PCA
Club Race at Barber Motorsports Park
This was the
first PCA race held at the immaculate Barber Motorsports Park in
Birmingham, Alabama. Unfortunately, the Porsche Club did not make
a favorable debut. During the first day of the event, a reported
19 13/13 penalties were assigned. Run groups were fortunate to get
in 3 laps under green before being black flagged. By the end of
the day, the event was so far behind schedule, the practice starts were
cancelled entirely for at least one of the groups. Fortunately,
only a few of our customers had incidents, none of which were
irreparable.
Leh Keen was in typical form. He was fast right from the start and
was on the top of the time sheet in most run sessions. Steve
Johnson was also running strong, and qualified 4th for the sprint race
in GTC3. Cory Friedman was running, but we were using this event
mostly as a test for the upcoming Grand-Am race at the track. The
Hoosier tires are a bit off the pace of the other Cup slicks, so we
weren't terribly concerned about being competitive in the sprint.
Cory ultimately was black-flagged for being over the tracks sound
limit. At the start of the race, Brent Martini last year's
Grand-Am GT champion got around Leh and pulled a small lead in the GTC3
class and overall. A yellow flag in the middle of the race broke
up the 40 minute sprint and allowed Keen's tires to cool. When the
race re-started, Leh was turning the fastest laps of the weekend, and he
was able to catch, pass and pull a strong lead over Martini.
Johnson also ran a good race and finished 3rd.
In the Blue race group, Brad Gilsdorf finished first in class and
overall in GTC2. Jamie Levy ended up 5th in E, and Mac McGehee
just missed a podium, finishing 4th in D class.
The enduro played out fairly similar to the sprint. Leh started
out in 2nd and fought his way to the overall lead before making the
mandatory stop, where Cory took over driving duties. After the
leaders all made their stops, Cory sat in 3rd overall but was quickly
catching the leaders. Friedman took the class lead without too
much trouble, but in the process was overtaken by DeAngelis in a
GT3RS. The RS was crashed during one of the practices and did not
qualify for the enduro. Cory and Leh went on to win the class, and
Steve finished 4th in class after starting from the 6th position.
A few additional classes also ran this enduro. McGehee qualified
in 2nd and won his class comfortably, and Brad's brother Phil Gilsdorf
followed suite and won his class as well.
Saturday and Sunday still had a considerable amount of vehicle damage,
but nothing on the scale of Friday. The track is very technical
with short straights between corners and no time to rest. Next
season should have fewer issues, as drivers will be more familiar with
the track. |
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