Timmy Megenbier receiving his 1st place trophy from Mr. Miller
TIMMY MEGENBIER SET TO CONTINUE VOLKSWAGEN JETTA TDI CUP WINNING WAYS AT MID-OHIO
LEXINGTON, OHIO (June 17, 2009) – Timmy Megenbier may have never previously raced the famed Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, but this weekend (June 20-21) he will be one of the leading contenders for top honors in Round Four of the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup. The talented American currently lies second in the title chase and is coming off a commanding race win at the last event in Utah.
Since the opening round of the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup campaign back in late April, Megenbier has been one of the drivers to watch in the highly competitive spec-car series. The second-year race pilot has not only shown the speed to start at the front of the talented 20+ car field, earning one pole position and two front-row starts in three races, but also the racecraft and car control of a potential champion, winning once and standing on the podium twice. This was mostly recently showcased via a dominating flag-to-flag victory by the No. 17 Chicagoland VW.com/Caputo Foods race pilot in Round Three at Miller Motorsports Park, propelling the 17 year-old to second in the championship fight. While the Melrose Park, Ill., native has never previously competed at the technical Mid-Ohio road course, the undulating nature of the track lends itself to Megenbier’s smooth driving style.
The on-track action for Megenbier and the rest of Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup field at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course gets underway on Saturday (June 20), with a pair of 30-minute practice sessions. One day later, the grid will be set for Round Four via an early morning qualifying session, followed by the waving of the green flag at 10:45 a.m. local time.
Saturday morning we arrived at the track for the 6:00 A.M drivers meeting. The track is located in a valley surrounded by mountains. The air was cool but the sun was hot. Once the sun rose above the mountains it quickly warmed up to the middle eighties. The TDI Cup wa
In the practice session Timmy set fast time right out of the gate. He lowered it as the session went on to 142.665. The gap to second was over 3/10ths.
After a full day of meetings and media the drivers went back on track for the qualifying session. Jake Thompson of Vancouver, Canada set a Fast time of 141.746 After only four laps Timmy was second by .15 tenths. He pulled in the pits and waited to see what the other times were. The track was slowing down and nobody was going faster. He pulled in the garage and called it a day. We were on the front row and figured we would save our tires for the race.
Sunday morning came early as the cars headed out on track for race. Starting from the outside of the front row Timmy lost the drag race to turn one and settled in behind the leader. He got a great run at the exit of turn four. Going into turn five he went under the leader to take the top spot. As the race progressed he pulled away from second place. While the battle continued back in the pack, Timmy drove like a robot. He just kept hitting his marks and lowering his lap times. In the end Timmy scored his first victory in the TDI Cup by over eight seconds! He also moved up in points from ninth to second just eleven points out of first place.
Timmy Megenbier receiving his 1st place trophy from Mr. Miller
The next race is at Mid-Ohio on June 19-21 with the Grand Am Series.
TDI Cup cars are diesel powered, have almost 300lbs of torque, have fewer emissions then a Hybrid car and get over 50MPG! All 10 races will be broadcast on Speed TV later in 2009. There will also be a documentary on a major network later this year on the drivers in the series. The TDI Series is certified as carbon free. Almost everything used in the series is recyclable. We will use less than 2 tanks of fuel to race these cars for the entire season.
Friday kicked of the 2009 TDI cup series. We arrived at the track at 6:30A.M to start the day. After a 7A.M. track walk we made some adjustments to the seat position, belts and padding. After a 30-minute warm up we were ready to go.
Qualifying Race 1: With a field of 28 cars there was a lot of traffic to deal with. Timmy qualified 5th just .176 seconds off pole in the Caputo Foods, Www.ChicagolandVw.com, Sick Tea Jetta.
Qualifying Race 2: After a new set of Pirelli tires and on the last lap Timmy moved up to P1 and set a new track record. He was over 3/10th’s faster then his closest competitor.
Race 1: There were several lead changes as we moved up from 5th but it was all about the draft. In the end Timmy finished P3 earning his first podium finish of the year!
Race 2: Starting from the pole Timmy quickly put some distance between himself and the rest of
the pack. By lap three a train of five cars drafted together and caught up to him. The train started
to spread out as the race continued. Going into turn one two cars drafted past moving him back
to third. After a few laps we moved back into second and stayed behind the leader, drafting and
working with him in order to put some distance between us and the rest of the pack. The top
three cars broke away and had about a four second lead. Mark Pombo drafted past Timmy going
into turn one. The same three cars worked together to keep the gap between them and the rest of
the pack when Timmy’s car started to slow. The water temp light came on. The car was getting
hot in the draft. Timmy was forced to stick his nose out to the side of Mark Pombo in order to
keep his engine cool. As they exited Oak Tree (turn 11) Timmy pulled off on to the emergency
exit road just as the motor let go and heavy smoke filled the drivers compartment. After undoing
the belts he pulled the fire extinguisher as he exited the car. The corner marshals quickly sprayed
the car with fire extinguishers.
The race was over and we didn’t finish in the points due to a mechanical failure. Later we found
that a cut lower radiator hose caused the problem. We were however consistently running up
front and keeping it on the track! The saving grace is that the first two races were half points
each. A few good results and were right back in it. Timmy currently sits in 9th place in the points
standings.
We would like to thank Richard Fisher of The Auto Barn. Richard helped sell our program to the
Chicagoland Volkswagen Dealers Association. They have become a major sponsor for the 2009
season. Timmy will be making several personal appearances at many of the Chicagoland
Volkswagen dealers throughout the year. Please feel free to stop in any of them and tell them
Timmy Megenbier sent you. It would be a great time to test drive a new Volkswagen. Come to
think of it just buy one. After your test drive you will be so impressed there should be nothing us
to think about. It’s a great time to buy a new Volkswagen!
Round 3 takes us to Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City May 15th-17th. We will be
running with the American Lemans Series.
TDI Cup cars are diesel powered, have almost 300lbs of torque, have less emissions then a Hybrid car and
get over 50MPG! All 10 races will be broadcast on Speed TV later in 2009. There will also be a
documentary on a major network later this year on the drivers in the series. The TDI Series is certified as
carbon free. Almost everything used in the series is recyclable. We will use less then 2 tanks of fuel to
race these cars for the entire season.
Timmy Megenbier’s business partners are Caputo Cheese/Wiscon Corp, www.chicagolandvw.com, Rahal
Foods, Bell Helmets, Racing Optics, Sparco, Wiscon Corp, Morse Caliper, Global Parts Source and
Performance Parts, Burke Electric, Paragon CRT, Terror Inc Extreme Sportswear and Sick Tea.