanto was coming out of turn 8a (the esses) gaining on Kraus quick, when disaster struck.   Something had broken on the car at that point, and Hartanto lost control of the car.  Instead of turning in for turn 9, the car went straight off into the wall.   I was all the way up at the top of the grandstands watching the race, and even I could hear the sound of the impact. Even now, I still can’t come up with the words to describe how I felt.   Just describing the accident again is extremely difficult.  You can see the video here.

Hartanto just walked away from the accident with bruises.   Nothing can beat his “Oh well that’s racing” attitude, and determination to get the car fixed and back out there again.  I always remembered he told me that the best racing driver crashed due to fault of his own or the car.  It is just part of the game.   As of right now, the car is at RedZone Performance getting repairs done, and hopefully we’ll have it up and running for Thunderhill in August and Nationals in September!

Round 3 and 4 of Honda Challenge was held at Infineon Raceway. I must say it was one of those “weekend to forget” for Prima Racing, especially for Telly. On Friday practice, first, Telly managed to find the outside wall on turn 11. Luckily, the damaged to the car mostly cosmetics. We did a quick fix in the paddock, pulling the fenders out, realigning the bumpers and panels, as well making some emergency bracketry so the car is functional as well as aesthetically acceptable.

However, Telly’s bad luck didn’t stop there. A few session after, he mis-shifted and this resulted in a blown engine a few laps later.  We didn’t expect this and didn’t bring the spare engine with us.  It is however available back at Prima racing HQ.  So, we packed it up and head back to do the engine transplant.  The transplant team consists of Jimmy, me and Telly.  We all tired and work through the night.  This was not a good idea, surely enough we made a costly mistake that we found out the next day.

Saturday morning, with the new engine, Telly went out for first practice.  He came back a lap later reported of unusually high water temperature.  Which, suddenly reminded me that none of us remember to put water in the radiator.  Crossing my finger and hoping it hasn’t damaged the engine, I decided to add water and bleed the system and see how it goes.

At the paddock everything seem to work ok.  With the water now inside the radiator, the temperature seem to be at ok range.  Still, we weren’t sure what will happen once the car hit the track.  All we can do is hope for the best.

Unfortunately, we damaged the engine pretty bad.  In Qualifying session, Telly dive back to the pit after just one warm up laps reporting again high water temperature.  We did a quick inspection and found out that the oil system is now saturated with water.  I think we’ve blown the head gasket, or the head or the black is warped so they can’t perform a good seal.  Just like that, our weekend has ended.  It was a weekend to forget.

The next month, we regrouped and faced another challenge.   April is the only month where Prima Racing has to be at 2 places at the same time. There is the Redline Time Attack at Las Vegas and Honda Challenge at Thunderhill. We decided to have Telly race the full weekend at Thunderhill, while I headed to Las Vegas with N1 Racing.

It was quite an exciting weekend for us in Vegas.  We know this is one of the track that we can shine.  A technical track that rewards a good handling car and good driving skills.  All we hope is a reliable car after the tough weekend at the season opener.

It all started well.  Friday test day was nice and we were able to clock in a respectable time.  That is until the rear end took a dump and we do not have any spare parts.  Tom, the team principal tried to locate replacement part locally to no success, so we called back to N1 in the bay area to ask them to drop the spare parts to GST who would be leaving to Vegas is a short while.

When we got a hold of the spare rear end the next day, the team quickly did a replacement and I was able to get back on the track just before lunch time.  It was really an swesome job by the team which enable me to get the much needed practice.  We were able to improved and gave a good show for the locals.

Sunday, the day where it all counted, we were able to pull it off and win it, despite tough competition.  You can read the official press release here.  It was definitely one of the proudest moment in my career.

Back in Northern California, Telly also has his own successful weekend.  He qualified 2nd on both days (Round 5 & 6 Honda Challenge race), but managed to grab his first win for Round 5.

With good weekends on both part, that means we are leading the championship points in both Redline Time Attack and Honda Challenge!

With good results, I headed to Asia for some overdue vacation. I went back to my motherland, Indonesia for the first time in 14 years. It was an interesting 3 weeks and a very relaxing time. Those 3 weeks were the first in a long time that my mind was totally free from racing and any work related.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I came back to the US just in time for our Honda Challenge Round 7 and 8 at Llihrednuht (Thunderhill in reverse configuration). With my mine refreshed, I was ready for the Challenge. Telly took the driving duty on Saturday and captured his second win for the season from outside pole.   I had a less successful race and only managed a second place finish, the same place I started the race.

