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.