Autometrics
Motorsports Returns to the Podium
at
Grand Am VIR 400
October
1-3, 2004
After a pair of disappointing
Grand Am efforts, we hoped that Cory Friedman and Leh Keen could turn
things around and bring home a finish more in-line with the team's
potential. We did some testing a few weeks prior and were
optimistic that we were capable of running at a competitive speed.
This
year's Grand-Am VIR 400 also featured PCA Sprint and Enduro support
races. The professional events took precedence over the Club
Races, so all PCA cars ran in the same run group. Over 60 cars
from I to GT1R were one course at the same time creating some incredible
speed discrepancies.
There were two
qualifying runs for the PCA cars, and the best time from the two
sessions was used to grid for both the sprint and enduro. Mac
McGehee made his GTC3 debut in his new 2000 GT3 Cup and started 10th in
class. Jay Brown qualified 4th in GTC3 and Steve Johnson sat 3rd
overall and 2nd in class.
Steve
didn't stay in 2nd for long, as he took the class lead and never lost
it, scoring his first big win in GTC3. Jay maintained his 4th
place spot, and Mac made up some ground. The sprint was a pretty
clean race considering the large and diverse field. The Sunday
Enduro was a bit different from what is typical in PCA. The race
was only 60 minutes (instead of the usual 90,) and refueling was not
allowed. Qualifying was the same as the sprint race, and the end
results were also very similar. Steve took the overall win, and
Jay and Mac took 5th and 9th, respectively. Also in the enduro,
Jamie Levy took E class honors with Bob Hahn fairly close behind.
We
were very happy with how our guys did in Saturday morning's sprint race,
and we hoped that Cory could pull off an equally impressive qualifying
run. We were 5th fastest for the day on Friday, but in the
afternoon session, only one car turned a quicker lap than Leh in our #14
Cup car. Track conditions were pretty poor for qualifying, but
Cory ran some strong laps and placed us in 3rd, only a few tenths off
the championship leading #36 and #38 cars fielded by TPC. We were
pleased with our starting position, but we knew that the race would be
the true test.
It did not take
Friedman long to overtake the #38 car, and we were running 2nd in SGS
only a few seconds behind the leader. About 35 minutes into the
race, a prototype had a catastrophic engine problem and was bellowing
smoke. The problem was that even with the smoke and flames coming
from the car, the DP maintained speed and did not stay off-line.
Cory was unfortunately trapped behind this car, as it was nearly
impossible to pass due to the huge white cloud and incredibly slippery
surface. Cory lost significant time to the #36 car. The
redeeming factor was that the Prototype drove long enough and dumped
enough oil to require a full-course caution to clean up the mess.
This allowed us to make up for lost time and we also used this opportunity
to refuel and clean the oil-covered windshield. TPC brought both
the 36 and 38 cars in during this caution for new tires and changed over
to their pro drivers Randy Pobst and Andy Lally. The #04 car opted
not to pit during the caution and inherited the SGS lead. Because
our stop was a splash-and-go, we re-entered the race in front of the 36
and 38 cars in 2nd place. Cory was not able to hold off Pobst and
Lally on sticker tires and we dropped back to 4th, the lowest position
we would be in the whole race. Cory did an excellent job of
chasing down and overtaking the #04 car to put us back in our qualifying
spot. The race then had an incredibly long stint with no cautions,
and Cory ran a strong pace, always staying close to the class leaders,
but never close enough to challenge. A well-timed yellow gave us
the perfect opportunity to make our final pit stop of the race and give
Leh fresh tires for the sprint to the finish. TPC also took on
fresh tires and fuel. After only 1 lap under a green flag, a
horrendous crash brought out a long caution. The end of this
caution coincided with rain on the back section of the track. The
top 2 cars were out of range, but we had nearly a full lap lead over the
4th place SGS car. Leh needed only to stay out of trouble and run
quick laps, which was no problem and Keen took the checkered flag and a podium
finish in only his second professional race.
At
the end, we were only 35 second behind the 2nd place car and about 40
away from the winner. Only the top 3 SGS cars were on the lead
lap, and we were a mere 5 laps down from the race winner. We could
not be more pleased with the result. Our car was fast, the drivers
did a phenomenal job, our pit strategy was dead-on, and our crew was
great. All components came together, and our drivers left covered
in champagne. Combined with our results in the PCA race, this was
one of the most successful efforts we've had. We'd like to
congratulate all of our drivers and thank our crew as well as everyone
who gave us a hand throughout the weekend. |
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