Kleinubing to drive Bridgestone-shod Honda S2000

May 10, 2006 – Saukville, Wisconsin

RealTime Racing, the winningest team in the history of SCCA SPEED World Challenge competition, has announced its entry in yet another form of motorsport—professional drifting. Three-time SPEED Touring Car champion Pierre Kleinubing has been slated to drive the RealTime Drift entry, a Honda S2000 on Bridgestone Potenza™ RE-01R™ tires. Kleinubing will commence his drifting career on May 12-13 at Road Atlanta, Round 2 of this year’s Formula D Championship, the first of two events scheduled for the RealTime Drift effort in 2006.

While this is RealTime’s first event in the sport of drifting, it is not the first time one of the team’s drivers has ever intentionally gone sideways at a high rate of speed. Long before RealTime won its nine SCCA World Challenge road racing titles, it won the 1993 SCCA PRO Rally Production Championship and three International Ice Racing Association Championships in 1987, ’89 and ’90. Understandably, deliberately sliding or ‘drifting’ an automobile on a dry paved road is a good bit different from doing it on a gravel road or a frozen lake, but Kleinubing and the rest of the team are thrilled about the new challenge.

The SCCA Pro Racing-sanctioned ‘Need for Speed’ Formula D Championship is now in its third year of existence, meeting the demand for professionally-organized drifting events. The large number of quality entries in the 2006 series represents a variety of automobile and tire manufacturers.

The selection of vehicle brand for the RealTime Drift program was easy. The team has been racing Hondas and Acuras in various types of the sport since 1987, so the Honda S2000 Roadster was the obvious choice. This one-of-a-kind vehicle exemplifies Honda’s 40-year success story in racing. By the time the RealTime engineers and mechanics were finished designing and building their new hot rod, they were pleased with what they had created—complete with a Vortech-supercharged 400+ horsepower 2.2 liter powerplant.

When it came to the crucial part of the car that touches the road, there was only one option: Bridgestone. RealTime has been working with Bridgestone Firestone since 1993, assisting them with the implementation of driving events including tire introductions, dealer sales training seminars and even teen driving classes through the ‘Driver’s Edge’ program. With the selection of the Potenza RE-01R tires, RealTime has put performance first.

“We are excited to be a part of the 2006 Formula D season, and to feature Bridgestone tires on RealTime’s new Honda S2000,” said Phil Pacsi, executive director, consumer tire marketing, Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC. “When you combine the performance of our ‘extreme’ Potenza RE-01R tires with Pierre’s seasoned racing experience, you have a solid foundation for success in this prestigious series.”

RealTime program manager Nathan Bonneau had this to add, “This S2000 drift car is an exciting new project—something very different from our Touring Car effort, so the team is chomping at the bit to launch this rocket in Atlanta to see what it’ll do.

“With limited testing and experience in the art of drifting, we’re expecting to learn a lot at our first event. We’re hoping that the knowledge we gain will allow us to improve quickly. With a driver like Pierre and the combination of Bridgestone, Honda and the RealTime crew, we have all the ingredients needed to drift our way to the front!”

The RealTime Drift team is supported by American Honda Motor Co., Inc., Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC, Red Line Oil, Eibach Springs, Vortech Superchargers, Brembo, Sparco, Total Auto Body, Enkei, Valley Graphix, PACT and A-YES.

Last edited by RyanDL on May 11, 2006 10:37