HART Racing debuts their new Honda Accord in the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at VIR.  After a couple years running the competitive Honda Civic Si in Grand-AM competition, the Marysville Ohio based team wanted to field a car their company builds right at home. The street version Accord is manufactured by the Honda Marysville Plant which is also the home base for HART. “We felt it would be a rewarding effort for all our employees to see the product they build everyday out on the race track” says John Schmitt, a senior member and driver on the team.



Turning this sporty coupe into a car ready for the track took some effort from the team but also a lot of help from our partners.  One major key to any race car is handling and with the help from H&R Springs we were able to have the tuning parts available to dial in the car for VIR’s famous high speed esses.  “Right out of the box the car was competitive and with further testing I feel the chance for a podium is not far away” says Chad Gilsinger, a senior member and driver for HART.



Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge: Bosch Engineering 200 recap for the new Honda Accord
After a solid practice/test session the newly build Accord had no major issues after its first time on track. Qualifying traffic put the car further back on the grid than expected (22nd) but great strategy and driving talent helped move the Accord up through the field and solidly in the top ten.  A top five finish for its maiden voyage was looking possible until about 15 minutes left in the race the points leading VW GTi had a brake line failure at the end of the back straight and ran right into the back of the Accord sending Gilsinger off track and into the tire wall.  Fortunately the Accord is built like a tank and was able to get back on track to finish its first race.  “The finish was not exactly what we hoped for but at least we know we have a car that’s competitive” says Eric Ross, HART’s Crew Chief for the event.  HART just needs a little luck to go with their efforts and they should have a winning combination.

The next outing planned for the new Accord will be the Continental Tire 150 at the Glen June 2-4 followed by the Road America event June 23-25.

H&R Special Springs is a German-based suspension company that has been built on a foundation of superior quality, true performance and the best customer service. H&R has established a proven heritage of unsurpassed industry respect and customer confidence, all of which gives H&R the definitive edge in suspension tuning and design. All H&R products are crafted in Germany and exceed ISO 9001 quality assurance standards. H&R maintains a North American facility located in Bellingham, Washington, where additional testing and research are conducted. For more information, visit www.hrsprings.com and www.trakplus.com or call (888) 827-8881.