Summit Point, October 1

Coming on the heels of an exciting double race winning weekend at the MARRS Labor Day Double, the Flatoutracing.net/Hankook Tires team went into the season ending MARRS IV ITA finale hoping for a strong finish to what has been a very successful first season.

Saturday’s morning qualifying looked like a mirror image of the previous round with pouring rain greeting the field of 47 cars. A quick change to rain tires with little time to spare and a perfect wet setup paid off with big dividends as Flatoutracing/Hankook Tires driver Jon Kofod (#44 Acura Integra LS) carved through traffic in the first few laps to get some much needed hot laps.  Kofod scorched the time sheets a full two seconds clear of the next fastest car of Gregg Ginsberg (#72 Honda CRX). Jon Cummings (Mazda RX3) and Bill Hutchinson (Mazda Miata) rounded up the top four.

Afternoon qualifying was greeted with clear skies and a green track. Kofod went out on Hankook’s new C70’s soft compound and within three laps set a lap time (1:28.733) a full half second quicker than Ginsberg in his Honda CRX. With traffic ahead of him Kofod came in early with half the session remaining confident that his time would not be matched. The final grid saw Kofod on pole, his fourth of the season, lining up beside Ginsberg’s CRX. Cummings and Hutchinson rounded out row two.

“The new Hankook Ventus Z214 C70 compound took a lap to heat up but once we got the pressures up the tire stuck like glue. I knew by the third lap we were significantly faster than our rivals and ended the session early,” noted a jubilant Kofod.

Sunday’s race saw clear skies as the field took its pace laps. On the start Kofod and Ginsberg had a drag race for turn one with Kofod guarding the inside line. Ginsberg’s late braking maneuver almost got him along side Kofod exiting turn two but Kofod closed the door and went through turn three ahead for the first lead of the race. Exiting turn ten on the front straight, Ginsberg got a good run and drafted Kofod’s Acura down the front straight. Ginsberg pulled out to pass and briefly appeared to have taken the lead but Kofod was able to dive underneath Ginsberg in turn two and the two went side by side through turn three. In turn four Ginsberg closed the door and got back in front.

At this stage Kofod was content to stay behind Ginsberg until disaster struck in turn one. Ginsberg, leading the race, was just turning into turn one, when the fourth place Mazda RX3 of John Cummings encountered a stuck throttle and came careening into the braking zone, broad siding the CRX of Ginbsberg and nearly taking out Kofod in the process. A full course double yellow ensued for the next three laps as the emergency crews tended to Ginsberg and Cumming, both of whom were thankfully ok, if but a bit shaken.

On the restart Hankook driver Kofod seemed to struggle getting his tires back up to temperature as second place Bryan Pritt’s #74 Acura Integra RS was all over Kofod for the first lap. By the second lap, with repeated passing attempts turned away by the Hankook driver, Kofod started setting fast lap after fast lap extending a lead that would eventually grow to more than ten seconds. In the closing laps Kofod conserved his tires and took the win by a few car lengths to wrap up a dominant weekend for Flatoutracing.net and Hankook Tires and garnering Kofod his third straight MARRS win.

“First off I am very relieved that John and Gregg were uninjured, the impact was very violent and it appeared that John’s car hadn’t scrubbed much speed off so naturally I was very concerned. We are usually hitting around 120 mph before braking in that area so I was glad to see John and Gregg out of their cars and walking to the safe zone. Getting back to the race, I was very impressed with the new Hankook Ventus C70 compounds as it definitely gave me the needed advantage all weekend. We were significantly quicker in both qualifying sessions, set fastest lap during the race and took home our fourth win of the season,“ remarked Kofod.

Special thanks to Hankook Tires, Guident Technologies, Curry’s Auto Service, JE Import Performance and Flatoutracing.net crew chief Sean Banerjee who made this weekend possible. Next up for the team will be the season ending NASA Honda Challenge race in two weeks time with both Kofod and teammate Andrew Zimmermann hoping for a 1-2 victory.