Touring car top dogs RealTime Racing gear up to make a run at a decidedly less grippy sport: drifting. We hear from the team--including hotshoe phenom Pierre Kleinubing--about its supercharged S2K hope and prospects for the '07 season.
Love it or hate it, there's little question that drifting has captured the attention of many, from average enthusiasts to media, on up to racing's elite (recall the NASCAR/Mopar/D1 affair last year). It's the sport du jour for the import car crowd, and all that can really be argued is the duration of its trendiness. The more it is embraced by fans and the motorsport community at large, the more likely it will find a permanent place in the landscape.
Among the ranks of drift converts to emerge from the Honda world is the team from RealTime Racing. Many will recognize RTR as one of the most successful names in American touring cars, securing no less than 10 SCCA SPEED World Challenge titles in 20 seasons of competition. What fewer know, though, is the crew's roots in sliding. Indeed, their tenure competing in SCCA began with ice and rally racing in Civics, CRXs, and GSRs.
Given RTR's long history and deep relationship with the big H, it was almost a forgone conclusion the team would end up in an S2000 for its detour into drifting. The AP2 chassis has been lightened, seam welded, and reinforced, and its 2.2L mill receives a healthy dose of boost thanks to a Vortech supercharger, said to make horsepower somewhere in the mid-400s. With the machine, RealTime hopes to continue its foray into pro drift, a journey that began with baby steps in Formula D last season.
At the wheel of the S2K will be one of RTR's surest pilots, Pierre Kleinubing. PK proved his skills to the touring car world by sealing four World Challenge championships since he came to the series in '97, including back-to-back titles in '00 and '01. We're guessing that sliding at high speeds in tandem with another vehicle will provide an entirely new set of challenges for the Brazilian, though. Recently we spoke to Kleinubing and team manager Nathan Bonneau to get a sense of where this sideways ride was going.
Pierre Kleinubing, driver Honda Tuning: What attracted you to drifting?PK: I like being able to go out onto the racetrack and just thrash on a car, tear through tires, and not have to care about the equipment or anything like that. With the World Challenge car, everything is carefully monitored and logged, and we can't push things too hard, especially in testing. Drifting has a very different mentality.
HT: How involved were you in building and setting up the car?PK: I have a bunch of friends in the sport. I've known Tanner [Foust], Sam [Hubinette], and Rich [Rutherford] for a while now, and was able to get a bunch of information from them. I drove the A'PEXi RX-7 drift car around three years ago at some dealer demos with Bridgestone and they had an idea of what to do and where to go with it. I also drove for A'PEXi a little bit [in '06] when RealTime couldn't make it out, mainly at Sonoma and Irwindale. I'm good friends with all the guys at A'PEXi. They've helped teach me how to setup the drift car and what to watch for.
HT: How have your experiences been so far?PK: I really like it. We get better every time out. We've learned a bunch about the sport and all the different aspects, like car setup, driving style, and all that, and overall it's pretty cool. I hope we can do it again next year, what with our busy schedule and the licensing situation. Right now, Formula D is contemplating giving me a license or not. If that doesn't happen, then I might do a few D1 events with A'PEXi, depending on time.
HT: How hard was it to bounce back and forth between drifting and driving for the SPEED World Challenge?PK: The hardest thing is the schedule. This year will be even harder because I'll be driving a car in Grand-Am Cup as well. From March to the end of November, I'll be at one racetrack or another every weekend. I haven't driven Grand-Am in almost 10 years, so I'm excited to get back into it. RealTime has been my gig for the past 10 years, but [driving Grand-Am] is just going to make me that much busier.
HT: What are your goals with the RealTime team for the season?PK: Our goal for World Challenge is to win it again. The series is pretty competitive, and we've been working hard testing the car. We tested before Christmas, took a little break for the holidays, and then we tested in January and February as well to get everything fine-tuned. We have a great team. Hopefully we'll accomplish our goals again. For drifting, we're just looking to go out and have fun. We learn new things every time we go out, and it's nice because there's no pressure on us.
Nathan Bonneau, team managerHT: Who brought up drifting to the RealTime team? How did the idea develop into building a car?NB: Drifting first came into the picture [for us] around '04 or so. There was a drifting exhibition on the road course at one of the touring car events at Road Atlanta, and we had a car there that we were competing with. Our team watched the demo and thought that [it] looked cool. Since we do all the Bridgestone ride-and-drives, Bridgestone was there showing off one of its new tires with the A'PEXi RX-7. They brought a Japanese driver and Pierre [Kleinubing] and Peter Cunningham both rode along in it and drove it a little, and Pierre was hooked. We waited to see if the drifting fad was going to come and go, so we sat back for a little bit to see how things would play out..
...
>>next page