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BGB Motorsports drivers Spencer Pumpelly and Jim Norman won the penultimate round of the 2013 Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series at Laguna Seca on September 8. The action-packed race was rewarding for some drivers—and frustrating to others.
Championship leaders Nick Longhi and Matt Plumb of Rum Bum Racing came to Laguna Seca with a 51-point cushion on the only other team with a mathematical chance of an upset: the Stevenson Motosports duo of Matt Bell and John Edwards. Plumb and Longhi could clinch the championship by finishing 11th or better. Their worst finish to date was 10th at Road Atlanta, and it appeared the Rum Bum Racing drivers had the championship nearly sewn up.
Green-green-green! Brandon Davis leads the field up the hill at turn one. Shelby Blackstock has already passed Buford for second, and is pressuring Davis for the lead.
The weekend started off with a testing day on Friday, with practice and qualifying on Saturday, followed by the race on Sunday. Grip was the word of the weekend, or more accurately, lack of it. Just about every team struggled with car setup as they swapped springs, sway bars, changed differential settings and adjusted wheel alignment chasing the grip that eluded their drivers.
The Laguna Seca race will air on Fox Sports 1 on Saturday, September 15th at 4:00 PM Eastern.
Paul Dalla Lana and Bill Aberlen were quickest in both practice sessions, their Turner Motorsport crew apparently finding a good setup for their BMW M3—or at least a better setup than everyone else. The fastest Mustang on the track belonged to ROUSH Performance with Jack Roush Jr. and Billy Johnson driving the BOSS 302R to third quickest in practice.
Driving to the pole position in qualifying was series newcomer Brandon Davis in his new TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage, followed by fellow Aston Martin driver Jade Buford. Shelby Blackstock qualified his ROUSH Performance Mustang BOSS 302R third. Ominously, Rum Bum Racing’s Nick Longhi had his worst qualifying result of the season: 13th. Most importantly, Longhi was to start nine positions behind their championship rivals, Stevenson Motorsports.
Race day morning dawned foggy at Laguna Seca. With its proximity to California’s central coast, it’s typical for fog to envelop the circuit during the early morning hours. But in predictable fashion, the fog burned off and the weather was clear and sunny for the start of the race. Brandon Davis lead the field to the green flag, and held his position after the start, but Shelby Blackstock took over second place from Jade Buford, and John Edwards (#9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro) advanced to third. Before the end of the first lap, Davis dropped to fifth place, and Blackstock moved to the lead. Contact back in the field punted Joe Koenig’s ST-Class BMW into the gravel, which brought out a full course caution before the leaders completed the first lap.
At the race restart, Blackstock led Edwards, with Jade Buford (#55 Aston Martin) in third.
Left: Mike McGovern behind the wheel of the #2 Jim Click Racing BOSS 302R, follows Scott Maxwell’s Aston Martin into the corkscrew. Distant fog obscures the view of the Monterey Peninsula in the distance. Right: Jack Roush Jr. and Billy Johnson co-drove the #61 ROUSH Performance Mustang BOSS 302R at Laguna Seca. The track was the sight of a crash last year that left the #61 Mustang on its roof, and Jack Roush Jr. with a mangled arm. The injury sidelined Roush for the remainder of the 2012 season.
Transmission trouble brought Mark Boden in the #46 Fall-Line Motorsports BMW to the pits on lap 11. They won Indianapolis and Watkins Glen, and were hoping for a good result at Laguna Seca after they finished second in 2012. The crew evaluated the car and pushed it behind the wall for repairs.
On the next lap, Trent Hindman (# 48 BMW) spun in turn two, but continued after battling for 11th position with Jack Roush Jr. Roush had slight contact with Joe Foster (#158 Mustang BOSS 302R) battling for 10th, and trigged the incident. Roush suffered right-front bodywork damage to his #61 Mustang BOSS 302R. Hindman continued to the pits for potential repairs, and Roush was penalized for avoidable contact: a stop-plus-60-second penalty.
Shared by Joey Atterbury and Shelby Blackstock, the #51 ROUSH Performance Mustang BOSS 302R enters Laguna Seca’s legendary corkscrew turn while a corner worker looks on.
A few laps later, Eric Curran (#01 Camaro) lost brakes going into the corkscrew, and damaged the car excessively. A full-course caution came out to clean up the incident, and most of the competitors headed for the pits for driver changes, fuel, and new tires.
