Press Release 8/24/2004

Lexington, Ohio (August 21st) The Guident Technologies/HRPWorld #40 Acura Integra driven by Jon Kofod achieved a 3rd place at the recent NASA Pro Racing Nationals held at Mid Ohio.

Kofod qualified 6th in class for Saturday's race but was able to make up several positions on the first few laps to get within 12 seconds of the leaders, Colin Botha in the #9 CRX and Jon Marhefka in the #71 CRX. Botha and Marhefka continued their torrid pace from Beaverun and turned lap times at Mid Ohio a full second faster than anyone else in H4 class.

Botha and Marhefka tried to go four wide at one point in the race into turn 1 but Botha went off into the grass and Marhefka went on for the win, with Botha coming in second and Kofod third.

"We struggled in qualifying with tires and never got the balance right. It was a last minute decision to come to Mid Ohio for the Nationals and we had some tire supply issues and had to run used tires from VIR" stated Kofod. "New tires would have had us further up the grid at the start but this is Jon (Marhefka) and Colin's home track and I doubt I could have gotten near their lap times, so 3rd wasn't all that bad".

For Sunday's race Kofod was able to make some setup changes and was able to knock nearly 2 seconds off Saturday's time, but still only managed 4th on the grid. A bad start relegated Kofod to 5th place by the time the field approached turn 2. A good run down the back straight got Kofod three positions back but then mayhem ensued.

At the top of turn 8 (named Madness) an incident claimed two H1 cars and as Kofod and Marhefka crested the hill, Kofod had nowhere to go but into the tirewall to avoid hitting the stationary cars. The #40 Acura Integra clipped the back of Ed Sackley's H2 Integra damaging Kofod's suspension and steering rack. Also involved in the incident was the #11 Honda-Solutions.com car of Kevin Helms which sustained heavy damage to the left side of the car.

The team kept their streak alive with a 5th straight podium in all 5 race weekends but clearly Kofod thinks he is due for a win. "It's nice to get podiums but we hope to end the dry spell at our home track next month" stated Kofod.

The Flatoutracing/Guident Technologies/HRPWorld.com team will attempt to repair the car in time for the next round of the East Coast Honda Challenge at Summit Point in September.