E D O M O T O R S P O R T S
Race Report: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, September 2008

It was a long trip towing the Edo Motorsports #78 H4 Acura Integra from Southern California to Lexington, Ohio for the 2008 NASA Nationals Championships. The team arrived at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Tuesday afternoon and unloaded the race car and tools the same day. Wednesday was spent preparing the car which included changing the steering rack, applying the remaining decals, installing new rotors, installing new brake pads, final alignment and installing the rear spoiler.

The event was scheduled with 3 practice sessions on Thursday, a practice, qualifying and qualifying race on Friday and Saturday and the Championship race on Sunday. The qualifying races determined the starting position for the big race on Sunday. The car was also entered in another race class called PTD in order to get more track time for driver Edo Stepanyan.

The weather forecast for the four days was on and off rain but the practice day was all dry. Edo worked his way up in Honda Challenge 4 lap times to being the fastest non-local with only 1 second behind Bob Moser in the #36 CRX. The black patches on the race track meant for less traction than the normal surface as the sealer was only applied 10 days before the event. This way it was difficult to setup the car for the track. The handling tendency on the Edomoto Integra and most other cars was understeer.

The first day of qualifying brought a lot of rain including a heavy downpour during the practice session. The tires, wing setting and sway bar setting was changed for the wet weather. The qualifying session only brought a light rain. Edo placed a decent lap time of 2:11.272 for the qualifying race but locked up the brakes at the end of the back straight and went off into the gravel trap called China Beach. The lap time put Edo in the 2nd starting position for the qualifying race. Edik fell behind during the standing start into 3rd place but was able to easily get by Benny Pecqueur in the #80 CRX and Manny Coats in the #72 CRX for the lead. The rest of the qualifying race was spent holding onto 1st place with pressure from Jeremy Lucas in the #79 Integra with ABS. Edo finished in 1st place for the first qualifying race with Jeremy in 2nd and Manny in 3rd.

The second day of qualifying started out wet as well. The front brake pads were changed to ceramic street pads in order to allow for modulation on the wet track surface. Qualifying went very well as Edo put on a clinic in the rain and put the Integra on pole and the fastest car in Honda Challenge field including the higher horsepower H1 race cars. Edo’s lap time was 3 seconds faster than anybody else in the Honda Challenge group. The weather started to dry out before the qualifying race and therefore the dry setup was used for the session. Edo got the best start and in the field and took off. Moser was able to catch up to Edo from the back of the field and pass him braking into the turn called Madness. A couple of laps later Edo was able to get next to Moser braking into the Keyhole, but Moser cut across to the apex of the turn and Edo had to back out and tried to avoid any contact. The front bumper of Edo’s Integra still touched the rear bumper of Moser’s CRX and it sent him off track. Benny and Manny were able to get by after the incident. Benny finished 1st with Manny in 2nd and Edo in 3rd. After the qualifying race had ended, Edo was disqualified for the incident. This put Edo in the back of the grid for Sunday’s championship race.

For one of the PTD sessions, the Edomoto team removed the rear spoiler in order to reduce grip in the rear and help the car rotate. In the first lap of the qualifying race for PTD, Edo had an off in turn 1 and the front bumper ripped off the car. Edo kept on going and realized that the car handles much better without the rear spoiler and the front splitter. This was therefore the setup for the championship race.

Everything was set for the big race with partly cloudy skies and the track being dry. Edo used his drag racing experience to move up to 6th by the first turn. By the second turn Edo moved up another spot. At the end of the first lap, Edo passed Manny and Benny to move up to 2nd place behind Bob. In the second lap, Edo set the fastest lap of the race in H4 with a time of 1.43.212. Edo made a clean pass in the 3rd lap at the end of the back straight braking into Madness. Bob attempted to regain the lead but did not time his move correctly and ran into the rear bumper on the right side of Edo sending the Edomoto Integra into the wall. This crunched the left front side of the car and ended the race for Edo.

It was a very disappointing ending for the team as the car felt great in the first two laps and Edo felt that the lap times would have dropped as the race went on.

This will set the team back as funding is currently really low and attending the last 2 Southern California regional races seems very uncertain. The damage and budget will be assessed and the team will see if the our season has ended early or not.

Edo Motorsports would like to thank all our sponsors for the support throughout the season and for Nationals. Edomoto would also like to thank all the people that helped out as well. THANK YOU.

We would like to thank our sponsors for helping us get out to the race track.
http://edomoto.com/sponsors.html

The pictures of the race weekend are here: http://edomoto.com/images.html

Ready to leave Los Angeles on Saturday morning.