Monday, October 12, 2015

BES Round 1 - Road Atlanta

With the BES series rebooted after the technical issues in Round 1, the team took the difficult decision to switch cars for this series and run the Ruf Track. Hard work during the week leading up to the race by Christian saw us with a good race setup but clashes with other events (and real life) meant that the driver line-ups were a little compromised.

Car #66

Christian chases the field on Lap 1.
Christian and John drove the car in the Saturday 9:00am race. Christian qualified 33rd and made a careful start. He drove excellently throughout his double stint, running a strong pace and keeping up with the train of cars ahead of him. He gain a few places on pace but mainly his climb through the field to 12th at the end of the 2nd hour was through attrition.



For the final hour, John took over. He started very nervously and came very close to crashing on his out lap and was at the head of a train of very fast cars and so found it really difficult to get into any kind of rhythm for the 1st 10-15 laps of his spell. But, once he was clear of the very busy traffic, he settled into a decent pace and although he lost a few places to faster cars, the race attrition continued and he brought the car home in 12th - an awesome result for the team.
Former BAM team member Marco Mogren passes John.
Marco's team Friction Racing went on to finish 7th
Due to other commitments, #66 didn't run in the Saturday 19:00 race. Christian and Juha entered the Sunday 17:00 race, qualified 31st but were involved in an incident early in the race and had to retire. The result from the 1st race means that No. 66 sits 40th in the standings - exactly the position to qualify for next years World Series.






Car #67
Tommy and Fokke entered the Saturday 9:00am race. They qualified 21st in split 3 but crashed on the 1st lap. The car was too badly damaged to continue.
Fokke and Braith ran in the 19:00 race. They were in split 4 and qualified 16th. Fokke drove an excellent 1st stint, moving up to 8th before the pit stop cycle begun. Braith took over and drove steadily and maintained a good position, handing back to Fokke in 10th. Fokke pushed hard during the last hour and managed to get the car up to 7th place - a really great effort by both drivers.
After the 1st week, car #67 sits 113th in the standings. Some work to dobut at least it's on the board with a decent score.

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