At the time I wrote this blog, Round 9 and 10 of Honda Challenge will have concluded.  However, I’ve decided not to include it in this blog, instead will have a dedicated article.  Some of you might have heard that I got into a big accident and damaged the car pretty good.  That would be correct.  However, the car is now at RedZone Performance.  In the hand of the most expert and who I trusted thoroughly.  I have no doubt that Brandon will pull some magic and have the car repaired and will perform better than ever.  I will try to give more frequent update on the matter.  Stay tuned!

SUPER MODIFIED REAR WHEEL DRIVE CLASS 1ST PLACE WITH 1:42:733

N1 Concepts is proud to announce it’s racing team’s 1st Place finish at Round 3 of the Redline Time Attack Series held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Outside Road Course. This was the second race in the West Coast series, which meant a consecutive win for N1 (the team also finished 1st Place at Round 1 in Buttonwillow just a month before). This result means that N1 Racing remains in the 1st Place Position as Points Leader in the Super Modified (Unlimited) RWD Class.

It was a difficult battle all weekend long as N1 Racing faced off against tough competition in the form of the 2009 Series Champion, FX Motorsports Development, and it’s NSX. However, driver Andrie Hartanto was up to the task as he displayed incredible skill in piloting the S2000 around the technical Outside Road Course.

Friday’s intense practice sessions of running in the high to mid 1:44 range led to a broken differential. However, with an amazing show of teamwork, the N1 pit crew were able to receive help from the great guys at GST Motorsports who brought down two spare differentials early Saturday morning from N1’s shop (the two are located minutes apart in Hayward, CA). Once the S2000 was up and running again, N1 was quickly able to make further adjustments, dropping the lap times down to the low 1:43 range.

On Sunday morning, Hartanto was able to begin dipping the S2000’s lap times into the high 1:42:9 zone. During the first Time Attack Session N1 recorded a blazing 1:42:7 lap time which would become the 1st Place Super Modified RWD time (FX was unable to record a better time in the second Time Attack Session of the day). This time was also fast enough to place N1 Racing as 3rd Place overall in a field full of turbocharged cars with more than three to four times the horsepower! We slotted just behind GST AWD Monster, and Rado Two-Winged Monster.

The N1 Racing Team plans to further improve the S2000 in preparation for Round 4 at Auto Club Speedway next month (May 29-30). Stay tuned for details!

Follow N1 Racing online: n1racing.blogspot.com

Be sure to visit N1 Concepts for all of your performance needs: www.n1concepts.com

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.

Exedy signs sponsorship deal with Prima Racing for the 2010 season

San Francisco, CA (March 25, 2010) - Prima Racing announced today that it has signed a sponsorship deal with Exedy for the 2010 racing season.  As part of the agreement, Exedy will provide parts and support to help Prima Racing with its motorsports racing efforts in 2010.

“We have been using Exedy clutches for the past 2 years and they make a great clutch for circuit track & road racing applications for cars like our Acura TSX and Honda S2000,” said Andrie Hartanto, Principal and owner of Prima Racing.  “We are grateful and excited to have them on board as a sponsor and partner for the 2010 season.”

Prima Racing currently campaigns an Acura TSX and a Honda S2000 for racing and time attack competition.  Prima Racing is entering its 6th season in competitive motorsports racing, and the team’s sponsors now include Exedy, Rota Wheels, Carbotech brakes, Supertech Performance, RedZone Performance, Wicked Tuning, Stitch Tech Designs, and Hasport.

Exedy (Japan) was founded in 1923 and its clutch manufacturing business and prominent brand name Daikin Clutch are known throughout the world for supplying quality powertrain products. Exedy is a world leader of performance sports and racing clutches, and Exedy’s advanced engineering and patented innovations have made them the leading OEM manufacturer in the world for clutches and other powertrain components. To learn more about Exedy, please visit http://www.exedyusa.com/

So, what have we been doing to the car during the off-season? We’ve learned a lot last year and obviously we tried to implement what we learned and hope to see it bears some results in 2010 racing season.

Firstly, we made some improvements to our engine mounts. The reason is because our new header, will not clear the existing Hasport mount. With the help of Hasport, we modify a few Hasport off-the-shelf mounts so our new header fits well. In addition we were able to shed about 10 lbs.

In engine department, we changed the header, intake manifold, air intake box and lots and lots of dyno tuning trying to extract as much power as we can.

