The No. 66 Viper Exchange/Port Lavaca Auto Group Porsche GT3 was having a great day in the 16th annual Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.  The final race event for the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron found mixed weather all day including bouts of rain.

A fifth place grid position was not an issue as the driver line-up of Ben Keating, Damien Faulkner, and Craig Stanton drove masterfully in the changing weather. Kevin Buckler was able to play the strategy game brilliantly.  Within three hours, the TRG team had the Porsche as one of only three in the class on the lead lap in the GTC class.  From that point and for the remainder of the event, the No. 66 was in a battle with the No. 45 and No. 22 cars for the podium position.

As the race became a 1000-mile affair instead of a 10-hour race, the three lead lap teams had a final pit stop to complete the competition. The No. 66 Porsche made a great final stop.  This was one of many pit stops performed during the enduro, not all of which were scheduled stops, as some were performed to change from wet to dry or vice-versa due to constantly changing weather conditions.  All of these stops were made with trademark TRG efficiency by their “A Team”.  In the sequence of pitting, the No. 66 GTC vehicle would lose its position on track in the pits.  The Porsche would not re-fire and it took more than a lap to solve the issue.  Therefore, it appeared that the victory would be a race between the No. 45 and No. 66.

With less than 15 laps remaining, however, on track. The location of the racecar meant that the team could not to affect repairs. This cost the TRG team and drivers a well-earned podium position in the final race for the ALMS. In the final analysis the culprit was a blown fuse which control the fuel pumps.  It is a part of racing that is never fun, but the TRG team and drivers are proud of the work that everyone contributed. Now it is time to begin work on 2014 for TRG-AMR and for the TRG Porsche clubracing team.

TRG Owner Kevin Buckler on Petit Le Mans:

“I could not have been more proud of my guys across the board. When the race started we had so many curveballs thrown at us and we executed everything perfectly. From rains to slicks and slicks to rains, pitstops, yellow flags, waive-arounds, drivers… Everybody just did a stellar job and we definitely deserved that podium. Unpredictable things happen in racing and I don’t think we’ve ever been stopped by a fuse before but everybody is now already looking onward and upward and we could not be more excited about our new racing future. We have several significant announcements coming up in the next few weeks and we are ready…”