Global Time Attack and MotoIQ Pacific Tuner Car Championships – Round 1

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Overnight, the Prima Racing/TunerPlayground team found another source of their sour handling, a broken rear swaybar mount! With fresh tires and a welded swaybar mount, they were ready for Race 2 on Sunday. Another overnight development, which was mentioned earlier, was a bad coil pack on the APM Racing Acura RSX of Richie Ho. Everyone tried to find a coil pack for the team, but with the only source for one being a dealer, Richie could not compete in Race 2. Michele Abbate's broken shock was mended and worked around, so she was able to compete in Race 2.

Repairs made, fresh tires on, it is time for racing! With another blistering lap time, Hartanto was on top of Qualifying once again! Stepanyan grabbed second and Abbate would start in third. Richie Ho could not get the APM Motorsports Acura RSX repaired in time for Race 2.

Qualifying worked out the same way that it did on Saturday, with Hartanto taking command of first place once again. Stepanyan followed with Abbate in third, this would make it the smallest field in MPTCC history with only three cars competing and all in Tuner Under class! With MPTCC cars taking the green flag first for Race 2, they showed that they were the class of the entire field, even above the NASA classes! They were fast enough that they took the green flag twice! Actually, what had happened was that the Spec Miata class was slow off the start with a late green and the MPTCC cars were able to catch up to them. This was nearly a disaster but the professionalism of the MPTCC leaders showed as both cars were able to slow down and avoid crashing.

Once they weaved through the Spec Miata cars, Hartanto and Stepanyan set off to do battle! Before the half-way point, Michele Abbate's Dynamic Autosports/Gruppe-S Scion tC developed an engine problem and she had to pull in for a lap to see if the team could get it sorted out. It seemed that the problem wasn't completely solvable and Abbate drove out of the pits. She was able to complete the race, but was 2 laps down to the MPTCC leaders. Hartanto was able to pull a large lead over Stepanyan and looked like he was going to pull off a huge victory. That was until full course caution flew for an incident with one of the NASA Class cars. This put Hartanto and Stepanyan door to door again, but the double yellow flag would fly for nearly half the race.

With the cars bunched up because of a full course caution, it looked like this was going to be the best chance that Stepanyan would have to get past Hartanto. However, the caution would last nearly half the race.

Despite engine problems, Michele Abbate was able to bring the Dynamic Autosports/Gruppe-S Scion tC home in third. As a side note, it is pretty interesting to see the size difference between the tC and the tiny Miata. Yet, the ailing and street tire equipped tC was still able to out pace the Miatas!

Once the green came out, the race was on for several more laps, but Stepanyan just wasn't able to keep up. In the end, the fresh tires and bigger powerplant were able to overcome the heat, weight, and other cars for a win in Race 2! Andrie Hartanto in the Prima Racing/TunerPlayground Acura TSX comes in first. Edik Stepanyan in the Motul/Hondata Acura Integra comes in a distant second and Michele Abbate in the Dynamic Autosports/Gruppe-S Scion tC rounded out the field in third in a heavy and ailing car.

The podium for Race 2, Hartanto, Stepanyan, and Abbate. Each one of these drivers showed the spirit of racing in the MPTCC as each had problems of random sorts that could have potentially stopped them from racing. However, they overcame them and were able to race the next day!