Plumb Brothers Prevail In Wild Finish At VIR, Take Third Victory Of 2015 In Rum Bum Porsche

Plumb Brothers Prevail In Wild Finish At VIR,

Take Third Victory Of 2015 In Rum Bum Porsche

Doran Racing Nissan, Automatic Racing Aston Run Out Of Fuel While Leading
Pumpelly, Rodriguez Take Third ST Victory In RS1 Porsche Cayman
DANVILLE, Va. (Aug. 22, 2015) – As Matt Plumb added to his all-time total as the leading winner in the history of the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, Saturday’s 22nd career triumph at VIRginia International Raceway certainly ranks as one of the strangest.

Running in third position with two laps remaining, Plumb saw his top two competitors run out of fuel on the penultimate lap – giving the No. 13 Billfish Foundation/Rum Bum Film & HD Studios/RumBumGear.com Porsche 911 co-driven by brother Hugh its second-consecutive triumph, and third of the season. It also all allowed the Plumb brothers to close in on the Grand Sport (GS) championship with only two races remaining.

“Our power steering went out late in Hugh’s stint and it wasn’t the greatest situation,” Matt Plumb said. “In the back of my head, I said, ‘If Hugh isn’t complaining, I’d better not complain. The car was very hard to drive, but it’s still a Porsche – it just required about 100 pounds more force to turn the wheel, and it wasn’t the coolest day. The bright side was the car was great. The guys had strategy under control. They knew what we needed to save as far as fuel and gave me that target. We had a lot going out way.”

The final hour featured a thrilling battle between BJ Zacharias in the No. 14 Doran Racing Nismo GT Academy Nissan 370Z, started from the pole by Brad Jaeger, and Brett Sandberg in the No. 99 Automatic Racing Invisible Glass/Rogue Engineering/Red Glare Records Aston Martin Vantage started by Al Carter.

Jaeger suddenly slowed entering the Oak Tree Turn (Turn 11) with a lap and a half remaining – giving the lead to the rapidly closing No. 99 machine. Sandberg headed to the pits – just as the caution and white flags waved for the stopped Nissan of Jaeger. Sandberg drove through the pits hoping to coast through the final lap, only to also run out of fuel after leading twice for 19 total laps.

“I’ve always played it conservative and stopped (for fuel),” said Automatic Racing team owner David Russell, who was looking for his team’s second career victory and first since 2008 at Lime Rock. “Today, we were going all-out for the win – and I have no regrets.”

Doran Racing was looking for its first victory in the series, and had the dominant car. Jaeger won his first TOTAL Pole Award and led twice for 24 of the event’s first 31 laps. Zacharias then led twice for nine laps.

“The Nissan has been fast for four years but hasn’t won yet,” team owner Kevin Doran said. “We could have run faster, but we were conserving fuel all the way. The No. 13 did a better strategy and a better job conserving. I called it early on when I wondered why the Porsche was running back in fifth. Now we know.”

Stevenson Motorsports put both of its Chevrolets on the podium. Lawson Aschenbach finished second in the No. 9 Camaro Z/28.R started by Matt Bell, while Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis took third in the No. 6 Camaro Z/28.R. Unofficially, Davis and Liddell now lead the Plumb brothers by 10 points, 251-241.

“I guess it was better to be lucky than fast,” Davis said. “We were probably the only team to play the ‘save fuel’ strategy. That final yellow [on the final lap] was unfortunate for us, because we were pushing as hard as we could to close the gap [to the No. 13 Porsche] and we might have been able to make it up. But to be on the podium with both cars under these conditions was a great day for Stevenson Motorsports.”

The No. 46 Fall-Line Motorsports IHG Rewards Club/Trim-Tex/Fall-Line BMW M3 of Ashley Freiberg and Trent Hindman was running third when it stopped for a splash of fuel with 10 minutes remaining – only to see the car stall exiting the pits. They went on to finish fourth, followed by the No. 80 Mantella Autosport/MBRP MBRP/Praxair/The Sport Lab Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R of Martin Barkey and Kyle Marcelli.

Scott Maxwell and Billy Johnson finished fifth in the No. 51 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Performance/Multimatic Ford Mustang Boss 302R after having no practice time in the car. The Mustang had been virtually untouched since it last raced at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in May. When the team’s regular No. 15 Ford Shelby GT350R-C was badly damaged in a practice incident on Friday, the car was transported from Multimatic’s Toronto headquarters to VIR on Friday evening.

Pumpelly, Rodriguez Capture Third ST Victory In RS1 Porsche

One race after losing a heartbreaker in the Street Tuner (ST) class on the final lap with fuel feed issues at Road America, Spencer Pumpelly made it through to the checkered flag on Saturday – with enough gasoline remaining to do a victory doughnut.

It was the third ST victory of the season for Pumpelly and Luis Rodriguez Jr. in the No. 17 RS1 Porsche Cayman – and first career triumph for Pumpelly at his home circuit.

“To finally come here and be able to pull off a win was very special,” said Pumpelly, a native of Mason Neck, Va. “Luis did a great opening stint and RS1 had a great pit stop. It was pretty uneventful in my stint – we really didn’t have anyone to fight once we got clear of the No. 34 Mazda.”

Jeff Mosing and Eric Foss finished second, scoring the third consecutive podium finish for the No. 56 Murillo Racing Porsche Cayman. Justin Piscitell and Christian Szymczak took third in the No. 34 Alara Racing Mazda MX-5.

The ST point lead again changed hands. Andrew Carbonell regained the lead after placing fourth in the No. 26 Freedom Autosport Mazda/SemperFiFund.org Mazda MX-5 started by Tom Long – who stood in for Liam Dwyer. Long then went to also drive Freedom Autosport’s No. 25 Mazda, joining starting driver Britt Casey Jr. in finishing sixth.

Chad McCumbee and Stevan McAleer entered the race with a two-point lead, but placed seventh in the No. 5 ModSpace/Mazda Mazda MX-5 for CJ Wilson Racing. They now unofficially trail Carbonell by two points, 211-209.

Round 9 for the Continental Tire Challenge will be at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas on Friday, Sept. 18.

Contact:
Nate Siebens
Senior Manager, IMSA Communications
(386) 310-6568
nsiebens

imsa-ctsc race vir-rls.pdf