Simultaneously, the #13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche came into the pits and ominously, the crew started working on the rear of the car. Apparently some debris shredded their serpentine belt, and the crew had to replace it. Unfortunately, it’s not an easy job on a Porsche.
The congestion at turn two heats up as Blackstock tries to make a move on Davis for the lead.
The championship-leading car was in the pits for fifteen laps destined to finish well down the order. Their hopes to clinch the championship all but dashed. “Something—could have been a rock or any other kind of debris—shredded the belt,” said Longhi. “I felt the power steering fail. The belt also runs the water pump so the car started to overheat and I had to stop. Obviously that’s a big fix. They changed it fast, but unfortunately it’s not the kind of thing you can change during a race and not lose laps, so we lost laps but we’ll never give up and keep going.” Driver Matt Plumb was philosophical about the situation, “Everything has gone our way from strategy to mechanical durability, so it’s just a matter of time when something’s going to happen.”
Top Left: Jim Click powers his Jim Click Racing Mustang BOSS 302R up the hill out of turn six during Saturday’s qualifying session, where he set the 18th quickest time. Top Right: After qualifying the car 9th, Joe Foster and Ian James finished the race in their #158 Dempsey/Miller Racing Mustang BOSS 302R 5th—a solid finish to honor the memory of the late Roger Miller. Bottom Left: The #05 Racer’s Edge Motorsports Mustang BOSS 302R finished 8th with Patrick Linn and Nick Galante handling driving duties. It was their best finish to date in the series. Bottom Right: The #51 ROUSH Performance Mustang BOSS 302R is the caboose in a freight train through turn nine at Laguna Seca. Shelby Blackstock qualified the car third. Joey Atterbury finished the race 9th after contact with the #55 Aston Martin on the last lap.
After the restart, Brandon Davis (#7 Aston Martin) moved up to the front of the field after Shelby Blackstock ducked into the pits with his #51 Mustang to hand it over to Joey Atterbury.
After losing the aforementioned fifteen laps, Matt Plumb returned the #13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche back to the race in 19th place. With the #9 Camaro of Matt Bell in 9th, the Rum Bum Racing team still had enough points to claim the championship one race early. But the race was not over yet…
On lap 37, race leader Brandon Davis started dropping back in the order as his #7 Aston Martin was passed by Scott Maxwell (#55 Aston Martin) and Brad Jaeger (#14 Nisssan). Davis was soon stopped on course with a broken shift linkage, which brought out another full-course caution so he could be retrieved. Most of the race leaders took advantage of the caution period to pit for routine service before the finish. Spencer Pumpelly stayed out and inherited the lead. Matt Bell, who pitted just before the caution flags were thrown, was now up to fourth. (In order to stay in the championship hunt, Bell would need to finish second).
The #05 Racer’s Edge Motorsports Mustang BOSS 302R leads its sister car during Friday afternoon’s testing session. Drivers Patrick Linn and Nick Galante shared the car which qualified 20th for Sunday’s race.
In the closing laps, Bill Auberlen’s #96 BMW broke its differential and failed to take the checker, while Scott Maxwell (#55 Aston Martin), and Joey Atterbury (#51 Mustang) tangled with each other at the last turn. This promoted Spencer Pumpelly and Matt Bell (#9 Camaro) to the front. When the checkered flag fell, Matt Bell finished second to Spencer Pumpelly, with Charles Espenlaub (#48 BMW) finishing third.
Left: The #158 Dempsey/Miller Racing Mustang BOSS 302R exits the corkscrew during Friday morning’s practice session. Joe Foster and Ian James co-drove the car. Former Mustang driver Foster filled the seat left by Roger Miller after Miller tragically passed away the day following the last race at Kansas. Miller was sorely missed at Laguna Seca, and our thoughts are with his family and many friends. Right: Jack Roush Jr. slithers his #61 ROUSH Performance Mustang BOSS 302R through the corkscrew with the #71 Aston Martin behind. Roush qualified the car 10th, but co-driver Billy Johnson finished 15th after their rear axle failed late in the race, most likely the result of contact during the opening laps that damaged the car.
The second place finish for Bell and Edwards meant they kept their championship hopes alive for the #9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro…but it’s on life support.
The final round of the 2013 Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge commences on September 28th at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut. It’s not over till it’s over!
