MPTCC Round 4: Buttonwillow 2013 Season Finale

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Since the condition of M-Factory Integra was unknown for Sunday's race, Edik needed to complete this race if he was to have any chance to stay in front of Justin in the season standings.

 

A small “off” by Steve gave Justin the necessary room to complete a pass on MotoIQ Project G20 about 15 minutes into the race.  A few minutes later both racers caught up to Edik and both were able to lap him.  As the race wore on the smaller 225's on Project G20 started showing signs of dropping off.  The heavy'ish G's lap times were dropping off, while the S2000's larger diameter tires would allow it to go the entire race without any drop off in performance.

 

The MPTCC field and the rest of NASA's race group C gathered in the pits after the race waiting to weigh in and for the race's award ceremony.  When it was all said and done Justin Taylor took the checkered flag, Steve Rockwood came in a close second, and Edik Stepanyan came in third.

 

And the best podium pose of the year award goes to…Justin Taylor!  Justin had now cut Edik's lead to just nine points.  Which meant Edik would need to finish in 7th place on Sunday if Justin was to have any chance of taking home the 2013 MPTCC Championship trophy.  Not good news for him at all, considering the MPTCC's TU class currently does not have 7 cars in its field.  So this would mean Edik would need to not finish the race in order for the upset to happen.

 

After the race the MPTCC officials made a walk through of the team's pits to get an update on each of them and these were our findings:

 

Edik Stepanyan:  The stock ECU that was installed in the M-Factory DA Integra allowed the car to run, but it did not allow the car to get in the high rev range and the car was down on power.  Something to be expected when running an OE ECU on an engine that requires a custom tune.  The team would now be spending the rest of the night hunting down the short and any damage it may have done to the wiring harness.  The hunt for another Hondata ECU in Buttonwillow had also commenced.

Justin Taylor:  Still dancing and celebrating in the pits!  The Rockstar Garage/Buddy Club S2000 had performed flawlessly and the team was simply getting ready to call it a night.

Michele Abbate:  The Scion Racing/Dynamic Autosports tC's smoking issues turned out to be catastrophic and this would be the end of our returning champion's season.  The team loaded up the car and headed out to Irwindale to support the rest of the Scion Racing team who was competing in the last competition of the 2013 FD season.

Steve Rockwood:  MotoIQ Project G20 found the wear limit of the Toyo Proxes RRs!  The car was now in bad need of a tire swap, but everything else was performing well.  All four tires would need to be swapped out in the morning.  We're happy to report that the Toyo Proxes RRs have been on the car for two complete race weekends (4 races) and one hot lapping event.

 

 

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