USTCC Round 1 - Overall Pole in the WET

 Race Recap April 2026 - The Circuit at Buttonwillow 

April 24th Found Andy Chittum's Mad Man Motorsports team returning to USTCC competition at this time at The Circuit at Buttonwillow, a new track to many of the USTCC competitors.  Earlier in the week, the weather had been rough, but forecast was for a clear if chilly qualifying Saturday afternoon.  

As the teams prepared for qualifying after several practice sessions during the day, however, the afternoon grew darker and cloud cover intensified, and a few precipitation trails could be seen in the distance across the flat plain of California's central valley. 

Sure enough, as the USTCC competitors lined up on slick tires along with SpeedSF's endurance group for qualifying the first drops of water began to fall, and the track had a light sprinkle throughout qualifying to add excitement to all 26 driver's challenge of setting a fast lap.

Chittum immediately pushed hard to get heat into the sticky Hankook tires, and times began to fall in between laps where he negotiated lapped traffic.  While the track surface didn't puddle up too much, Chittum also found that his wipers had malfunctioned right at the start of qualifying, stuck at halfway position.  This left Chittum crouching down under the wipers to see the apex of right-handed turns, and straining to look over the wipers for left handed turns, but after a few laps he had the track dialed in. 

Initially, only 2:05ish laps were possible, but in the last lap of qualifying Chittum was able to fully send a few critical turns to eek out a 2:03.4 which was good for pole position not just faster than the USTCC SP class, but faster than all the USTCC cars, some with hundreds more horsepower, and it was good for pole position for SpeedSF's B Enduro class as well, and 4th overall in the entire group.  

Sunday morning 8am race time, started out as opposite day with the skies clear, but the track rather damp with standing water.  Chittum lined up at the front with high powered cars, and at the drop of the flag, fell back a few positions without the momentum of a full lap behind the MX5.

At the start, Reza Arsham driving the #30 Gogogear K24 Civic came motoring by, and in traffic got about a 5 second lead on the Mazda.  For the next 40 minutes, Chittum and Arsham would battle back and forth, gaining and losing ground, between 4 to 8 seconds the whole race, with Chittum finally finishing 2nd to the Civic on the fast Buttonwillow Circuit Course just about 5 seconds behind.  

Mad Man Motorsports will return to USTCC competition May 23-24 back at Sonoma Raceway where Chittum holds the lap record in the #99 Mazda MX5 in USTCC SP Class -- it promises to be one for the books!

USTCC Round 1 - 2.5 Hr Enduro Win

  Press Release May 11th - Andy Chittum - Mad Man Motorsport

The 2025 USTCC Season kicked off May 10th and 11th with a 2 1/2 hour endurance race around the iconic 2.52 mile course that twists through the hillsides and offers some of the most challenging corners on the schedule. 

Saturday found Chittum in the distinctive bright orange Mazda MX5 ready for warmup and qualifying.  Having practiced in March at the twisty track, the team was ready, however, the team was surprised to find some minor rubbing with the meaty Hankook F200 tires in an area of the MX5 body that had previously been repaired, and the team quickly jumped to action to clearance the area and have the car ready.  Given the issue, Chittum was limited to just 3 hot laps in qualifying lest a tire be compromised, but still managed pole position ahead of former series champion Tom Lepper driving GogoGear's powerful engine swapped EG Honda Civic. 

The beefy Hankooks needed a just little more room than the previous spec. 

Finishing the work and prep Sunday morning just before the grid closed, Chittum managed to slowly pull away from the Sportsman field, balancing speed from the grippy Hankook tires while keeping gas consumption low on the 2 liter Mazda engine.  A few yellow flags and other broken cars helped at the beginning of the race, but Chittum settled in for a full 40 lap stint aligning gas consumption perfectly with the end of the pit window toward the end of the race. 

The Mad Man Motorsport team gave Chittum a clockwork pitstop with 10 gallons of fuel, a quick check over the car, and discharged him back to the fray just 5 seconds over the mandated pit stop time.  

Once back on track Chittum found himself approximately 27 seconds ahead of second place and was able to cruise the last half of the race to victory.  

Victorious team - Chittum still squinting from a Champagne blast to the eye.  Will work on that technique next race.

Andy Chittum and the Mad Man Motorsport team will return with the Mazda MX5 at round 2 of the United States Touring Car series at Laguna Seca on May 24th.  Stay tuned to USTCC.com and Chittum.net for more hard charging race action!