USTCC Round Three - Trifecta minus one!
June 28th 2009 - Chittum Launches Blistering Performance, Pole Position, Fastest Lap...and 2nd Place
With
June temperatures rising in Sonoma, Man Man Motorsports returned in
full force to their home track at Infineon Raceway. With two second
place finishes on the board, and two victories to Prima Racing's Andrie
Hartanto, the team's goal for the weekend was nothing short of
victory. Saturday warmup and qualifying went as planned with Chittum
and his team quickly finding a good qualifying setup appropriate for
the ambient temperature cresting over 100 degrees. After Saturday's
effort, the team found themselves in provisional pole.
Sunday
started perfectly with Chittum getting one clear lap on a very busy
track and putting the BTM Motorwerks BMW 318ti on pole by a half second
over the nearest competitor and series championship leader,
Prima-Racing's Andrie Hartanto. But given the relative strengths of
the BMW's old chassis vs. the Acura's modern one, Chittum would still
be in for a very difficult time staying consistent throughout the race.
The
race started with Chittum blasting off the pole, into lead, and leaving
the rest of the field behind. By five laps into the race, Chittum had
the comfortable lead he needed to hold off a late charge by Hartanto.
But late in the race, the plan began to unravel. Backmarkers began to
cause Chittum difficulty, at times encountering five cars three-wide
holding up the BMW's progress. In the sweltering heat, a minor
electrical problem begain to plague the car, as well as a shifting
issue, all related to pushing hard to pass the backmarkers. Finally,
just a few minutes before the end of the race, Hartanto caught and
passed Chittum's BMW, putting him into 2nd place again.
USTCC travels next to to California Speedway in Fontana for another race of volcanic proportions August 1-2.
May 31st 2009 - Chittum Maintains 2nd Place in Championship with 2nd Trip to 2nd Podium Step!
Mad Man Motorsports was back in full swing at Thunderhill at the end of
May. With full BTM Motowerks support, Jennifer Grossman as Race
Director, and Ryan Xie, Michelle Ma and Elton Wong as crew, the team
looked poised for another outstanding result. Chittum missed Saturday
practice and qualifying for his wedding with Jennifer, but by Sunday
morning they were back in full swing, ready to race. The MBO
Motorsports entry teaming Pete Bovenberg up with Dave Brown put down a
blistering performance in their Honda Civic to take pole, with Andrie
Hartanto's TSX 2nd, and Chittum's BMW 3rd. A late qualifying
blend-line penalty put Chittum down to 4th, and promoted the Bay Bridge
Motorsports MINI Cooper S driven by Vince Parker to 3rd.
At
the drop of the flag, Chittum put in one of his trademark holeshot
launches, and made it to the front row, with only the Hartanto's TSX
ahead of him. After the first turn on Thunderhill's difficult reverse
course, Chittum looked poised to pounce on Hartanto, but Hartanto
quickly recovered, and put a little daylight between them, again
holding a few lengths throughout the next few laps. Lapped traffic
served to allow each car to gain or lose tenths upon the other, but at
the end, in spite of a late-race charge by Bovenberg, Chittum finished
second again, within striking distance of Hartanto's season points
lead, and putting distance on the rest of the field.
For photos and commentary check out
Michelle Ma's or
Ryan Cristobal's Flickr Sites!
Mad Man Motorsports, Andy Chittum, and BTM Motorwerks return to Sears
Point for Round 3 of the USTCC Championship June 27th.
2009 Season Launches at Thunderhill!
04-26-2009: Strong start to the season! With several new competitors in the series, and a few veteran competitors looking very strong this year, Andy Chittum took to the track eager to unleash the off-season tweaks and tuning on his competitors. Qualifying 2nd, and driving a strong 2nd all race, Chittum continued to show excellent pace and consistency, just a few lengths off Andrie Hartano's Acura TSX the entire race. With a varied schedule and Hartanto relying on his teammate next race, Chittum is in excellent position for the season championship this year.
See pictures from the event at Ryan Cristobal's Flicker site.
04-01-2009: Brief mention in April's Grassroots Motorsports as 'a contender' for the USTCC 2009 Season. With a finish of 3 second places in the last 3 races we couldn't agree with GRM more!
02-15-2009: Victory! BTM Motorwerks new Spece30 race car proves to be competitive right out of the garage. Co-driving the new car with Brad McClure of BTM Motowerks in NASA Spece30 competition this year, a huge 17 car field of identical cars battled at Sears Point this weekend. In its first dry session, Chittum qualified the car 3rd, then went on to finish 2nd in the race. Sunday, in torrential downpour, Chittum put the car on pole, then drove away from the pack. The only competitors to challenge for the lead promply spun off the track. Look forward to more exciting Spece30 action this year!
