Ali Arsham Scores his First Podium for the GoGoGear.com/Konig Wheels Hyundai Genesis Coupe
Willows, Calif., May 22, 2012 – Ali Arsham, driving the GoGoGear.com/Konig Wheels Hyundai Genesis Coupe, finished in third place in round two of the Nitto Tires United States Touring Car Championship (USTCC) at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, California. The team fought hard against many other manufacturers including Volvo, Mazda, Dodge, Honda, Acura, Mitsubishi and BMW using crew mostly comprised of students and instructors from Universal Technical Institute, a leading training school for future automotive technicians.
The race started off in a normal fashion with Robert Thorne’s K-PAX Volvo C30 starting from pole position and assuming the lead. A fight soon began between the Volvo of Thorne and the TNI Racing Mazdaspeed 3 of Felipe Cabezas. Cabezas was glued to the yellow Volvo and would not let Thorne get away. The two started to pull away from everyone else and nearly collided on the first lap in Turn 6. Behind the pair, Arsham’s Hyundai was running on a completely different strategy. Things really got interesting as soon as the fuel stops started to come into play.
After about 90 minutes of racing the battle for the final podium spot started to heat up. Arsham’s Hyundai was running in third place in the latter part of the race. “My strategist was on the radio telling me that Cabezas was on the same lap as me and was gaining on me quickly. He did the math and said that I need to speed up considerably or I will get passed,” commented Arsham after the race.
The GoGoGear.com team’s strategy was bold and risky from the beginning. They decided to try and complete the race without stopping for fuel. “Hyundais are known for their excellent reliability and fuel economy. We knew that these were the strengths of our Del City.net Genesis Coupe and knew that we needed to use those strengths to gain an advantage,” added Arsham.
On lap 39, the Mazda caught up and passed Arsham and it looked like the Mazda was headed to the podium. But five laps later, the Mazda was forced to pit. The turbocharged engine was thirsty and needed more fuel while the 3.8-liter V6 engine in the Hyunai was providing much better fuel economy. The TNI Racing Team crew hurried and did a super quick pit stop lap of 3:03, the fastest pit stop of the day to try to send Cabezas in front of Arsham. But as the car was still in the pits, Arsham roared by the pits and reclaimed third place. Then both teams started to work out the math to figure out the gap. With only five laps left in the race, Arsham’s crew radioed him to step it up. They knew that third place was theirs to lose. Arsham started to click his personal best laps in the last five laps of the race trying to stop Cabezas from catching him. The TNI Racing crew also knew what was going on and were telling Cabezas that he needs to step it up. While on the last lap, Cabezas was behind the winner but one lap down and the checkered flag was shown. Cabezas was done but Arsham who still had not received the checkered flag had one more lap to finish.
Everything was looking good but suddenly at Turn 9, the Hyundai slowed down out of fuel. “I knew it was out of gas because we have done considerable testing and know exactly what the car will and will not do. I knew that if I can get to Turn 14, I would be in good shape because it is a right hand turn and the fuel pick up is on the left side. Sure enough, just when it looked like the car was done, it came back to life,” said a very happy Arsham. The Hyundai crossed the finish line and then stopped on the side of the track, just after the pit exit in third place. “We used Hyundai’s fuel economy to our advantage to score a podium finish. This was our first podium finish in our Hyundai. Being able to do it with the help of the Universal Technical Institute students and instructors, is a real bonus,“ added Arsham.
The GoGoGear.com Racing team will be racing their Hyundai Genesis Coupe at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA on June 16-17, 2012 joining the National Auto Sport Association for their big summer racing festival. For more information visit www.gogogear.com or www.ustcc.com
