AST Suspension – USA

When points matter most, AST delivers. As does Ian Stewart! Ian built his National Champion Mini Cooper with the best of the best. Ian needed the best suspension money could buy BUT he needed it to fulfill the rules of NASA’s Time Trial classes which have point values on adjustments and dollar amounts. Accrue too many points and you’re in the next fastest class. Naturally we suggested AST 5100s which use the same competition parts as our 5200 two way remotes and 5300 triple adjustable shocks at a lower price point. Ian proved that good driving and single adjustable shocks can (and do) win at the national level. You don’t have to “break the bank” to win. Thanks again Ian!

RobiSpec was in full force at the Redline Time Attack event Round 7. Robert “Robi” Fuller piloted his new ‘08 STI complete with AST 5200 Suspension. Robi, known for his suspension tuning with another shock company, took the STI out on its maiden voyage with AST dampers and took home the win in class and Overall Stock class as well. Robi said, “The shocks were great right out of the box. The car had so much grip, I didn’t have to adjust them all day.” We can’t wait until he dials the car in for the Finale at California Speedway.

Thanks to the RobiSpec team for brining home the win. Good luck at Fontana!

AST Suspension USA would like to thank our customers that won or trophied this year at SCCA Solo2 Nationals. Many of our drivers were building their cars a few months before the event and still won! Wait till next year when they sort their cars and are ready for the Lincoln Airpark surface. Several of our trophy winners missed first place by hundredths of a second! Here is a listing of our winners and trophy positions.

2009 National Champions
Mike Simanyi – Street Mod National Champion (running AST 5200s)
Katy Nicholls – Street Mod Ladies National Champion (running AST 5200s)
Karen Kraus – E Street Prepared Ladies National Champion (running AST 5200s)

2009 Trophy Winners
Matt Lucas – Street Touring Xtreme (running AST 4200s)
Craig Wilcox – B Street Prepared (lost by 0.070s, running AST 5200s)
Jon Pomrenke – Street Touring Xtreme (running AST 4200s)
Amy Fair – Street Touring Ultra Ladies (lost by 0.069s running (running AST 5200s)
Cristy Carlson – Street Touring Ultra Ladies (running AST 4100s)
Joe Silva – B Street Prepared (running AST 5200s)
Thomas Bleh – D Street Prepared (running AST 4100s)
Kent Kroll – E Street Prepared (running AST 4200s)

Thanks again to all our customers who trusted AST Suspension to provide them with some of the best shocks on the market. We can’t wait to see what happens next year when they have more testing under their belts! As you can see, whether you run our 4100, 4200, or 5200s, you can win on AST Suspension.

In his debut event on AST 4100s, Jeff Wirtz of Round Rock, TX pulled off a sweep at the NASA event at Motorsport Ranch.  Jeff was always a top finisher last year, but with ASTs on the car Jeff put multiple seconds on the field in 4 of 4 races.  This included inverted starts where he passed the whole field in the opening laps!  The only car faster than Wirtz’s 3rd Gen Camaro was a fully prepped Mustang AIX classed car (a much faster class). 

Camaro Mustang Challenge is a popular class in NASA that is growing especially in the Texas Region.  Wirtz was able to drive a competitor’s car in practice, a car having twin tube shocks.  “I felt bumps on the track with the twin tubes that I didn’t even know were there with the ASTs,” said Wirtz.  AST’s monotube technology can provide forces greater than many lower end shocks without the harshness most drivers experience.

Congrats to Jeff in his first event with the shocks.  Stay tuned for the April event at TWS in College Station!

RRT Suspension recently made their debut event with their "do it all" BMW E36 running AST 4200s with Vorshlag camber plates. The 325i was built specifically to compete in NASA GTS 2, SCCA ITR, and BMW Club Racing Prepared class. The "do it all" car came out fighting last weekend at VIR. Due to an issue with qualifying run groups, RRT’s Barry Battle was forced to start in the back. Their forum has a video of the 10 lap race where Barry passes the entire field in the first 3 laps and then puts 40 seconds on 2nd place by the checkered flag. The car looks hooked up once he gets through the crowd. We think that must be a combination of driver and suspension since the car has the originally 200k mile motor in it! Great run Barry!

http://www.rrtracing.com/forum/viewt…345&p=738#p738

Well, we’re back from NASA’s Championship at Mid Ohio. First off, NASA announced that next year’s Championship will be at Miller Motorsport Park near Salt Lake City, UT. That’s only 1400 miles for us in Dallas, Texas. The event started out a soggy one. Most TT drivers didn’t bother running on the wet days since the best lap counts. But luckily, things started looking great Saturday and Sunday. The track dried Saturday and afternoon run groups had a clean, dry track. Conditions stayed good through Sunday as well if not for a little WIND. Can you say Ike? Yes, even Ohio is not immune to tropical depression winds. I saw more than one canopy go into retirement for this race season.

AST customers sponsored by Elephant Motorsports and Matthew’s Auto Sales brought the hardware to Mid Ohio in the form of AST 4200s and 4300s mainly in the GTS category. Special thanks to the crew at RRT for letting AST hang out at the compound as well. RRT is in the process of building a GTS/ITR/J Prepared car using AST 4200s. The car debuts next season.

In the end, Scott Berkowitz took home GTS 3 in a BMW M3 running the Vorshlag/AST 4200 suspension kit. Scott beat most of the field including GTS 4 and 5 cars (faster cars) finishing 5th overall in a field of 47! Shea Burns, John Van Houten, B.J. Farmer as well as Vorshlag customers Andy Watts and Barry Battle running Vorshlag camber plates all gave it their all this week. Andy took the GTS 5 win and overall GTS category win. Congrats to Andy! RRT brought several cars to the event with top finishes running Vorshlag parts.

Thanks to all our customers who took the chance on a new product and showed the competition what we can do.

We’ll be attending the Texas Region NASA event at Eagle’s Canyon with the Alpha car and our new Evo X in TTB.

As I write this, Terry and Amy have finished their first practice day at SCCA Solo2 Nationals. Terry was running strong in XP with our 4300 shocks while Amy was hanging with the STS Open top drivers in our 318is with custom 4300 shocks. Both cars are handling extremely well. Other AST cars at Topeka include an A Stock WRX STI, a DSP Impreza 2.5 RS, a STX E36, a STU WRX STI, and an XP Miata (our first Miata application). We’ll provide more of an update later this week. Stay tuned!

Brian