Backstretch Motorsports

News and Notes

- This is the first career KONI Challenge Series victory in any class for Jeff Segal and Jep Thornton of Automatic Racing.

- This is the first career KONI Challenge Series victory in any class for Automatic Racing, the 2007 Grand Sport champion. Automatic Racing had previously finished a team best second on several occasions.

- This is the first BMW victory of the season and fourth in the past five races, dating back to last season. Only Porsche - with Craig Stanton and Tim Traver - has won during that streak (Daytona, 2008).

- BMW has now won three straight KONI Challenge Series GS races at Lime Rock Park. Turner Motorsport won in 2006 and 2007. Two-time defending race winner Bill Auberlen finished ninth. Don Salama, who joined with Bryan Ortiz, took the checkered flag 12th, one lap off the leader’s pace. Ortiz led 44 laps of the race, the second most of any driver.

- This is the second straight runner-up finish for Spencer Pumpelly in the KONI GS race at Lime Rock Park. Pumpelly teamed with Peter Ludwig in last year’s race. This season, Pumpelly teamed with Duncan Ende.

- JBS Motorsports scored its first ever KONI Challenge Series podium finish. The team had previous notched fourth-place finishes on several occasions. James Gue ran as high as second before Pumpelly passed him in the final 30 minutes of action. Gue shared the car with Bret Seafuse.

- Though BMW finished first, Porsche dominated the top five, taking three of those positions. Joining Pumpelly and Ende were Stanton and Jon Miller in fourth in the No. 83 Porsche 997 and Lonnie Pechnik and Kris Wilson in fifth in the No. 25 Porsche 997. Defending Rolex GT champion Dirk Werner also took sixth in the No. 38 Porsche 997 that he shared with Mike Piera; Werner led 25 laps before Segal took the point for good on Lap 96.

- Five drivers led the 140-lap race. Ten cars finished on the lead lap.

KONI GS Race Quotes

JACK ROUSH JR. (No. 59 Rehagen Racing Ford Mustang GT): “I was coming on the inside of a Porsche into turn one. He went wide; I thought he was giving me enough room. Then he cut down on me, hit my tire and he spun out. That was enough to knock the alignment out of my left front. I tried to make it into the next turn, but the car went out of control and hit the wall. I was able to make it all the way around the course after that.”

KRIS WILSON (No. 25 C-Max/Unitech Racing Porsche 997): “Darren Law was behind held up by Bryan Ortiz. Bryan was doing a great job. He got sideways a little bit, Darren got alongside him, and then that opened the door for me. It slowed up Darren’s momentum a little bit, and I got him coming out of the uphill. It was all good. The guys gave me a great car. I seemed to be getting lucky in traffic, that helped me pull ahead, and it looked like those guys were getting held up in the wrong spots. Unfortunately, our fuel rig, for some reason, is not working. All for naught, I guess. We parked the No. 26 car and put Lonnie Pechnik in this car because Dave (Riddle) is under the weather. We tried the same strategy last year at Watkins Glen - run two cars with three drivers - and that netted a win for us. But when Dave got sick we had to come up with a new plan for him, and with that fuel rig problem, it’s not looking too good.”

TREVOR BURROWS (No. 80 Kinetic Motorsports BMW M3): “I had a little contact with a back marker who was coming out of the pits. It cut down a tire. The car was great. It was perfect throughout the entire run and was really comfortable. Then we had that little incident that made us come in.”

BRYAN ORTIZ (No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M3): “It’s been an amazing weekend. This was my first time in front of the pack. No problems. The car at the end was getting loose, but everybody was having the same problems. It was an amazing battle with the guy behind me. For me, it was a very good stint. Hopefully, everything will go right for the next couple of races.”

JEP THORNTON (No. 09 Automatic Racing BMW M3): “It was on rails. The car is as good as we’ve ever had it. It was easy to drive. A beautiful day like this, the last day at Lime Rock before they reconfigure the track, and Jeff’s in third right now. We’ve got to put our head down and see what we can do. It really feels great.”

