GTSport Racing's Bob Sanderson Reflects on Winning the Zimmermann Cup

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Denver, CO - At last Saturday's Pirelli World Challenge Awards Banquet held in Salt Lake City at the conclusion of the series' 2014 25th anniversary season, GTSport Racing's Crew Chief Bob Sanderson was presented with this year's Jerome Zimmermann Cup. The Zimmermann Cup is an annual award presented in the memory of multi-time championship winning crew chief Jerome Zimmermann (1967-2003) at season’s end to the crew chief that best exemplifies the similar passion, dedication and success Zimmermann had in the Pirelli World Challenge.

Sanderson, Crew Chief for the No. 72 and No. 73 RESET-MD Porsche Cayman's driven by Buz McCall and Jack Baldwin, joined the team back in 2012. Sanderson has led a career in motorsports that's been strictly centered around the Porsche brand. He became involved with racing in 1985, took it to a professional level in 2000, and became a crew chief in 2005. As a crew chief, he's collectively racked up 71 professional podiums and 25 professional wins. Some of his greater accomplishments include one GT class Le Mans 24 win [2002], three Daytona 24 wins [2002,2004,2005], two GT class Grand Am championships [2007,2009] and a platinum class IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge championship [2010]. Bob established and became a partner of Goldcrest Motorsports in 2010. The following year, he started out the 2011 Grand Am season as the crew chief for Brumos Racing and played a vital role in the upbringing of their GT effort. In 2012, when Goldcrest Motorsports joined forces with GTSport Racing and Jack Baldwin mid-season. That year, he took a third in the championship and then went on to take a second in 2013 and 2014.

“I definitely wasn’t expecting to hear my name called and I can’t express how flattered I am just because I'm very familiar with the huge crowd of talent that's out there," said Sanderson. "To be included in a group that’s being compared to Zimmermann is something that's truly humbling."
"I’m not the only one who played a part in this effort and if I could bandsaw this trophy up into seven pieces, I’d share it with everyone on my team. Our season of ups and downs began as early as Long Beach, when we had only two days to rebuild the car from the ground up and get it to Barber in time for the first practice. I eventually decided that the idea of making it there just wasn’t enough and set a goal to be the first ones on the grid for the session. We pulled it off and Jack delivered a win and a second place. As the bad luck continued, people would constantly come over to ask if we’d be back in time for the next race. I was always in the mindset that there was no other option. No one on my team ever gave up or had a bad attitude. They stayed up beat and did their part to get things done. I also have to give credit to everyone on the outside from Porsche Motorsport, Magnum Collision, Miller Decals and the guys back at Goldcrest Motorsports who helped to keep us going."
"Our history of bad luck at Sonoma made us very nervous to head into that weekend, but as soon as we took the pole position and win, the black cloud of bad luck went away. Of course, I wish it happened earlier this season, but with two wins and two seconds in the last four races, we finished out the year with the most hard fought second place in the championship. I couldn’t be happier."