Posted (05/26/2004) -
Mont Tremblant, Quebec -- We traveled to Mont Tremblant for the second long endurance race of the Grand American Rolex Series. We started the year with the 24 hour race at Daytona International Speedway. We had two shorter 250 mile races at Homestead and Phoenix and this past weekend we traveled to Quebec for a six hour race around the scenic Mont Tremblant race track.
We had been testing twice since the Phoenix round and we were happy with what we found in the Grand American Rolex Series Porsche GT3 Cup machines. We have only ran three races with the cars and our main competitors all have over thirty events of experience with the car. We have now found a set up on these cars that really suits the car and our driving styles.
The race weekend offered a test day on Thursday. We tuned in our two Rolex Porsches to the track and we took our four Grand Am Cup Grand Sport Porsche 996s out as well. We had a new driver to the team this weekend, Buddy Stubbs, and this day allowed him to get used to the car with a little less pressure than during the official practice. Things progressed well. Our Rolex cars can run competitively with the front runners when we empty the fuel and put new tires on.
Our Grand Am Cup cars struggled a little. Grand American had added 100 lbs. of ballast to the Porsche 996 3.4 Liter model. This was a reaction to our three straight wins at the beginning of the season. We made some changes to bring the car back up to speed but you can only fight a 100 pound lead anchor so much.
On Friday we practiced our Rolex cars early in the morning. One of our competitors wrecked their Rolex Porsche in practice. We had brought two Rolex cars but only planned on running one. We loaned the second one to the competitors, Michael Baughman Racing, and they took real good care of our baby all the way through the end of the weekend. It made a good deal for them as they got to run the race and worry about fixing their car when they got home. We have known Michael Baughman for years, and Bob Ward, his co-driver, ran a race with us last season as he was just getting into racing.
Grand Am Cup qualified later in the day. Craig Stanton scored a fifth place qualifying effort in the #44 TheRaceSite.com Porsche that we own. The race wasn't until Sunday so the team went to work on prepping the cars for the race.
Joe, my dad, had a real challenge as we headed towards race time on Saturday. The Grand Am Cup Series started its race at 2:00 PM and the Grand American Rolex Series qualifying wasn't over until 1:20 PM. That only left time to get out of his blue and green suit, get into his red and black suit, and get in the car to start.
The Cup race went both well and bad for us. We had scored a podium in thirty three straight Grand Am Cup events but at Mont Tremblant that streak came to an end. We were struggling from the 100 lbs. extra that the series had put on our cars. Our tires, brakes, and fuel all burned off quicker than it should have and the result was a fifth place finish for Craig Stanton and David Murry in the #44 and a tenth place finish for Dad and I in the #43 TheRaceSite.com Porsche.
Craig had run the first three races with Terry Borcheller in the #44 Porsche and won all three. This race Terry went to the Cadillac effort and they won the race. However post race inspections showed that they had too much fuel in the car and they were given last place points. While Terry was only a driver and had nothing to do with the infraction, he still lost his points and Craig, who is signed up with our team the remainder of the season, now holds a substantial lead over Terry, who is in second. Dad and I are third and only three points behind Terry in the Championship hunt.
In the Rolex Series race we had a good attitude about the day. We had shown increased speed from our recent tests and we thought we might get a chance to show that on race day. The race didn't work out quite as planned though. Midway thr
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