Andrie Hartanto Finishes the 2008 Season With His Third Victory In A Row But Tom Lepper Won His Third Championship With Fourth Place Finish

Sonoma, CA-November 9, 2009 --Andrie Hartanto, driving the Red Zone Performance/CT Engineering Acura TSX won his third race in a row in a race that ended up being only four laps long at the Nitto Tires United States Touring Car Championship at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. Hartanto started from second position and managed to pass the BTM Motorworks / LeMans Karting BMW 328ti of Andy Chittum on lap 2. Chittum dropped to third position but managed to fight back and was gaining on Hartanto when a huge accident caused the race to be stopped. Chittum said afterwards, "I had set up my car to be good for the end of the race and with such a short race, the car was just starting to come to life when we had to stop racing." Curt Simmons finished a strong season with a third place finish in the Stevens Creek Dodge SRT-4.

Tom Lepper finished in fourth place which was good enough to get him his third USTCC Driver Championship. Lepper also won the title in 2003 and 2004 and becomes the only three time champion. Dave Brown is the only other driver to have won the Driver Championship more than once and he was in this race, finishing in sixth position. His recent appearances have lead to rumors that Brown might make a come back to try to match Lepper's record of three Driver Championships. Lepper won the titles in 2003 and 2004 in a Honda Accord. In 2008 he was partnered with Rod Rojas and the team won driving a Chevrolet Cobalt SS, an Acura RSX and an Acura TSX.

Finishing in seventh position was Jerry Bradbury who was the Dupli Color Top Rookie of the race. Bradbury was involved in a heavy battle with Michael McColligan for the Rookie of the Year honors. McColligan had to finish three positions ahead of Bradbury to win the title but ended up finishing right behind in eighth. McColligan may find consolation in knowing his Mazdatrix / Racing Beat RX8 set a faster lap time than Bradbury.

Dave Brown won the Molecule Keep It Clean Move of the Race award for working his way up to sixth from 13th in four laps.

Andrie Hartanto won the Go Pro award for winning the race and earned a Go Pro Hero wearable digital sports camera