It’s not often that an all-new race team wins a championship in only its second year on the circuit, but that’s what Kia has just achieved with its Kinetic Motorsports prepared cars. Kia Racing clinched the driver’s and team championships in the Street Tuner (ST) class of the 2011 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
The No. 10 Infinity Audio Forte Koup driven by Nic Jonsson went into the final round of the race series at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this past weekend with a slim three-point margin over the championship’s second place finisher Ryan Eversley, driving a Honda Civic Si entered by Compass360 Racing. Eversley was the champion in both 2009 and 2010 so it was quite an achievement for Kia to beat the two-time champion in a close finish.
The two-car Kia Racing team won two of the ten races during the season and finished in the top 10 in all but one race. After winning the championship, Jonsson said “Second-year motorsports programs are not supposed to win championships, but Kia Motors and Kinetic Motorsports have been committed to being the best since we formed our partnership in late-2009. The Kia Forte Koups have been fantastic since getting off the truck at Daytona in January thanks to the tireless dedication of the team. We couldn’t be happier with the end result, and I have to thank Michael Galati whose skill and experience was invaluable in this championship run.”
For the record Mazda won the ST manufacturer’s championship with a healthy margin over Volkswagen and BMW, with Kia finishing fourth. In the main Grand Sport (GS) class the winning driver was Paul Dalla Lana driving a BMW M3, entered by Turner Motorsport. BMW also took the GS manufacturer’s championship, ahead of Ford.
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