GS POST-RACE QUOTES

JEP THORNTON (No. 09 Automatic Racing Engine Studios/Imported Car Store/Land Air/Rogue Engineering BMW M3), team owner/driver, first victory for Automatic Racing: “This is my eighth season, and finally to get a win. We won the championship last year, and we didn’t win a race or lead a lap. Last year was about consistency, and Jeff has been bugging me all winter that we’ve got to win a race. So we finally got it under my belt, and it feels great. In my stint, the start was chaos. We haven’t raced since January and everybody was chomping at the bit. I had a little contact with Joe Foster, but everybody settled down, and we got in a groove. Once that happened, some of the backmarkers were difficult to pass and tough to get by them. I started eighth and came in fifth, had a great little dice with Peter Ludwig. Then I handed off to Jeff.”

JEFF SEGAL (No. 09 Automatic Racing BMW M3), finished winning car: “Joe Varde is a smart guy, and he didn’t tell me how much fuel we had left. He told me we should be ready for the stumble, and they were having me save fuel for quite awhile, which is pretty tricky here. There are not a whole lot of places where you can lift off the gas. But it was close. The car was real good. Spencer has been around a long time, and it would have been a tough battle in another couple of laps. We were sort of out of tire, but the car was great, the guys got me out in front and it was an easy cruise from there. When I got by Tom Nastasi, I was under the impression we were in third and I was behind Dirk Werner, who was driving the wheels off the BGB Porsche. About 20 minutes later, they told me I was in the lead. I’ll take it any way I can get it.”

JOE VARDE (Team Manager, Automatic Racing), Varde had his first of 25 Firestone Firehawk victories here in 1987, when he co-drove the Spirit of Tampa Camaro with Don Wallace: “I love this place. This is like coming home. Great place. We had no gas left - that was the last lap it was going to run.”

DUNCAN ENDE (No. 39 TRG Digi Trust Group/Adam Polishes/Fox River Coffee/Sherab-Khandro.com Porsche 997) Second place: “It was a pretty eventful stint. I lost a bunch of track position in the opening laps. I got tucked in behind the wrong person at the start and people got by me on the outside for the left-hander. I was held up by a bunch of BMWs for most of my stint. I was faster, but anywhere where it mattered. Finally I got by, and then I got hit by another of the BMWs after he had brake trouble passing somebody behind me. That gave me a flat tire, but there was no major damage. We made a quick spot, but made it up the next time it went yellow.”

SPENCER PUMPELLY (No. 39 TRG Porsche 997) Second driver in second place car: “We did have something for the winning Automatic car, at least from what they were showing, but in their defense, they did a great job and didn’t have to go any faster to win the race. Who knows? If I put on some pressure, they might have been able to throw in a couple of good laps and open it up. Our car was excellent today. The Gue battle was an odd deal because we had a few cars that were multiple laps down who went out of their way to make it tough for us to go by. Finally, one of the cars got black flagged, and I think Grand-Am made the right decision. It’s so tough to pass here, and when you have people who are not in the race making it harder it’s even tougher. We’ve got to keep having good finishes to get back in the championship hunt.”

BRET SEAFUSE (No. 37 JBS Motorsports Ford Mustang GT), Third place, first podium finish for JBS: “It’s been a long time in coming for the podium. James and I ran together last year and came close a few times. We had a good points finish, but couldn’t make that podium after coming close a couple times. Glad to be on the bottom of the podium, but we’re looking to get to the top. We had a great run today. I had one little mistake out there. The team did a great job. We’re definitely a family and friend team - mom, dad, wife and a bunch of friends and they do a great job for us all the time and we couldn’t do it without them. James did a great job, ran his who stint under green.”

