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Round 4-5 of the 2010 World Challenge Season proved to be eventful. The Synapse Racing Team brought 2 cars across the boarder to tackle the high speed course of Mosport International. Both rookie drivers, Brett Sandberg of Paramus NJ. and Shea Holbrook of Orlando, FL. had never driven Mosport and quickly found out how challenging it was.

The team hit the track on Friday Morning with the Sun in our eyes ready to go to work. The 1st session went well; both drivers eased their way around Mosport. The second session the speeds came up and the drivers were running close together, until Shea came around the last corner at the end of the session a little wide and ended spinning hitting the pit wall at over 60 mph. This shunt proved to be fatal after pulling and hammering away on the car for 12 hours we decided the frame was to badly damaged to fix at the track.

Saturday, time to qualify the #28 Whitehall Stables Acura TSX, Brett was still struggling to come to grasps with the track, we made some drastic setup changes overnight to make the car a bit more stable on the downhill off camber corners, unfortunately it wasn�t quite enough for on the second lap, our hot lap we had a spin in turn 5 severely flat spotting the tires, bending the front control arm and ending our session quickly.

After a tough Friday test and now a damaged second car we only had 1.5 hours to get ready for Round 4 of the WC season. Our crew, Ryan Lapage, Tom Hansen, Mike Kern, and Morgan Spurgas frantically rushed to get the front alignment straight and the rear quarter hammered out. We made the grid just in time and ready for the start. With the car not in 100% shape for the race, our goal was to score valuable championship points and finish the race so we could really push on Sunday for round 5. Brett drove a smart race finishing 7th giving us a good shot for Sunday�s race.

Sunday came and we were ready to bring the fight to the VWs and Scions. With a great start and great pace we found ourselves in 5th position for most of the race, staying ahead of a very fast DG-Spec Scion, a few VW GTIs, mazdas RX8 etc. With only 4 laps to go we had contact with a GT car damaging the car once again and our driver�s spirits. We were able to re-group, stay in front of a few cars and finish with another 7th place.

Overall it was a tough weekend, but a weekend that moved us up in the overall standings into 3rd place for the championship. We are working hard to get both cars ready for round 6 at Watkins Glen July 4th weekend and looking for a podium finish at the high speed 3.4 mile course.

Synapse Racing kicks of the 2010 World-Challenge season with a 4th place Finish in St. Petersburg. The 2004 Acura TSX driven by the talented rookie driver Brett Sandberg made an outstanding showing this weekend.
The team scrambled to repair the car after damaging 4th gear during some last minute testing the weekend prior at Carolina Motorsports Park.
The TSX ran very strong during the practice sessions on Friday as Sandberg quickly came up to speed on the tricky street course in St. Pete. Fridays qualifying session put the TSX in the number 7 spot for Saturdays and Sundays race.

Some last minute fuel adjustments to compensate for the sticky Florida air gained the power needed to put the TSX in the running for Saturdays race.
Sandberg managed an impressive start and held a position in the front of the pack. Unfortunately a spin initiated from an overtaking Porsche GT car put the TSX to the back of the pack at about mid race.
Sandberg managed to fight his way forward to a 4th place finish putting the Synapse team just shy of a podium debut.

Sundays morning the radar showed a large storm moving across the Gulf. Luckily the entire race was on dry pavement as the weather quickly moved in to rain out the IRL race in the afternoon.
After a slower start and major wheel spin off the line the Synapse TSX settled mid pack. Ten laps into the race Sandberg began closing the gap on the 2 TRD supercharged Scions in front of him.
An exciting 3 car battled ensued. In the heat of battle the TSX spun and managed to make light contact with the concrete wall.
The car was in good shape to continue but the Synapse team had to pit the car to secure a rear door that sprung open on impact.
This put the TSX a lap down in the race. The impact also bent a front tie rod in the front end causing major alignment problems.
The car managed to hold its position and finish 7th putting the team in 6th place thus far in the season.

Overall the team had an awesome weekend. They eagerly await to return to the World-Challenge circuit in Mosport for a second double header May-21-23.

Follow our 2010 World Challenge Touring Car season at www.synapseracing.com! Check out our new Motorsports Logo, news, pictures, and in-car video throughout the season.

Mosport Round 4-5 WC 2010

Synapse Racing World Challenge St. Pete 2010

Synapseracing.com