After a highly successful season opener to the 2010 Redline Time Attack Series Season, Berk Technology was looking towards returning to the top of the podium in back to back wins. This time they headed out to the desert to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Sin City, Nevada. But like after every successful weekend of racing, the next event doesn’t always go as planned. Berk Technology fought off gremlins with their BMW 135i to an impressive second place finish, just a little less than one second behind top spot.
The weekend started off with an oil cooler leak that required some quick fixin’ and the remainder of the practice sessions were dedicated to dialing in the suspension and aero on the Berk Technology 135i. With every track being so different and the weather conditions out in Las Vegas, Berk Technology analyzed all the data gathered through three sessions in order to get it ready for qualifying.
When Sunday rolled around, the weather was great and the team was ready to back up their win. They slapped on a fresh set of Hankook RS-3 tires and first session would yield a blistering 1:48.981, but the top cars were sent off to verify their legality. Unfortunately for Berk Technology, the BMW 135i’s time would be tossed out due to the threads on the APR Performance splitter tension rod bolts being 1/16″ below the minimum ride height. Needless to say the team was disappointed, but rules are rules – and off they went to grind down the bolts so it wouldn’t happen again.
Driver Mike Bonanni once again took the wheel for the second session, but unfortunately Bonanni could not better his previous time and ended up with a 1:49.111 which stood as the official time for Berk Technology’s 135i. Track conditions weren’t entirely ideal with rocks having been kicked up all over the track. Unfortunately by the time the track was cleaned up, the Street RWD class had already run and there was not enough time to re-run. Regardless, everyone was on the same playing field with the same conditions in Street RWD so Berk Technology would pleased with the second place effort behind Jeff Tyler and the HP Autowerks BMW 335i which is also powered by Berk Technology’s catless downpipes.
Overall the weekend didn’t go exactly as planned, especially since Berk Technology worked hard in preparing the car to run a five lap super session for extra points. After round one, Berk Technology worked quickly to have a cage installed to pass tech for the Las Vegas event but unfortunately the super session was canceled due to the delays from cleaning up the track. Berk Technology is looking forward to campaigning their BMW 135i in the next super session to show off what it can do against the competition.
Although it was a weekend full of ups and downs, the Berk Technology crew gave it 100% and are very happy with another podium finish. Although the Berk Technology 135i barely missed 1st place, it was a full five seconds ahead of 3rd place and ran a time that beat out all but two of the Modified RWD class cars as well, quite a feat for a Street Tire class car! Look for Berk Technology back on top of the podium at the next round held at Auto Club Speedway at the end of May!