JAMES GUE (No. 37 JBS Motorsports Ford Mustang GT): “I had a great battle with Spencer and Craig Stanton was up there as well for awhile. Unfortunately, we got into some lapped traffic and that packed everything up. With about 10 laps to go I made a tiny mistake and Spencer got underneath me. Once he got by me, I didn’t have anything for him but I think I might have been able to hold him off if there was no traffic. This track isn’t thought of as a strong Mustang track, and to get on the podium for the first time with JBS is a great result for us.”

TOM NASTASI (No. 5 Blackforest Motorsports BMW M3): “I didn’t realize that the pass by Jeff Segal was for the lead. I don’t ask - I keep passing cars. I love this car. It is the ultimate driving machine. It’s a lot easier to drive than the Mustang. It’s suited for this track. We changed the setup from qualifying, threw something at it blind, talked to the previous owner of the car to see what worked best for it, and it worked good. We still have some issues with it, but it’s much better than it’s been. We stayed out, and we pitted under the third yellow. I didn’t want to pit under green. Thank God we came in when we did, because it went green after that.”

BILLY JOHNSON (No. 18 Motorsport Technology Group BMW Z4), first race for new car: “The car was awesome. To finish 14th the very first time the car’s been out, just shaking out the bugs, was very, very good. We ran competitive times. We were running sixth but had to pit for fuel near the finish.”

DARREN LAW (No. 19 Motorsport Technology Group Porsche 997): “We had a real good race. We ran top three for the first part of the race. We got a little out on strategy and fell back, but we definitely had a top five car.”