Of course we do not neglect the chassis. We went over and made improvements to our suspension and we needed to make the car lighter if we want to be competitive in Honda Challenge H1. We are way overweight with a minimum weight of 2770 lbs, compared to allowable 2450 lbs + 75 lbs (remote canister damper), + 30 lbs (cage) = 2,555 lbs. With a lot of work, we were able to lower the minimum weight to 2725 lbs.

Few days ago, the crew and I get to do final preparation and play with our newest tool, geometry plates! I saw this first used by a few ALMS teams. Obviously theirs, looks much better and much more expensive, but ours works as well. This tool enable us to do alignment more accurate and quicker. All the arms and any adjustment can be reached without crawling under the car or have to remove wheels or other parts.

All of this changes are still within the rule of Honda Challenge H1 class.  While we are able to extract more power, everyone else will be able do the same, and we are still at a disadvantage being the heaviest chassis with 170 lbs over the minimum weight. Hopefully by doing a lot of development, we can stay ahead of the curve, thus the competition.

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.

We still wasn’t sure of what the cause of the blew up in August. I do think there is a strong possibility that my 02 sensor was failing during tuning and we’ve been running lean. The pistons was sent to the lab but the result was inconclusive.

2009 has proved to be one of the most challenging year for us. We have improved tremendously since last year, which is the first year with the Acura TSX. We have great success in USTCC series, which netted us the championship title. We, however have not, been successful in our only try at Speed World Challenge. We do learned a lot throughout the year. We plan to implement what we learned to further ourselves in 2010 racing season.

It is now December, the off season, which is one of the busiest days for us. This is the time where we are doing behind the scene part in motor sport. Firstly, the car got torn apart, go over, and refresh. Then we went back to drawing board. Try to improve the car from the stuff we learned throughout the year. That means designing new parts, make changes, rid of all the stuff that don’t work, and put new parts that we think will improve the car. All in the pursue of speed.

The other part is the toughest part of motor sport, finding sponsors and partners so we can, not only continue racing next year, but progress and grow each year. Most of our sponsors and partners have been with us for a while. Redzone Performance has been a partner since 2005. Next year will mark the 6th successful year we are together. Supertech Performance, Rota Wheels and Wicked Tuning joined us in 2006. They too renew their commitments for 2010, which will be our 5th year together. Carbotech Brakes, Stitch Tech Designs and HASport had agreed in continuing our 4th year together.

We are proud to have a long term relationships with our sponsors and partners. It is a testament on our partners’ and sponsors’ products as well as our value as marketing tools for them. Together we’ve proved to be a strong entity and our success is a direct results from our collaboration together. We hope to continue and grow together year after year and to add new partners and sponsors for our 2010 season.

There are few changes in 2010 for Prima Racing. Telly Chang is joining the team and will be sharing driving duties. Telly came from racing in Spec Miata. However, this won’t be Telly first experience in front wheel drive race cars. We are excited to have Telly on board.

Finally, we want to wish you a very Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope the season has been great and we’re looking forward to 2010 racing 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.

For the final race of the season, USTCC introduced an extended race, or a short endure race.  Instead of the usual 25 minutes race, they ran a 2 hour race.  This weekend also marked the first time that Hartanto drove a Chevy Cobalt because the Acura TSX was damaged and couldn’t be repaired in time (Read our Speed World Challenge Season Finale blog).

The race was tough and the win didn’t came easy, as Andy Chittum in his BTM Motorwerks BMW jump to an early lead while Tom Lepper dropped back to 4^th place in the early stint.  A yellow flag near the end of Lepper’s stint brought the field back together.  When Hartanto got in the car, he was within striking distance of Chittum.  With a consistent drive and lightning quick pit work by the crew, Hartanto was able to take the lead and eventually the win.

We are thrilled to end the season on a high note after the disappointing Speed World Challenge weekend.  The championship wouldn’t have been possible without the support from our sponsors.  Please support our team by taking the time to check out our sponsors.

We’ve learned a lot this season and are looking forward to another successful 2010 season.

There wasn’t any expected rain during the weekend although the weather jumped from hot and cold sporadically throughout the days as the sun turned off and on like a light switch in a lamp store.

Thursday was a shake down and getting familiar with the track.  We spent most of the days just trying to maximize driver-track time and familiarizing with the track.

