Press Release 11/6/2004

Summit Point (Nov.6 th-7 th) This past race weekend saw the culmination of the closest and most fiercely contested Honda Challenge Championship in it’s short but illustrious history. Ian Carpenter of Team Hankook and Flatoutracing’s Jon Kofod have been battling for the Honda Challenge Championship all season. Both racers have held the Championship lead at various times during the season and from the mid point of the season it was clear that the title would go down to the last weekend, most likely the last lap!

How close was the racing? Well consider that in 5 of the last 6 races, either Carpenter or Kofod won the race on the last or next to last lap. Of the final six race meetings, Kofod won three and Carpenter won three. During the course of the 14-race East Coast Honda Challenge schedule, Kofod and Carpenter won a total of 11 races. During the last six races, both racers finished every race or qualifying session with fastest laps that were less than 2/10ths of a second apart.

Saturday’s crucial race saw Carpenter on pole for the 4 th consecutive race, but again only by two tenths of a second over Kofod. Lyonel Kent in the #13 Leda Suspensions Honda Civic was third with Team Hankook’s other car driven by rookie Andrew Zimmermann in 4 th. Kofod and Carpenter were on the front row ahead of the normally faster H2 and H3 cars ensuring a clear track ahead of them.

On the standing start Kent had a terminal transmission failure and was towed to safety. Kofod and Carpenter raced for turn one, but the H2 Integra of David Bowlin briefly passed both to take the lead before going wide in turn 2. This enabled the two H4 cars to battle it out.

Both cars ran bumper to bumper and traded fastest lap times with Carpenter in the lead for the first five laps. Repeated attempts by Kofod to pass Carpenter in turn 1 were met with stiff resistance. One lap six Kofod got a run on Carpenter in turn 3 and made the pass. Carpenter remained glued to Kofod’s rear bumper for the next few laps but then suddenly started to drop back with fuel starvation problems. Kofod took the checkered flag and the victory a few laps later with Carpenter in 2 nd and teammate Zimmermann in 3 rd place. The victory now gave Kofod a slim 5-point lead heading into Sunday’s finale.

On Sunday’s very first practice session Kofod demolished the H4/ITA track record by nearly half a second setting blistering a 1:27.399 lap. If Kofod could secure pole he would win the title, but if Carpenter got pole the two would be tied heading into the afternoon race.

Kofod lined up first on the grid for qualifying due to his blistering practice lap. Carpenter lined up 4 th on the grid separated by Bowlin’s H2 car and Phil Phillip’s H3 car. On lap two however, disaster struck when an H3 car spun in turn 10, ahead of Carpenter and Bowlin. Bowlin had to take evasive action but Carpenter had no where to go and had to lift off the gas at full throttle in turn 10 resulting in a high speed spin that only ended when Carpenter’s car went up the embankment along the main straight and flipped over. Rescue crews were on the scene immediately and Carpenter got out of his car and waved to the fans and other crew members along the pit wall to indicate he was ok.

The qualifying session was cancelled. After checking out Carpenter to make sure he was ok, NASA officials decided to use Saturday’s qualifying times for Sunday’s grid. While at this stage all concern was obviously centered on Carpenter’s condition, the ruling meant Carpenter received 5 additional points in the Championship, which again led to a tie.

Carpenter thought over several options during the early afternoon including driving teammate Zimmerman’s car for the final race (Carpenter’s car was damaged beyond repair). In the end given the hard impact of the accident Carpenter decided against racing in the afternoon.

In a show of sportsmanship that rivaled Carpenter’s gesture at Beaverun a month earlier, Kofod decided that he would not use Sunday’s race points towards the Championship (rules dictate picking your ten best finishes of the season) and that both Carpenter and Kofod would end the season in a dead tie, with 1020 points each, 6 wins each, and tied in head to head competition (4 of each competitor’s wins came at the expense of the other racer).

As a result Kofod and Carpenter were crowned Co-Champions in what has turned out to be NASA Pro Racing’s closest Honda Challenge battle since it’s inception a few years ago.

“Ian and I both wanted this Championship to be decided on the track,” stated Kofod. “Although Ian and I run separate teams, we paddock together each race weekend, and he helped fix my car on numerous occasions, so without his help I wouldn’t have been in this position (to win the title) in the first place” noted Kofod. “At Beaverun we had an incident in which I used poor judgment and punted Ian out of the lead. I know he was angry and disappointed, but he went to my defense with race officials to allow me to race the next day in a show of stunning sportsmanship.”

In Sunday’s afternoon race, which now had no bearing on the title, Kofod battled Phil Phillips in the #2 H2 class Phil’s Tire Service Acura Integra GSR for several laps with each driver taking turns for the overall lead. On lap 8 Kofod was involved with another H3 car in turn 1 and dropped him back to 2 nd unable to catch Phillips. Kofod finished the race in 2 nd overall, but still got the win in H4 class to round out the Honda Challenge season with three straight wins in H4 and the H4 Championship.