After five and a half hours battling the heat, the traffic and the ups and downs of Watkins Glen, BAR1 Motorsports’ TOP1 Oil ORECA FLM09 prevailed to finish 2nd in class on Sunday for the TUDOR Championship Sahlen Six Hours at The Glen. The race was the third round of the Patron North American Endurance Cup.

“It feels good to be back on the podium after the rough start of our season,” said team owner, Brian Alder. “ The No. 88 Top1 Oil car was solid all weekend. We’re trilled with a 2nd place finish… it’s certainly a boost we need as a team.  Drivers David Cheng and Doug Bielefeld drove flawless in their opening stints and handed off a near perfect car to Martin Plowman who finished the race. Getting to the second step on the podium was a total team effort. Not only did our drivers perform flawlessly, the crew did as well.  The Top1 car spent less time in the pits than any other car in our class. And, we were consistently the quickest on and off pit road all day. Obviously, we’re hoping to carry this momentum on to our next race at Indianapolis where we’ll be aiming for the top step of the podium.”

David Cheng
“I have to thank Brian Alder for this opportunity to race at the Glen and the whole Bar1 team for putting their faith in me. This result is the culmination of work that everyone on the team put in this weekend. Both my teammates put in great drives, but in the end Martin was probably laying down the fastest average green flag  times. The BAR1 crew is the unsung hero of the race, giving us fastest pit stops of any other team in our class. This was a fantastic experience for me, meeting and working with everyone at BAR1.  I hope to have the opportunity to work with them again!”

Martin Plowman
“It was an unbelievable race for the #88 car. This is easily one of my personal best races of my career. If winning at Le Mans was 1a, this race would be 1b.

I can’t thank our engineer and the whole crew enough for putting such a great car on the grid. There are very few times that you feel 100% connected with a car…. where you feel invincible… like you can go to another level. It’s only happened 3 times in my 17 years of racing. This team gave me that feeling. David did a great job at the start and Doug really impressed me with how much he improved throughout the race… he never put a wheel wrong. He’s really come a long way and I’m proud to have shared in his first big podium finish.”

Doug Bielefeld
“The weekend was total awesomeness! The BAR1 team really demonstrated how hard work pays off. We’ve been poised for a good result all season. I’m so proud to be involved in the Tudor Championship, with Martin Plowman and our newest addition, David Cheng! Great chemistry and focus!”

BAR1 owner, Brian Alder also competed in the Cooper Tire Prototype Lites races at the Glen. While the Top1 Oil Prototype Lites car rolled off the trailer quick and continued to be fast through qualifying, Alder made a mistake entering turn 9, and made light contact with the wall damaging the right front corner. Fortunately, his time was still good enough to grab pole position and set the current L2 class track record.

The crew worked hard and fast getting the car repaired and ready for Race #1 later in the afternoon.  Again, bad luck reared its ugly head as Alder got caught up in someone else’s  misfortune in turn 1.  Even though the car was damaged, Alder was able to continue and hold on to 2nd place, earning valuable championship points, even extending the lead.

In Race #2 Alder started from the Pole position and was able to secure a 2nd place finish in this race as well. The Top1 Oil prototype is currently holding a 62 point lead in both the driver and team Championships.

BAR1 will next head to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship  July 24-27, 2014 along with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for four exciting races during the Kroger Super Weekend at the Brickyard. Races will take place on the 2.5-mile oval and 2.534-mile road course during the same weekend with the 2 hour and 45 minute Brickyard Grand Prix running Friday, July 25 at 5:40PM with same-day coverage on FOX Sports 1 at 7PM.