Charlie Frank Scores Maiden Sportsman Class Victory in a Furious Opening
Round of the USTCC Series in Las Vegas

The 2023 USTCC season began in fine style with a photo finish at the Las Vegas Motor

Speedway for The Speed Traveler GoGo Gear Honda S2000, driven by Charlie Frank

and prepared by crew chief Raymond Brenneman.

The Honda S2000 was an off-season acquisition for The Speed Traveler and crew chief

Brenneman spent countless hours going through the slick new race car for the season

opener. Those efforts where quickly realized. Charlie Frank showed immediate pace

and clocked a time in qualifying to start from pole position.

At the drop of the green flag for round one of the 2023 USTCC season, the Honda

S2000 struggled with traction and lost two positions. But the battle was now on between

Sportsman competitor and teammate Chris Evertsen in The Speed Traveler BMW and

veteran driver Ben Penn in the Gogo Gear Honda Civic. For three laps the three

Sportsman Class competitors swapped places in a furious battle. Charlie Frank was

able to work his way to the front by lap four. Later in the race Ben Penn’s Honda

developed a problem and ultimately retired while Chris Evertsen’s BMW started running

a little hot in the Las Vegas desert circuit. With two laps to go, Charlie Frank’s S2000

started developing a gear box problem with the car sticking in 5 th gear. This enabled

Chris Evertsen, who was now running qualifying-type laps, to claw his way back to

within a few car lengths at the finish. It was an incredibly close finish to what looks like a

very hotly contested season in the USTCC’s Sportsman Class.