MPTCC ’14 Round 2: Spring Mountain

,

Though tremendously slow, the #37 felt good for its first time out. We will need to address its under steering issues at initial turn in, but other than that the car can be made to rotate with a little manipulation. The brakes were solid, but with more power on the way we will at the very minimum go with the largest OE upgrade available. 50 more wheel horsepower, some front suspension geometry massaging and better shocks and the #37 will be a formidable Tuner Under competitor.
After having a strong start, shortly after completing his first lap Patris had to pull off the track. For being in the middle of the desert the weather was quite bearable, but on track temps were well above 120*. Not a good place to be for a newly boosted race car with teething issues. 
I noticed that Patris had come off track, so as long as I finished the race I would be able to collect much needed third place points for team MotoIQ. There was no way I was going to be able to catch up to Justin, let alone Edo, so the strategy was to drive the car hard enough to shake it down, but conservative enough to ensure the car crossed the finish line. But just a couple laps after Patris retired, I was hitting the apex of a right hander and powering out when suddenly the car sputtered and lost all power. If you look closely at the picture above you can see the trail of smoke behind the #37 as it cruised to its final resting spot for the duration of the race.  
With both Patris and myself out of the running, Justin was at the very least guaranteed second place points when he crossed the finish line. The Rockstar Garage S2000 managed to be faster than the majority of the cars in NASA's race group A which included Honda Challenge and the USTCC, but he was a little over two seconds slower than the car that mattered most…the Tuner Under leading M-Factory DA Integra.
Edik Stepanyan earned his third victory in a row in the 2014 MPTCC season. Edik's best lap in the race was a 2:26.599. The only cars faster than the M-Factory DA Integra were the USTCC-GT cars. Edik would now have a commanding points lead over the rest of the Tuner Under field.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*
*