Professional Touring Car Racing Made Affordable
Mid-Season Return Proves Chaotic for StudioVRM’s Maeda
Photos by Sam Draiss Media
Summit Point, WV – Team StudioVRM.Racing and owner-driver Roger Maeda made their return to the series on a chaotic weekend marked with intense heat, intermittent rainstorms, and unexpected engine quirks that will give the team plenty to do before the next round of the 2025 USTCC Season.
This race also marked the debut of the interim 2025-spec TC class car, which included a new concept for the aero and front suspension but with an internally stock Honda H22 engine as the team waits for its new Bad Guys prime motor to be completed and assembled.
Qualifying
Fast lap: 1:28.572
Extremely high temperatures, issues for several USTCC TC-class competitors, and a late-session crash between two GT cars meant that most teams were unable to show their pace in a shortened qualifying session. Maeda’s early banker lap, despite being several seconds off their usual pace, proved to be enough to secure 1st on the grid of the TC-class cars and 2nd of the USTCC field behind Anthony Piselli’s Subaru Impreza.
Saturday Heat Race
The Saturday Heat Race brought a shocking revelation as the team quickly realized that the interim 2025 power unit had significantly less low rpm and mid-range power compared to their 2024 engine. Maeda found himself losing time at every corner exit and fought hard to claw back a 10 mph deficit to his closest competitors at the end of Summit Point Raceway’s long main straight.
Roger Maeda spent the Heat Race pursuing Andrew Conner in the ST-class On Q Racing BMW 325i, which was suffering from driveline issues of its own in the form of a failing Giubo flex disc. Maeda wrangled the recalcitrant Prelude to a distant second in TC behind Patryk Tararuj’s Subaru BRZ.
Sunday Feature Race
Sunday’s Feature Race started with yet another shuffled grid, as fast laps from the heat raced put Tararuj ahead of Maeda on the starting grid, while Conner withdrew the On Q Racing BMW with a confirmed Giubo flex disc failure. The Feature Race would bring a chaotic dichotomy of fortunes, as the Prelude’s new front suspension and aero provided confidence and grip that Maeda was unable to take advantage of due to the noticeable lack of power at corner exits.
When an intermittent Throttle Position Sensor problem surfaced at the halfway mark of the race, Maeda decided to retire the car to prevent damage to the powertrain.
Roger Maeda – Driver – #22 StudioVRM.Racing Honda Prelude Si VTEC
Feature Race: 3rd in Touring Car
Fastest Lap: 1:29.015
“This was a strange one. We knew our interim power unit would be down on power, but we didn’t expect there to be such a big deficit at the exit of high-speed corners. We have some ideas on how to address this, but it’s going to take some time.
The silver lining is that Summit Point has always been our worst track due to the longer gearing of the #22 Honda Prelude, and that we can expect much better performance at the higher speed tracks that will feature at later rounds. We’ll work on minimizing the power deficit and making the most of the improvements from our new chassis and aero setup for the remaining rounds.”
Z. Jefferson – Race Engineer – StudioVRM.Racing
“It was a full weekend for our first appearance this season. I’m glad we were able to make it on track for all the sessions, even with the mixed conditions. We uncovered a solid lead for needed adjustments, so we are looking forward to the next race weekend.”
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StudioVRM.Racing would like to thank its partners, Blue Leaf Technologies and Bad Guys Worldwide for their unwavering support and dedication as the team returns to USTCC.
