|
Lakeville,
IN (May 5, 2009)
– Saturday May 2, 2009 in Millville, NJ, Spencer Pumpelly passed Charles
Espenlaub during the final 15 minutes of Saturday's two-and-a-half hour Garden
State 250 at Thunderbolt Raceway at New Jersey Motorsports Park, the third
round of the Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge season, and earned a GT victory
for himself, co-driver Duncan Ende and TRG's No. 39 DigiTrust Group/Adam's
Polishes Porsche 997.
Chris Gleason and Joey Hand's Turner Motorsport BMW M3 was only 2.505 seconds
behind after two and one-half hours of competition on the demanding, 2.25-mile
road course.
Finishing
third were Billy Johnson and Peter Ludwig, who drove the No. 18 Dietz &
Watson Porsche 997.
In ST, Compass360 Racing swept the Street Tuner podium, with Randy Pobst and
Christian Miller gaining the victory in the final four minutes as all three
cars led during the final 10 minutes. It was the second straight victory for
Pobst and Miller.
Pobst's winning pass in the ST race came in a wild three-wide drag race to Turn
1 with less than four minutes remaining. After watching Eric Curran and Travis
Walker - who led an ST race-high 45 laps - battle for the lead, Pobst drove to
the inside as the trio drove down the main straightaway on Lap 91. Pobst
outbraked both drivers, then pulled away slightly to give himself and Miller a
second straight victory.
Orange-suited drivers dominated the podium. Walker and co-driver Matt Pritiko
finished second in the No. 76 Skunk2/034 Motorsport Honda Civic Si, while
Curran and team owner Karl Thomson earned third in the No. 75 Skunk2/034
Motorsport Honda Civic Si. It was the team's first 1-2-3 finish.
The Koni
event was serviced by the Hoosier Racing Tire team of: Jim Bartholomew, Eriks
Bers, Dave Reppert, Rick Sisk, Mike Walsh, Jeff Yute.
Product Manager, Scott Huffer and Engineering support of Matt Marlow.
The
weather was overcast most of the weekend and in the 60s and 70s.
Although the entire week was overcast, as luck would have it rain never
really materialized for Saturdays race.
This
event was the first of five KONI Challenge races within eight weeks.
The next race is the Verizon Festival of Speed, coming up May 15-16 at
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in
Monterey
,
Calif.
Another race is on
the docket for May 22-25 at
Connecticut
's
Lime
Rock
Park
. The circuit then
moves to Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, N.Y. June 4-5, followed by
the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in
Lexington
,
Ohio
June 19-21.
The
KONI Challenge, Garden State 250 race will be shown at noon Eastern next
Saturday, May 9, on SPEED channel.
Hoosier
Racing Tire is proud to be the exclusive racing tire provider for the Koni
Challenge racing series. For
the rest of the schedule and additional information about the Grand American
Road Racing Series please visit www.grand-am.com,
www.grand-am.com/koni,
or www.konisportscarchallenge.com.
|
