Stepanyan Stomps TU! MPTCC Round 4 Willow Springs

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Dai was telling his crew on the radio that the shocks had blown on the Sentra causing it to develop wicked uncontrollable oversteer.  He told his crew that he would probably spin in turn 9 while in turn 8 and sure enough he did, going on a wild ride.  The car was handling so poorly even Dai who drives sideways for a living in Formula D struggled to control it for the entire race wearing his tires to the cords.

Finding himself in last place, Dai started to charge back up through the pack in the wickedly handling Sentra until he reached the second place Acura RSX of Richard Ho.   Ho and Yoshihara waged a multi lap battle.  It was obvious that the RSX had a big advantage in turns 8 and 9 and down the straights while Yoshihara was better under braking and could manhandle the faltering Sentra faster in the lower speed turns.  It made for good racing with the two changing places several times.

 
It was so hot you could cook an egg on the pavement.
 
 Yukio Taira at work in the control room.  His announcing makes things much more entertaining.
 
 It was so hot it was better to work on the cars at night.

Meanwhile Edik was so far ahead, he was probably bored to tears.  Yoshihara finally got around Ho and made it stick but the car was so far gone, he was driving about 4 seconds a lap off his qualifying time.  Meanwhile Joon Maeng, the sole TO car not to break, found his Turbo Nissan S13 to be overheating badly in the 105 degree heat.  Joon had to pit every three laps for his crew to cool the car with water sprays in the pits but he was able to finish.

 
Rob Fuller, Joon Maeng and  Pattarpong Note battling it out for 4th.

At the finish Edik was nearly ¾ of a lap ahead of Yoshihara after having dominated the race leading wire to wire.  After the race Yoshihara’s tires were found to be worn past the steel belts as he had to slide the car around every turn but he held on for second place.  Richard Ho finished third and Steve Rockwood fourth.

 
Edik was on a Sunday drive in the desert leading wire to wire.

 

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