Finale USTCC
Hartanto won a hard fought battle season finale. Hartanto was quick all weekend, but the man who top the time chart and captured pole position was AndyChittum. Started off pole, Hartanto was able to claim the lead on lap 3 and secured the win when the race was cut short due to incident with one of the Spoon car.
Team Prima Racing knew the season finale would be a hard battle. Notably Andy Chittum been getting stronger and almost capture the win at the last round. This season finale he stepped it up a notch. He was the fastest man all weekend capturing the provisional pole with a time of 1:51.246 with Hartanto only .062 second behind. On Sunday, Hartanto tried to claim the pole posted fast lap of 1:50.941. However, that wasn’t enough as Chittum bettered his time and posted 1:50.836 and securing the pole position. The top qualifiers are Chittum followed by Hartanto and Simmons rounded up the top three. If qualifying is any indication, this will be a hard battle up front where everyone is seperated by fraction of seconds.
Starting on pole position, Chittum took full advantage of the RWD advantage of the BMW in standing starts. He quickly motored away while Hartanto slot into second followed by Chittum close on his bumper. Hartanto was on a mission as he quickly closed on Chittum and hounding his every move. It was clear that Hartanto is currently the fastest man on the track and tried to make a move on Chittum. However, Simmons made an over aggressive move on lap 2 and bumped Hartanto on turn 4. This enabled Chittum to create a bit of gap.
Hartanto is not to be denied, and quickly caught up and push hard for a pass. He finally got his chance as they exiting turn 11, Hartanto had a run and they went side by side all the way into turn 2 where Hartanto was able to make the pass stick. From then on Hartanto quickly pull away .
The race was however, only lasted a little over 4 laps as a major incident which involved one of the Spoon Sports car required a track closure. The accident is bizarre yet a very dangerous one. The Spoon Sport Acura Integra ended up on the grand stands and merely feet away from spectator. Luckily there was no injury on the spectators. The driver suffered a significant injury but not life threatening.
The season ended with Hartanto as the only 3 times winner, but championship went to Tom Lepper with Spoon Sports.
Prima Racing is happy that we were able to finish the season on a high note. It was a struggle to get the new car up to speed. We are still behind for Speed World Challenge, but we are making steady progress.
Thanks to all our sponsors, RedZone Performance, Supertech, Wicked tuning, CT Engineering, Carbotech brakes, Rota Wheels, JRZ Supension, HASport, KAAZ and Fastbrakes
Special thanks to our team member, Wayne Sausa, Charlee Xiong and the rest of the crew.
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