Summit Point, October 14

Twice a bridesmaid, third times a charm! Runner up the past two seasons to Hankook Tires/Flatoutracing.net teammate Jon Kofod, Andrew Zimmerman finally garnered his first NASA Pro Racing East Coast Honda Challenge H4 Championship. The season culminated this past weekend at Summit Point raceway with Zimmermann finishing third in Saturday’s feature race and fifth in Sunday’s race.

Zimmermann was a model of consistency for most of the season in H4 placing on the podium 10 times during 2006. Zimmermann ended the season with 7 wins, 1 second place, 3 thirds and sat on pole 4 times. Zimmermann, who didn’t have to contend with teammate Kofod (who went on to SCCA) still faced stiff competition from Ryan Jenkins (96 Integra RS), Trevor Melville (94 Prelude), Lyonel Kent (92 Civic) and Wendell Holmes (93 Integra RS) for much of the season but managed to wrap up the title in late August.

This marks the third consecutive H4 title for Hankook Tires and Flatoutracing.net. Hankook Tires and Flatoutracing.net have dominated the East Coast Honda Challenge H4 class since Kofod, Carpenter, and Zimmermann showed up in 2004 with three Nonnemaker ex-Grand Am Cup Integra’s. The team has won over 30 races during a three year span on Hankook Tires. In addition the team won the 2005 12 Hours at the Point in ITA class finishing 7th overall.

Kofod and teammate Ian Carpenter shared the 2004 H4 title and Kofod won the 2005 title outright before making the switch to SCCA’s ITA division in 2006. Zimmermann now joins both his teammates as an East Coast Honda Challenge Champion.

Over in SCCA, Kofod contested the Mid Atlantic Road Racing Series popular ITA class, often facing stiff competition from 30+ car fields. In his first season in ITA Kofod narrowly missed out on his third straight title, missing out by only a few points in the closest finish in ITA in years. Kofod ended up conceding the title to ITA Champion Kirk Dohne (Nissan 240 SX), whom with, Kofod battled all season long.

Kofod and Dohne each won four races in ITA and both racers sat on pole four times. But it was Kofod’s fourth place finish at Watkins Glen, where he was involved in a first lap incident that put him into the wall that was the difference in the Championship. Despite this, Kofod finished the ITA MARRS season in strong fashion winning the last three races of the season in convincing fashion.

Throughout the NASA and SCCA season, Hankook Tires USA provided major support for 2006 as they have in each of the past three Championship winning seasons. This year in particular, Keven McDonald and Jeffrey Kohler of Hankook Motorsports, stepped up their support and technical assistance. Hankook’s newly released Ventus Z214’s proved the dominant tire in both SCCA and NASA.

“Andrew and I both raised quite a few eyebrows with Hankook’s Ventus Z214 this season,” noted Kofod. Kofod’s performances in particular stood out in ITA, a class long dominated by Hoosier shod cars. In total Kofod won four races, placed second once, and third once. In addition Kofod sat on pole four times and had five fastest race laps against a field of Hoosier shod ITA cars. “The Ventus Z214’s performed at the top of it’s game no matter what track or what conditions we encountered. The Z214’s was clearly the fastest tire at each MARRS weekend and Hankook’s support was invaluable,” stated Kofod.

In addition to Hankook Tires, the team wished to thank the following people or organizations who made this season a success:

Guident Technologies, Inc.
Davis Acura
JE Import Performance
Curry’s Auto Service Inc.
Traqmate Systems
Kearney’s Racing
iCarp.net
Hawk Brake Pads
P1 Performance (Motul oil and brake fluid)
OG Racing

Jeffrey Koehler (Head of Hankook Motorsports)
Brian Curry (chief race mechanic/pre race prep)
Sean Banerjee (crew chief/web site design and maintenance)
Steve Pilkerton (race mechanic)
Frank Clarke (shop mechanic)
Trevor Bell (wheel and tire mounting)
Andrew Moore (wheel and tire mounting)
Justin Clark (wheel and tire mounting)
Steve Sobonya (welder and fabricator)
Matt Curry and Chris Coulter (Owners of Curry’s Auto Service)
Ian Carpenter (race coach and instructor)
Nick Potter (Comptech Motorsports)
Ben Alexander (website hosting)
Herb Goodfellow, Jr. (website hosting)
Chris Brooks- Manager Mill Street Tire
Phillip Chase- Sales and Marketing Manager Tein
Chris Cobetto- National Auto Sport Association
Jason Franza/John Whitaker- Honda Challenge Directors
Chris Muzlowski-Bimmerparts.com