{"id":4025,"date":"2012-09-12T15:58:11","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T22:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roadraceengineering.com\/blog\/?p=4025"},"modified":"2012-09-20T18:37:13","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T01:37:13","slug":"joon-maeng-formulad-las-vegas-lucas-oil-rre-ls13-premiere-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roadraceengineering.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/12\/joon-maeng-formulad-las-vegas-lucas-oil-rre-ls13-premiere-updated\/","title":{"rendered":"Joon Maeng- FormulaD Las Vegas- Lucas Oil RRE LS13 Premiere [updated]"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joon Maeng debuted his new LS2 powered S13 at the Las Vegas Formula D this weekend. We just finished building the new car over the last\u00a0 month and a half. Joon lost his ride in the Nitto Tire RX8 with Ron\u00a0Bergenholz just before the Seattle Formula D round.<\/p>\n

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Joon had a S13 bare shell in the wings waiting and all the guys at RRE chipped in with some serious long all nighters to get the new car built and running.<\/p>\n

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Lucas Oil and American Real TV have always been a personal sponsor of Joon. They both are really helping to get Joon to the last two races of the FD championship this year.<\/p>\n

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The S13 is wrapped with one side as Lucas Oil<\/p>\n

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And the other as American Real TV.<\/p>\n

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After being let go from Bergenholtz Racing, Joon Maeng decided to continue as a privateer in the Lucas Oil\/Nitto\u00a0Tires V8\u00a0S13 240SX. This car was a plain 240SX body shell that was built into the LS2 V8 beast you see here in just over a month and a half.<\/p>\n

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Nitto Tire, Sam’s Auto Land, Parts Shop\u00a0Max,\u00a0Feal Suspension, Westech Performance, ACT and many, many other companies stepped in to help Joon make this happen.<\/p>\n

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With some final suspension adjustments Joon qualified 12th Friday night with a clean 82 point run. With the new course layout it was a night of big upsets.<\/p>\n

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RRE mechanic Lod Tongkul is Joon\u2019s crew chief and RRE fabricator\u00a0Art Thavilyati\u00a0is the lead mechanic on the team.<\/p>\n

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Checking the weather RADAR there was a thunderstorm on the way. After a few fits and starts of sprinkles, the rain finally came down hard enough to send everyone running for cover. Being down on power we welcomed a wet track to help even things out.<\/p>\n

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But all it did was to wet the course and make things muggy just before Top 32. By the 2nd<\/sup> pair of cars that ran the course was completely dry.<\/p>\n

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The rain only lasted long enough to make a mess of the pits. Joon and Lod heading out for the top 32 Grid.<\/p>\n

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The difficult thing was that we had to go up against Luke Lonberger’s Covette. His car has been dialed in for the full season and makes a couple hundred more HP. The Corvette was able to beat Joon and Lonberger moved on to the Top 16.<\/p>\n

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The whole team together after the race. From left to right: Photographer Big Dave, Sam, Lod, Grace, Art, Holly, Rossy, Gee, Ruben, Joon, Linda, Jack, and David.<\/p>\n

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Holly Lee was decked out in her Lucas Oil uniform. She is the official RRE Lucas Oil FD model.<\/p>\n

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Sarah Carter was helping out too with RRE umbrella girl duties.<\/p>\n

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Joon is set to head off to Tennessee for the LS Fest sponsored by Lucas Oil. The next mods for the S13 will be a Jerico transmission for some smoother shifts at high RPMs and better gear ratios. Look for us at the final Formula D event at Irwindale CA on October 12-13th<\/sup>!<\/p>\n\n\t\t