It was a bumper 68 car grid for the opening race of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge season that saw incidents galore, a rather disjointed race ending in a finish under yellow, a fight back from a 60 second stop-go that initially sealed the race win for the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 of Paul Dalla Lana and Bill Auberlen but then later a post race exclusion for the winning car that saw an historic result in the Series.
In fact a late stumble from the previous race leading #13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche left the race result initially displaying what had earlier looked a rather unlikely top 5 sweep for BMW with a pair of BMW 328is (led by the #56 Murillo Racing car of Eric Foss and Jeff Mosing) completing a 1,2 in the ST class battle too!
Even after the tech inspection failure for the #96 the overall race result would be one to put smiles on the faces of BMW fans, and in particular the Fall-Line Motorsport team, M3s finishing 1,2,3,4.
The polesetting #15 Mustang couldn’t hold back the Porsche on the opening lap and thereafter it was looking set to be Rum Bum’s day, particularly after the two Turner BMWs each had their own challenges on pit lane, Paul Dalla Lana incurring his penalty for a pit exit snafu and Michael Marsal in the #97 car tangling with Ian James’s Mustang as the Ford pitted just as the M3 was released from its first scheduled stop early in the race.
No fewer than five full course caution periods in the 2 Hours 30 minute race though saw the field stay fairly close together, and allowed the BMWs to stay in, (albeit initially rather distant) contention.
But the lead battle wasn’t all about the Turner cars and the Porsche. With the Mustang having dropped back the closest contender on pace rather than strategy and pit cycle was the #46 Fall-Line M3. That challenge ultimately ended though with a fumble at T1 from John Edwards who did very well to avoid putting the car in the wall but it was an incident that cost the car time and track position.
By this point the Turner car was right back in contention, the team having been forced into an aggressive pit strategy that counted on yellow flags to succeed, the gamble paid off, 24 of the race’s 54 laps completed under caution, and Auberlen back up to second when Hugh Plumb felt the Porsche lose all power briefly – It would be enough to secure the win for the BMW as the Rum Bum car made its way round to the pitlane.
A late race yellow would initially seem to settle things after a nasty looking shunt involving a pair of the ST class Honda Civics clashing into the Bus Stop, Michael Valiante and Ryan Eversley tangling as they tried to pass a slower car, Eversley in particular taking a big hit from the impact, the driver OK, the Honda – not so much!
The #48 (Shelby Blackstock/ Ashley Freiberg) and #47 Fall-Line BMWs initially filled the other two steps of the podium, improving from rather lowly start positions to finish right up at the sharp end. An excellent run though from Spencer Pumpelly was spoiled post race though as the nominally third place finisher fell foul of a time penalty, the team having failed to serve an earlier penalty. That put the Edwards/ Trent Hindman #46 back into a podium position ahead of the recovering Kimber Smith/ Marsal #97 Turner M3 with the #03 Rum Bum BMW completing the sweep in the hands of 15-year-old Kaz Grala and Hugh Plumb.
Later though came the news that the provisional race winner was out, and suddenly it was a Fall-Line 1,2, Freiburg thus becoming the first woman to win overall in the series’ history
Best of the non-BMW rest was the first of the Aston Martins, TRG/ AMR’s #09 Vantage coming home 5th.
