Congrats to Brandon Kraus for taking the win this weekend in US Touring Car Championship at Thunderhill. A correction to what was described below by USTCC, Kraus, with one lap to go received a meatball flag for noise caution which required him to come in for a stop and go penalty. From there, it was a quarter mile drag race to the finish for the 1st place win. Here's an excerpt from USTCC.com about his win.
Willows, CA. April 17, 2011 - Brandon Kraus of Brentwood, CA started off the 2011 Nitto Tires United States Touring Car Championship (USTCC) season with a win as a large field gathered at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, CA on April 16-17, 2011. Kraus, driving the DW Pumps, Roger Kraus Racing Honda Prelude had a fantastic race at his first USTCC race ever. Kraus finished ahead of Felipe Cebezas who was driving the TNI Racing Mazdaspeed 3. Finishing third was Pete Bovenberg in the MBO Motor Sports Honda Civic. But Kraus’ almost lost the victory and just made it across the finish line in first place by a hair.
Kraus started the weekend poorly with electrical problems. Twice the car had to be towed back to the paddock which meant he had very little time to tune the Honda. With a scheduled one hour race, the odds were against Kraus keeping the car going for the entire race. With help from his biggest rivals, the MBO Motor Sports team, Kraus fixed the problems and was confident at the start of the race charging from the back of the pack to the front and leading the pack until with one lap to go, a black flag for a pass under yellow meant he had to come in for a stop and go penalty. Kraus enjoyed a healthy margin which evaporated as soon as he pitted and continued. From there it was a drag race to the finish line which was about one quarter of a mile away between the Honda of Kraus and the Mazdaspeed of Cabezas. Kraus won by 1.3 seconds.
