The curtain closed on a positive note after four hours of drama for the CORE autosport Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC) team in today’s Time Warner Road Race Showcase featuring the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) presented by Tequila Patrón.
Damaged caused by off-track excursions and repeated contact with slower GT cars required a herculean team effort by the CORE autosport crew, replacing splitters and bodywork. This hard work paid off with a third-place class finish (sixth overall) for the #05 Bayshore Recycling / Composite Resources ORECA FLM09 driven by young gun Frankie Montecalvo and team founder Jon Bennett.
Ricardo Gonzalez and Gunnar Jeannette, driving the #06 Excel Consultants / Composite Resources machine earned a fifth LMPC finishing spot (ninth overall). After this event, round six in the nine-round ALMS season, the #06 drivers remain the 2011 LMPC driver championship points leaders, while CORE autosport still leads the 2011 LMPC team championship race. Although Friday required a rebuild of the #05 machine after a crash in practice, Saturday’s race began in a positive way, with Gonzalez grabbing first place and Montecalvo working his way up to fifth spot despite battling GT cars.
A mere 25 minutes into the event Gonzalez spun entering turn five, resulting in contact with the wall and damaging the front splitter of the car. He re-entered the race with a damaged car and was able to work the injured #06 machine from seventh spot to fifth before the CORE autosport crew changed the front splitter, and, despite spinning again after contacting another LMPC car, was up to third spot before turning the car over to Jeannette.
Through pit strategy, the #05 car was soon in first spot, but after the opening hour of the race – just prior to Montecalvo turning the car over to Bennett, the #05 shot off of the “kink” resulting in contact requiring a nose replacement.
With less than an hour remaining in the event, Jeannette and a GTC-class Porsche made contact, resulting in a cut right rear tire, significant body damage and a limping #06 machine on the bottom of the class standings. The CORE autosport crew went to work repairing the car, and Jeannette re-entered the race to salvage the best finish he could.
Jeannette’s efforts worked as the #06 car is credited with the fastest LMPC lap of the race at 2:00.622 and a fifth place finishing spot, while the #05 met with good fortune and a combination of team strategy and smart driving by Bennett and Montecalvo resulting in a third place spot.
Viewers can watch the tape-delayed broadcast of the Time Warner Road Race Showcase featuring the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrónon ABC-TV on Sunday, August 21 at 4:30 p.m. EST. Next for CORE autosport is the first-ever Baltimore Grand Prix on Saturday, September 3 in the harbor area of downtown Baltimore, MD.
Gunnar Jeannette
“For the #06 car this was the race that wasn’t meant to be. But I can’t say enough about our crew. They kept us in it, incident after incident. The splitter and nose change that they did was absolutely phenomenal. Every guy was amazing – it was like watching a choreographed ballet. I still don’t know what happened with my tire issue – I was going into the braking zone, I hit my brakes and the tire exploded. It was really tough to try to get the car back to the pits, but the guys did their magic again and we were back out on track and gained a couple of positions. At least the #05 car is on the podium and they’re representing the team. Onward and upward.”
Ricardo Gonzalez
“It was a very difficult day, not what we were expecting. We needed to be strong to gain points for the championship and that’s not what happened today. It all started when I went out of the pits on cold tires. I was braking for Turn 5, the car snapped on me and I went straight into the wall. It damaged the front splitter and then I had to do a complete stint with practically no front downforce, which was very difficult. We managed to get it fixed, and then in traffic I touched another LMPC car, forcing me into the grass and when I was coming back onto the track I spun again. But I got the car to Gunnar in third place, which I thought was pretty good considering how the day had gone. We tried to make it work and did what we could, but it was such a wild day.”
Jon Bennett
“Here we are on the podium again. What a fantastic day for CORE autosport. I’m not super proud that we finished ahead of the #06 car but it just shows our team’s persistence. Persistence pays with such an up-and-down weekend. This weekend we’ve been at the top of the charts, we’ve been in the tire wall, and the CORE autosport team did a great job of getting the cars back on the track. We did what we could with what we had and our patience paid off. Frankie did a great job in the #05 car and here we are on the podium.”
Frankie Montecalvo
“I had a hard time at the start, getting hit a bunch of times by GT cars who were battling it out. Finally I got some clear track, started pulling it back up and reeling in some LMPC cars. The damage to the car was me. Going through the ‘kink’ in sixth gear I started sliding, pushing off the line and onto the curbs, then onto the grass. I did my best to try to keep it off the wall and tapped it a little. I kept it straight and didn’t spin, which is a good thing. The guys did an awesome job getting the car back together again. This weekend has been full of ups and downs – I think I’m just happy we pulled it off and got on the podium.”
Source : CORE Autosport