As the practice session for Touring Cars approached on Friday, there was a build up of nervousness in anticipation for the World Challenge race. It was just around the corner.  The first practice session of the day was strictly a test and tune session. The laps turned were not continuous because we had pitted every two laps for various reasons. First was to break in new brake pads to be used throughout the weekend. The crew swapped brake pads in the hot pit during the session, even though the brakes were extremely hot…hot enough to burn holes through our mechanic’s gloves. Second was to take tire pressures and temperatures. This data wasn’t necessarily used for tweaks but it was to show the consistency of heat distribution throughout the tire. This ensured that our camber and toe settings were in spec. The third reason for the pitting was for tweaking suspension settings given Hartanto’s driver input. The rear dampers were adjusted throughout the session to Hartanto’s liking.

Hartanto was making 1:40.xx laps around the track. As he was driving, Hartanto was tweaking break bias during the session. However, towards the end of the session, Hartanto put too much brake bias in the rear causing the car to swing out, sending the car into the dirt. This ended our practice session. We are about 2 seconds off the pace from the front runner, but it was good news that we are making progress as we were in 1:41.xx lap times yesterday.

After a few minor repairs to the suspension and a swap out of the damaged front splitter for a new one, the car was ready to go on its last practice session. With the car set-up close to where Hartanto felt he could pull quicker lap times, we were all confident that, finally, we had the car in check…….until the eighth lap. Hartanto radioed in that the car’s engine is broken, again. The Laguna Seca Curse wasn’t going to let us go THAT easily. So once again, the car’s brought back to the pits. There we find out that a few valves had broken (read about the first one in our August 26 blog). The tip had completely disconnected from the stem, but luckily it didn’t damage the engine head too much. Still the engine couldn’t be run anymore. So the rest of the day (and night) was spent taking out the old motor and replacing it with the spare. Throughout the swap, frustration fueled with disappointment, exhaustion, and an emptying tank of patience really tested the team’s ability to work together. By focusing on getting the car ready and not dwelling on the small stuff, team Prima Racing were able to get it done in six hours and everyone was back to joking around.

The next day was qualifying day. We were running a new motor and new tires. Two laps into qualifying and the crew’s morale was quickly high again as Hartanto was clocking in consistent 1:39.xx laps, only a second off from where we wanted to be and finishing 13^th with a 1:39.164. Now that we knew the car had the potential, we were quick to get it back to the pits and have it on stand-by for tomorrow. Surprise, surprise, when we get there we discover another head-scratcher. The fourth cylinder wasn’t firing, yet we were producing 15 more horsepower. Wayne, Chris and Jimmy tried to figure out what was wrong, but couldn’t finalize on anything. Best the team could do was just get the car prepped, checked, and cleaned for the race.

Race day finally arrived. We’re moved to the back of the grid due to a break in supervision the previous day when one of the officials had to be pulled aside during the troubleshooting work on the engine. Four laps in and Andrie radios to the crew that we may have lost another engine. A few moments later, he realizes the car is still running and notifies that the car engine is fine, but 4^th gear is lost. For the rest of the race, he’ll have to try to hang on to his position in the race with the handicap.

There was plenty of action happening throughout the race as well. James Clay in the No. 36 BimmerWorld/GearWrench BMW 328i makes contact with the No. 75 MAZDASPEED/Stoptech/ProParts MAZDA6 of Chip Herr on lap eight at the Andretti hairpin. Scott Webb No. 18 Scion tC/Jackson-Dawson Communications and Andrew Gillis No. 23 Ford Focus L Gillis Motorsports/AIT Racing also make contact with each other, causing Gillis’ rear axle to break and forcing him to retire halfway into the race.

Even though Hartanto wasn’t able to utilize 4^th gear, which is especially important as it is used very often, yet he still managed to remain in 13^th in front of Sage Marie driving the No. 43 Realtime Acura TSX till the finish with the fastest lap time of 1:39.847.

So after 50 minutes of the Speed World Challenge Touring car race at Monterey Raceway Laguna Seca, the No. 8 Prima Racing/Redzone Performance Acura TSX completed its debut. From technical difficulties, the test of the bonds within the team, and the ability to get back on the track after so many set backs, the weekend was by all means a reflection of the accumulated experiences and hard work gathered from all the previous races. And it all wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the team of Prima Racing, the staff at Redzone Performance, and the support of our sponsors. Please support us by supporting our sponsors. If there are any parts you would like to buy, you can either contact us or contact all our sponsors directly.

You can find pictures from this event here.

See you all next time after we return from our run at Infineon Raceway for NASA’s USTCC series.