Burrows and Hopwood Rebound from cut tire to finish 14th in 50th Start
July 9, 2011 Leave a comment
Burrows and Hopwood Rebound from cut tire to finish 14th in 50th Start
TV Information:SPEED, July 17th, 1:00 PM ET
Monterey, Calif (9 July, 2011)– Adam Burrows and Trevor Hopwood were hoping to make their 50th race start as a driving duo a special one, but the visit to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca wasn’t exactly what they had been hoping for. After running as high as third with the No. 12 Infinity Audio Kia Forte Koup, the 2007 champions recovered from a cut tire late in the race to finish 14th in round 8 of the 2011 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series championship.
Burrows opened the race from 22nd on the grid after Friday’s qualifying was curtailed before he could set a representative time. But he had some high-quality company with him deep in the pack as the 2.5-hour race went green. With a significant group of Kia Motors Team Members on hand, Burrows made the most of the car he had, moving all the way up to third in the combined ST and GS class pack with some deft driving that included an outside pass of Simon Pagenaud on his way forward.
Kinetic Motorsports called him into the pits to turn the car over to Hopwood well after the one hour mark, with the No. 12 set to rejoin the pack in 23rd. Hopwood took up the fight and was making forward progress before a string of setbacks ultimately cost the duo a storybook run in their 50th start.
“There were more than a couple of guys driving like idiots out there, but fortunately I was able to work my way through them pretty quickly,” said Hopwood about rejoining deep in the fray. “But then I cut my tire when I went off the track to avoid Veejay when he spun, got off his brakes, and coasted directly into my path going down the hill. At the end, the last 45 minutes, it just kept popping out of gear so I was driving with one hand because I had to keep my other hand on the stick to keep it in gear. I also lost fifth so I was getting crushed on the restarts! It wasn’t how we wanted our 50th start to go, but even though our race wasn’t ideal it was a blast having all the Kia folks with us this weekend. Now, on to Jersey!”
“We had our backs against the wall today with qualifying not going as planned, but just kept our head down and make our way up towards the front. There was some great racing in there. Trevor did a great job in his stint even though he had some technical issues slowing him down. One of the cool things about the weekend was having all the folks from Kia Motors Irvine up here with us,” said Burrows. “Had dinner with them last night and we got to show them around the track today. To let them get close to these cars, which really are their cars, is great. Congrats to Nick and Michael for the 4th place, that certainly secures his place in the championship. With two more races to go, we’ll see what happens!”
PR inquiries about Adam Burrows and Trevor Hopwood should be directed to Matt Cleary at Sunday Group Management; 317.908.2975 (mobile) or media@ sundaymanagement.com
For additional information:
www.trevorhopwood.com
www.adamburrowsmotorsport.com
You can also follow the teams progress at www.facebook.com/kiaracing.
###
Matt Cleary
Sunday Group Management
media
http://www.sundaymanagement.com
317.908.2975 (m)
Based in Indianapolis, Sunday Group Management is a leading motorsports management and communications consulting firm.
Sunday Group Management works with clients in a variety of motorsports categories, including NASCAR Sprint Cup driver AJ Allmendinger, Riley Technologies, GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series organization Michael Shank Racing, Continental Tire, and several teams and drivers in Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge competition.
For additional information: www.sundaymanagement.com, http://sundaygroupblog.com, www.facebook.com/sundaygroup, or twitter.com/Sundaygroup
Sunday Group Management 