RealTime RSX Wins in Fourth Outing
Kleinubing nets first victory for new Acura at Mosport
May 17, 2003 ? Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada
Pierre Kleinubing drove the RealTime Racing Acura RSX into the winner?s circle in the car?s fourth race start today, taking the Mosport International Raceway round of the SCCA Speed World Challenge Touring Car series for his personal fourth time.
Kleinubing, the three-time series champion, raced the Acura RSX from third on the 42-car starting grid to the lead in only 10 laps, and won the race by a record :00.319 over Bill Auberlen?s BMW 325i. The finish reversed their order at Sebring in March.
The win snugs Kleinubing to within one point of Auberlen for the Driver?s Championship, and ties Acura with BMW for the Manufacturer?s Championship.
?High-speed corners like Mosport?s are exactly what we focused on in our recent testing. The crew developed a shock and spring package to enhance the Acura RSX?s high-speed cornering ability,? Kleinubing said. ?That improvement will work quite well next week at Lime Rock, and next month at Road Atlanta.?
RealTime Racing?s contenders for the Rookie of the Year award, Kevin McKee, of San Francisco, and Zac Mazzotta, of Santa Barbara, Calif., finished 25th and 39th respectively. McKee started 31st in one of last year?s championship-winning Acura Integras, and finished only 24 seconds behind Kleinubing. Mazzotta started 39th in his Acura RSX. He dropped out on the eighth lap when a transaxle component failed.
?Qualifying was astounding,? said RealTime Racing crew chief Jerome Zimmermann. ?The old record was exceeded by 15 of the 42 qualifiers. That shows an incredible amount of development since the last race, not only by RealTime, but by every other team we have to race. The top six qualifiers were Lexus, Mazda, Acura, BMW, BMW and Nissan.
?Nothing will be handed to anybody this year, and race wins will be a guaranteed source of pride, so today, we?re absolutely thrilled to have turned the RSX into a race winner in only four starts. That?s outstanding for a car so mechanically unrelated to the Integras we had raced since 1997.?
Kleinubing recorded a 1:33.462 (94.717mph) lap during qualifying on the 2.459-mile circuit. At the drop of the green flag, he needed only five laps to roll into second place behind pole-sitter Mike Fitzgerald?s Lexus IS 300, took away the lead in turn five on the 11th lap, and never looked back.
Following a full-course yellow from laps 21 to 25, with three laps of racing remaining, Kleinubing turned in his personal fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap, a 1:34.311 (93.864mph) effort, even dropping two wheels off the pavement to prevent an inside pass by Auberlen. The win is the 17th of his career.
RealTime Racing drivers, since 1993, have now won 47 World Challenge race victories on their way to eight Driver?s Championships, and eight Manufacturer?s titles for the Acura and Honda brands.
The Mosport race win will air on the Speed Channel, Saturday, May 24 at 4 p.m., with re-broadcasts June 1 at 8 p.m., June 2 at 1 a.m., and June 3 at 1 p.m. All times are EST.
The next race for the RealTime Racing Acuras is Monday, May 26 at Connecticut?s famed Lime Rock Park circuit, where Kleinubing is the defending race-winner.
The RealTime Racing Touring Cars are sponsored by the Acura Division of American Honda, Red Line Oil, Eibach Springs, BOSCH, Sparco, Hella, Gemini Technologies, Goodridge, Brembo, Hawk Performance, and Acura Genuine Parts.