Buffomante V. von Kluge: Fast Five

August 31, 2010

After hundreds of race laps on seven different tracks across the country, the 2010 Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Championship is incredibly close. Too close to call, in fact, as championship contenders Tony Buffomante and Jason von Kluge are tied with 443 points apiece with just two races to go.

Before the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge race at the Autobahn Country Club outside of Chicago, two of the fastest moving guys in Mustang Challenge actually stopped—but just for a minute—to talk about the 2010 season to date, and what they are thinking heading into the series and championship finale at Miller Motorsports Park on September 10-12.

There is a lot on the line ahead of the championship-closing season finale double header event….

Beyond the historical significance of taking the final Mustang Challenge Championship, the winner will enjoy a championship package that includes the opportunity to race on the next rung of the ladder with a Series-supported opportunity to race a Mustang in the 2011 season-opening race of the 2011 Continental Sports Car Challenge in support of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. 

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Racer Profile: Dan Aweida—Some Guys Just Want to Have Fun

August 18, 2010

A competitor can have many faces.  For some, it is a face of grit, focus and resolve.  For others, it’s a hearty laugh, a bit of trash talk and the pure joy of going mano-a-mano.  Ford Racing Mustang Challenge stalwart, Dan Aweida, is firmly among the latter.  For the Boulder, Colorado resident, racing, particularly in the Mustang Challenge, is simply about the race, as in the thrill of competition. 

A quick learner, Aweida rates himself a capable racer who on any given day can challenge for podiums.  Even though he didn’t grow up behind the wheel of a kart, that’s in no way a deterrent to showing up on the start line.  What would be a deterrent is the day it all stops being fun.  So the Mustang Challenge provides the ideal home for Aweida.  Balanced competition and enduring camaraderie are hallmarks of the series.

“I used to get really stressed out about my performance and car’s performance.  But, I’ve learned over the past couple of seasons that going with the flow is more fun.  Instead of agonizing about the car’s grip and how to improve it, I’ve learned to drive the problem, to make it an advantage.  So if the car is loose, let’s learn how to be as fast as possible with a loose car and turn it into an advantage,” says Aweida.

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Golinello Makes World Challenge Debut at Mid-Ohio; Top Tens in Double Header

August 13, 2010

LEXINGTON, Ohio—Richard Golinello made his SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge debut at Mid-Ohio last weekend, driving his No. 55 R&C Motorsports Ford Mustang to finishes of sixth and seventh in the GTS class during the double header.

Golinello joined five other Ford Racing Mustang Challenge competitors for the weekend. Since the announcement that the Mustang series will not return in 2011, both competitors and series officials have been working to incorporate the cars into World Challenge.

The Mustangs joined the GTS class, but they were also racing for Mustang honors.  Golinello’s sixth-place finish in Saturday’s race netted him third place among Mustang entrants. In Sunday’s race, Golinello finished seventh in GTS and fourth in the Mustang class.

“The car is running really well and the handling was great,” says Golinello. “We really saw strides now that the suspension problems we discovered at the last round have been sorted out.”

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Tony Buffomante Captures Third Win of the Season

August 12, 2010

For most racers, a second place finish and a fourth place finish at the previous race would be considered a successful outing.  Not so for Ford Racing Mustang Challenge series points     co-leader, Tony Buffomante.  For Tony, that performance only served to motivate him even further to attack the next race – at Autobahn Country Club.  From the moment he arrived at Autobahn, Tony was focused on dominating the event, and returning to the top step of the podium for the third time this season.  Being less than an hour away from Tony’s hometown of Naperville, IL, of all the tracks visited by the Mustang Challenge series, this could be considered Tony’s home track, which made for extra motivation with many friends and family in attendance. 

In the first practice, Tony set the fastest time and repeated this performance in the second practice session, breaking the existing track record by 0.3 seconds.  While knowing there was room for improvement in his car’s setup, the team modified suspension settings to adapt to the changing track, and Tony drove the #34 Capaldi Racing FR500S to his fourth pole position of the season.

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