Strategic Win for Arsham at Sonoma Season Opener

Sonoma, CA – Round 1 of the United States Touirng Car Championship (USTCC) was a great win for Ali Arsham, driving the GoGoGear.com/ Konig Wheels Hyundai Genesis.

Arsham started the race in third position and was following his teammate Reza Arsham, driving the other GoGoGear.com/ Konig Wheels Hyundai Genesis. The pair were following the pole sitter in a BMW when the BMW engine exploded on lap two. Fortunately, no one was hurt but the team knew that they need to make sure that they stay in the lead and save fuel and tires. The two Hyundais managed to get better gas mileage than anyone else, it seemed and stayed in first and second until lap 46 when Reza pitted for his mandatory fuel stop. The pit stop took a total of 11 minutes and 24 seconds including the lap. Four laps later Ali was cleared to come in for his pit stop and he took a gamble and took on 10 gallons less fuel than Reza. That meant that he saved about 2 minutes which put him about 50 seconds ahead in first place after the pit stops.

“Reza had a slightly quicker pace in the race. I was more focused on saving fuel and tires and felt that it will help me at the latter part of the race. When I stopped, I told the crew to give me only five gallons of fuel hoping that it will help jump me to the lead but after I left the pit I thought I had made the wrong decision and I would not have enough fuel to finish the race. I knew Reza had plenty of fuel and plenty of speed and was coming to try to chase me down. Those last few laps were difficult as I was trying to go fast but also trying to save as much fuel as possible,” said Ali Arsham after the race.

GoGoGear.com Racing Team is a professional racing team that has been winning races since 1994 and has grown from one car to seven cars. The team has won dozens of championships since then in different classes and different cars. The team most recently won the driver’s championship in the United States Touring Car Championship in 2019 and placed second in the Team Championship. The team does more than just win races though. The team has built some awesome project cars, including ones for the SEMA show for major manufacturers including General Motors, Hyundai, Honda, Toyota and Kia.

USTCC is a professional road racing series comprising of late model sport compact sedans such as BMW 3 series, Mazdaspeed 3, Hyundai Genesis Coupe, Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche 911, Audi R8, Ford Mustang, Honda Civic and others. The cars use slightly modified engines and highly modified suspensions with aerodynamic ground effects and sticky Hankook slick race tires. The races can be seen exclusively on Final Drive TV available on NBC Sports on Xfinity cable, Dish Network, DirecTV and AT&T U-verse. For more information on USTCC, visit www.ustcc.com.