USTCC at Thunderhill (Round 1)
Season opener of United States Touring Car Championship is held at Thunderhill Raceway. Weather for the weekend is sunny with temperature in the low 70s degree Fahrenheit range. We have the usual suspects along with a few new comer. We are expecting Andy Chittum with his BTM Motorwerks BMW 328 to be a strong contender this year. Pete Bovenberg has also done some major improvement on his MBO Honda Civic. Kurt Simmons, with his Turbo Neon SRT is also expected to be strong.
There is a little change with Team Prima Racing. Tom Lepper, 3 times USTCC champion is joining the team for partial season and will be sharing the #88 Acura TSX with Andrie Hartanto. We also welcomed a few new team member. Christopher Le, Jeffrey Yan and Ken Chan.
Saturday Practice,
Coming of a 3 win streak last season, Hartanto with his RedZone Performance/Prima Racing Acura TSX came out really strong and topped the time sheet, followed by Bovenberg and Chittum. Although, time for practice session is not really a good indication due to the amount of traffic.
Saturday Qualifying,
Hartanto continue to performed well. Posting provisional pole with a time of 2:00.764. Followed closely by Andy Chittum in his BMWwith 2:00.891. Bovenberg with his Civic is nipping on his heels with a time of 2:00.894, just 3 thousand of a second behind. Kurt Simmons rounding the top four with 2:01.147. With the top 4 just less than 0.3 seconds apart, sounds like it will be a very interesting race.
Saturday Practice 2,
Chittum seem to be the man on the move. He constantly turning fast time and was able to top the time sheet with 2:00.938. Hartanto fell behind with 2:02.852, with the company of Bovenberg in 2:02 range. Simmons is consistent in 2:01 range.
Sunday Practice,
This time Simmons with Dodge SRT Neon turbo was able to top the time sheet with 2:01.752, with Chittum on his heels with a time of 2:01.809. Hartanto is third with 2:02.302, followed closely by Bovenberg with 2:02.395. Times for the top four are really close and it looks like it is shaping to be a good race.
Sunday Qualifying,
After a little tweak on the car, Hartanto was able to improve his qualifying time with 2:00.108 and secured pole position. However, all the other competitors have gone slower. Simmons is a distant second with 2:01.729, followed by Bovenberg with 2:02.035, and Chittum with 2:02.079.
The grid is now set, with Hartanto claiming Pole, followed by Chittum with his Saturday Qualifying time, and Bovenberg, also with his Saturday Qualifying time. Simmons is fourth and McColligan rounding the top 5.
Race,
Everyone expected Chittum, with rear wheel drive of the BMW got a great launch from the standing start and will lead into turn 1. However, this was not the case as Hartanto got a good launch and lead to turn 1. Simmons made a good start and caught Chittum sleeping. He was able to get alongside Chittum into turn 1 but can not make the pass stick. The top 5 is now Hartanto, Chittum, Simmons, Bovenberg and McColligan.
Hartanto try to build a gap. Consistently posting fractionally faster lap time than Chittum and slowly build a gap. Chittum had his mirror full of Simmons for a few, but he too was able to build a gap. The race ended up uneventful with no change of position for the top 5 until the last lap. Simmons who had been pushing hard, blew his transmission in the stretch between turn 8 and 9, ending his race early and robbing him from podium finish.
Hartanto wins the first race of the season with commanding performance, followed by Chittum and Bovenberg in the final podium spot.
Hartanto is riding on a 4 win streak dating from last season. We’ll see if he is able to continue his winning ways in round 2.
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In-Car video can be seen here
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