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 2 - Laguna Seca Comeback to Victory

 Press Release May 24th - Andy Chittum - Mad Man Motorsport

Chittum Wins Round 2 at Laguna Seca with astounding comeback victory 

May 23rd and 24th the United States Touring Car Championship was back in action a mere two weeks after the 2.5 hour endurance race at Sonoma Raceway.  Mad Man Motorsport was riding high from an authoritative victory, but the endurance race relied on a combination of teamwork and car management, while a sprint race back at Weathertech Laguna Seca would be pure speed and nothing else, beginning with the signature touring car standing start on the front straight of the challenging 2.238 mile course.  

Qualifying saw colder than usual temperatures, with sea air keeping the track cool and relatively slippery, challenging the drivers to keep get their cars up to temperature and set down a fast lap.  Chittum quickly got the big Hankook tires up to temperature and, clearing some space in the field, put down two quick laps both right at a 1:43, quick times for the 2 liter Mazda MX5.  Pulling in for the team to check tire temperatures and pressures, the team looked to have Pole Position in hand, so pulled in to the pits to see if anyone else in the USTCC Sportsman class could challenge.  

Unfortunately, right about that time, one of the TC class cars had an incident in the famous corkscrew turn, and clearing the wreck took the rest of qualifying time, bringing the session to a close early.

Next morning race day proved to be even more challenging weather wise with a fog front rolling in to the ocean-adjacent track, and while the track wasn't exactly wet during the busy race schedule, it remained rather slippery in spite of the repaving within the last year.  

18 cars lined up to take the green flag, with Chittum on pole position for Sportsman class, with Tom Lepper also on the front row in GogoGear.com's legitimately fast K24 fortified EG civic.  This proved to be quite the challenge as Lepper and Chittum left the line neck and neck, but with an additional 1500rpms and 400ccs of torque, he pulled away as both cars banged 3rd gear, and quickly gained 10 lengths on the MX5 down into the Andretti hairpin, passing some of the TC cars.  

Chittum, for his part took advantage of the superior braking of the MX5 and threw the little car well up the inside of the hairpin, gaining much of the advantage back.  The two cars battled, however, once Chittum was able to get more momentum going, he was able to double under Lepper entering turn 3, then absolutely send the car into T4, running uncontested into T5, and negating the Honda's power advantage.  From that point, Chittum was able to pull out a gap, put some out of class cars between them, and drive it home to victory.  

USTCC will return to Sonoma Raceway June 21-22 for Round 3, where once again, a standing start and intense wheel to wheel racing will decide the winner.