The Conquest Endurance team finished second at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge today after another strong performance in which both David Heinemeier Hansson and Martin Plowman led during their stints. The result marks the fifth straight top two finish for the team in their first ever American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron season.

Heinemeier Hansson took the green flag in second position and had a great start in which he managed to take the lead before he even got to the first breaking zone. The 34-year old driver quickly got into a rhythm and started pulling away from the rest of the field, carving his way through traffic at this tight 2.258-mile permanent road course. A stop and go penalty for blocking during the last few laps of his stint cost him the lead and he then decided to come into the pits three laps before planned as the tires were starting to quickly degrade. He handed the #37 Morgan-Nissan over to Plowman on lap 64 after 1h33min.

After the pit stop exchange Plowman came back on track in the lead and once again went on to have a heated battle with Cristophe Bouchut from Level 5 in what has now become a season-long fight for wins and championship points between the two teams. Plowman went on to turn the fastest lap of the race in the P2 category with a 1m15.146s but lost the lead in a scramble with traffic and had to settle for second place when the checkered flag dropped. After scoring the team’s first win at the previous event at Mosport, the Conquest crew will now have to chase their second victory at the Road America Road Race Showcase which will take place August 18th at the picturesque Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

Martin Plowman
Driver
#37 Conquest Endurance / Morgan / Nissan Dunlop
“Obviously this was not the weekend we were hoping for but I think we can still take many positives out of it. We took the fight to level 5 again but came short in the end. It probably wasn’t the strongest track for our car but I know in the next few races the tracks will be more in our favor so im looking forward to getting our second win. I was pushing really hard during the race and just never gave up. David unfortunately got a penalty but we fought back and got very close. So now we go away and keep working hard and come back even stronger next time.”

David Heinemeier Hansson
Driver
#37 Conquest Endurance / Morgan / Nissan Dunlop
“We had a great start, the car felt pretty good and i had a lot of fun just carving through the traffic which is really tough here, there’s not a lot of places to pass. To be fast you have to take some chances which unfortunately meant that when I took the same chance I had taken ten times before when passing a Viper we had a bit of a touch which put us on probation. Normally it wouldn’t have been that big a deal but then when Ricardo (Gonzalez) reeled me in we had some contact and I got a drive-through penalty, I thought it was a bit harsh since he got the position but those are the rules.  So our lead was reduced from 40secs to 12secs, we also had to pit a bit early because our tires were pretty much done. But overall it was a good race we were right there, we ended up just 8 seconds off, so really we should’ve won.”

Eric Bachelart
Team Principal, Conquest Endurance
“The team did a good job today we had the performance and managed ot turn the best lap. It was a very good battle as usual with Level 5, we are getting to the point where the competition is very close so you have to get everything right to be able to win the race. We still came in second and were close to a win again, but we need to keep focusing and working harder and try to get it right for Road America.”

Source : Conquest Endurance