Lime Rock Park - Split Classes Results

May 23 - 26, 2008
Lime Rock Park - Split Classes
Lime Rock Park
Lakeville, CT

POS NO. CLASS CLASS POS. DRIVER TEAM/CAR LAPS BEST LAP (#) AVG MPH SPONSORS
1 09 GS 1 Segal / Thornton Automatic Racing / BMW M3 Coupe 140 59.156 81 85.662 Engine Studios, Imported Car Store, Land Air, Rogue Engineering
2 39 GS 2 Ende / Pumpelly TRG / Porsche 997 140 59.029 102 85.641 DigiTrust Group, Adam’s Polishe’s, Fox River Coffee, Sherab-Khandro.com
3 37 GS 3 Gue / Seafuse JBS Motorsports / Ford Mustang GT 140 59.213 14 85.604 Trumansburg Shursave
4 83 GS 4 Miller / Stanton BGB Motorsports / Porsche 997 140 59.296 89 85.488 PerformanceDrink.com
5 25 GS 5 Pechnik / Wilson CMAX/ Unitech Racing / Porsche 997 140 59.183 9 85.482 C-Max, Unitech Racing
6 38 GS 6 Piera / Werner BGB Motorsports / Porsche 997 140 58.844 91 85.279 Analog.Man, Farnbacher Loles
7 5 GS 7 Dumoulin / Nastasi Blackforest Motorsports / BMW M3 Coupe 140 59.652 12 85.240 USG, Dewalt
8 19 GS 8 Davis / Law Motorsport Technology Group / Porsche 997 140 59.335 12 85.196 MAH 720 Property Mgmt, TPC Racing
9 96 GS 9 Alhadeff / Auberlen Turner Motorsport / BMW M3 Coupe 140 59.508 87 85.126 Turner Motorsport
10 46 GS 10 Borkowski / Constantine Playboy Racing/ Fall-Line / BMW M3 Coupe 140 1:00.167 10 85.107 Playboy, Verve, Taser, Palms, Aprilia, Original BMW Parts, Fall-Line
11 91 GS 11 Espenlaub / Putman Automatic Racing / BMW M3 Coupe 139 59.471 89 84.918 Engine Studios, Imported Car Store, Land Air, Rogue Engineering
12 97 GS 12 Ortiz / Salama Turner Motorsport / BMW M3 Coupe 139 59.330 8 84.884 Turner Motorsport
13 60 GS 13 Canney / Plumb Rehagen Racing / Ford Mustang GT 139 59.400 109 84.883 Sunset Hills Vineyard
14 18 GS 14 Johnson / Milner Motorsport Technology Group / BMW Z4 M 139 59.714 55 84.867 Meisha’s Hope, Morris Animal Foundation
15 28 GS 15 Boden / Jenkins Playboy Racing/ Fall-Line / BMW M3 Coupe 139 1:00.111 9 84.807 Playboy, Verve, Taser, Palms, Aprilia, Original BMW Parts, Fall-Line
16 41 GS 16 Ludwig / Schroeder TRG / Porsche 997 139 59.584 5 84.675 Cohen Financial, Wolf-tec Inc., www.WTInc.com, Ludwig Motorsports, Polar Tech
17 77 GS 17 Sellers / Smith Maxwell Paper Racing / Porsche 997 139 59.474 8 84.610 Maxwell Paper Products
18 88 GS 18 Ellis / Wellon Ranger Sports Racing / Porsche 996 138 1:00.114 128 84.304 Hop A Jet Worldwide Jet Charter
19 07 GS 19 Grigsby Jr / Heath / Robichaud Cardiosport Racing / Porsche 997 138 1:00.204 98 84.118 Euromotorworks, Porsche of Lexington
20 52 GS 20 Grandon / Mason Rehagen Racing / Ford Mustang GT 137 1:00.310 82 83.619 Columbus Truck & Equipment
21 80 GS 21 Burrows / Hopwood Kinetic Motorsports / BMW M3 Coupe 137 59.294 17 83.347 Shock Doctor
22 99 GS 22 Cameron / Finlay Automatic Racing / BMW M3 Coupe 135 59.719 19 82.585 Mobile Shop, Engine Studios, Imported Car Store, Land Air, Rogue Engineering
23 89 GS 23 Abello / Rossi Ranger Sports Racing / Porsche 997 135 1:00.793 83 82.400 Hop A Jet Worldwide Jet Charter
24 79 GS 24 Ducote / Jonsson Kinetic Motorsports / BMW M3 Coupe 135 59.694 92 82.236
25 11 GS 25 Kossmann / Wilden Emerald Hill Motorsports / Ford Mustang Cobra 135 59.807 80 82.220 StateYourIdentity.com, Gold Coast Parasail
26 87 GS 26 Betances / Smith Kinetic Motorsports / BMW M3 Coupe 134 1:00.943 80 81.427 RBR Construction
27 59 GS 27 Martin / Roush Rehagen Racing / Ford Mustang GT 132 59.683 93 80.562 Roush Performance Products
28 55 GS 28 Foster / Maxwell Hyper Sport / Ford Mustang GT 130 59.457 80 79.044
29 90 GS 29 Longhi / Masessa Automatic Racing / BMW M3 Coupe 100 59.883 44 60.897 Engine Studios, Imported Car Store, Land Air, Rogue Engineering
30 17 GS 30 Ackley / Snyder CMA Motorsports / Ford Mustang GT 87 59.968 13 53.104 Ackco, Inc. Consulting Group
31 78 GS 31 DiLeo / Massari Maxwell Paper Racing / Porsche 997 63 1:00.062 39 84.621 Maxwell Paper Products
32 70 GS 32 Hickham Jr / Hickham Sr Hickham Motorsports / Ford Mustang Cobra 60 1:00.803 15 82.165 Hickham Motorsports
33 21 GS 33 Carroll / Eversley Motorsport Technology Group / Porsche 997 9 1:01.501 9 86.824 MAH 720 Property Mgmt, TPC Racing
34 26 GS 34 Pechnik / Wilson CMAX/ Unitech Racing / Porsche 997 8 59.285 7 86.999 C-Max, Unitech Racing
35* 23 GS 0 Hauck III / Zacharias Wright Motorsports / Porsche 997 0 0 0.000

* - Withdrew