USTCC racing is scheduled to start at the end of April.
2008 Season:
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11-23-2008: The USTCC season finished, Andy took a day to relax and enjoy friendly competition with Checkered Flag Racing. In spite of a field full of Ferraris, Maseratis, Corvettes, 911 GT3s and other extremely powerful cars, Chittum qualified 3rd overall and drove to a 1st overall. An outstanding end to the 2008 season to enjoy with the club that gave Chittum his first race start.
11-09-2008: Pole Position! In an inspired qualifying lap at the legendary Infineon circuit at Sears Point, Chittum put the car on pole with a blistering 1:50.836, just a tenth faster than the nearest competitor, Andrie Hartanto. The race itself was unfortunately cut short due to an incident furhter back in the pack, and Chittum ended up on the second rung of the podium yet again. Comparing the team's performance to earlier in the year, we have gone from mid-pack runners to serious contenders for outright victory. The support of Brad and the entire BTM Motorwerks team, as well as Jennifer Grossman as crew chief, Chris Wells, Ryan Xie, and Michelle Ma all have contributed to the improvement unprecedented in recent USTCC history.
10-12-2008: New Areo, Same 2nd Place! Chittum again takes a 2nd place, but this time leading most of the race and passing last race's winner Hartanto in a brillant move. Again, warm conditions, difficult pavement and extreme pressure played a part, but Chittum and BTM Motorwerks served notice they were on the podium to stay!
08-24-2008: Chittum drives to the second step of the Podium! In the blistering August Thunderhill heat, BTM Motorwerks again gave its full support to the team, finalizing suspension work done early in the year. While qualifying seconds faster than his previous best, Chittum broke into an early lead, quickly to be passed by Andrie Hartanto. Simmons and Lepper both chased, but were unable to catch the BMW.
06-29-2008: Andy Chittum won the Molecule Keep It Clean Move of the Race award with his excellent start that brought him up from sixth position to the third spot by Turn 2 at the start. Holding off series champions Dave Brown and Tom Lepper for nearly the entire race, BTM Motorwerks hard work on the car's chassis is paying off!
04-13-2008: USTCC Race - MMM Comes to grips with new Nitto Tires! While some teams had trouble adapting to the new Nitto NT-01s MMM's off season work showed a 2 second improvement per lap relative to most teams. A 1st lap charge to 2nd place, losing some ground in traffic and a hard charge late in the race saw Chittum finish 4th in this hot race at Infineon Raceway. See In Car Video here, and catch USTCC's Final Drive TV with coverage of the event.
2007 Season:
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10-15-2007: USTCC Podium in Buttonwillow!!! Chittum's first USTCC podium came at the to be televised race at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in Buttonwillow, CA. A tremendous thank you to LeMans Karting for support without which the trip would not have been possible, and the entire crew at BTM Motorwerks that put extra effort in modifications that allowed the car to be run with 30lbs less fuel on board. Stay tuned for links to race video and TV Coverage announcements. Please visit USTCC.com for more details!
09-19-2007: Andy's trip to NASA Nationals at Mid-Ohio featured on the F1Weekly.com podcast #214. Click Here to catch the #1 F1 Podcast as well as the recount of the NASA Nationals event.
09-16-2007: Andy Chittum becomes NASA National runner-up in Performance Touring D at the Mid-Ohio sports car course. After struggling with setup early on, Chittum went on to take pole for the 2nd Qualifying race and 2nd overall in the Championship race. Excellent results for the team's first National Champ contention. See the complete writeup here.
07-01-2007: With his 5th 1st place finish in NASA Norcal's Performance Touring C category at Sears Point Infineon Raceway, Chittum is qualified to race at NASA Nationals at Mid-Ohio, September 13-16th. MMM will travel to the legendary venue with a goal of a podium against the best NASA PT drivers in the country.
05-06-07: Chittum takes 7th at round 3 of the USTCC championship, and wins the GTech Pro 'Move of the Race' award. Although running as high as 2nd in the race, overheating tires and impressive traffic saw Chittum fall back to a 7th place finish after an impressive start. BTM Motorwerks torque and power along with mad traffic-thwarting skills honed at LeMans Karting in Fremont led Chittum to one of his most impressive USTCC races yet.
05-06-2007: Chittum wins back to back NASA Performance Touring C races at Sears Point Infineon raceway. Passing the PTB cars and battling with the PTA cars Chittum makes progress in getting the LeMans Karting BTM BMW 318ti into nationally competitive form.
03-11-2007: Amidst sporadic rain, minor mechanical failures, and difficult setup issues MMM comes away with the lead in the NASA Performance Touring C category for the 2007 season.
