A reoccurrence…

San Ramon, CA – The #53 VW Jetta 2.0 GLI started off the weekend well. Just half a second of the leader’s times on Saturday. However, the weekend had some unexpected turns in store for the driver Reto Baumann.

Leading up to this race weekend, our partner 034Motorsport delivered a fantastic new tune for the car. Our predictive lap times, in heavy traffic, were low 57’s at Thunderhill which are very respectable times. We knew we would even be faster than the predictive times, should we get some clean and open laps without traffic. Unfortunately, we ran the car a little bit too low on fuel and ran out of fuel just as we parked it in the pits. The car didn’t like that very much and threw some codes complaining.

Once that was all fixed, the car somehow still ran a bit rough. A test drive brought another mechanical issue to light, that we had previously encountered and fixed… How it was possible for this to reoccur is what we are looking into. The crew went feverishly to work on getting the car ready, but it wasn’t to be and unfortunately Reto Baumann wasn’t even able to take the green flag.

For sure not the start into the season that we were looking for. The only consolidation for this weekend is, that this was the only issue we faced. All other cars started and even brought back a win in their class. What a weekend for the team!


Reto Baumann reviews his Round ONE performance:
“Not much to say. Unlucky is the word that comes to mind. Driving well on Saturday, knowing how much pace there was in the car, with the track getting faster and faster on Sunday, was hard to swallow watching the other cars run and improving their times. I stayed positive throughout that we would be able to get the issue sorted and, even if I would have to start further back, had a good chance to still make the podium and start off the season with some good points score. But it wasn’t to be. It hurts that we are now already under pressure, not having scored a single point this race…”


About Red Panther Motorsport (RPM)
A leading California based professional racing team. RPM competes in the Hankook Tires United States Touring Car Championship (USTCC) race series and has won multiple class Championships. For more information, please see and visit www.RedPantherMotorsport.com and like us on our social media channels