Compass360 Racing Ends Year with Back-to-Back ST Victories

Compass360 Racing ended the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge season on a high note, winning the last two Street Tuner (ST) races at Circuit of The Americas and Road Atlanta with Ryan Eversley and Kyle Gimple co-driving the No. 75 Children’s Tumor Foundation/Racing4Research.org Honda Civic Si.

“It’s too bad we couldn’t have done that a little earlier in the year and been in the championship hunt  again,” said Compass360 Racing team owner Karl Thomson. “Unfortunately, we had a couple of wrecks and some mechanical issues during the season, but it was a real good way to end the year.”

Eversley and Gimple also won at Watkins Glen International midway through the season. That was Gimple’s first career victory in the series and Eversley’s third, but first since winning at Virginia International Raceway in 2011.

While they ended the season as the hottest team in the Continental Tire Championship, the year got off to a disappointing start. Daytona set tone for Eversley and Gimple, who hoped to carry momentum from a second-place showing in the 2013 championship.

The team had a solid run, with Eversley running in the top five before being involved in an accident in the closing laps. The bad luck continued, with the pair placing 17th in Round 2 at Sebring and 19th two races later at Lime Rock, all but ending their title hopes.

Compass360 Racing also debuted a Subaru in the GS class, with the No. 76 Children’s Tumor Foundation/Touge Tuning/ Racing4Research.org Subaru WRX-STI of Ray Mason and Pierre Kleinubing finishing in the top four in two of the final four races. Kleinubing was leading on the final lap at Road America before breaking a half-shaft within sight of the checkered flag – resulting in a third-place finish.

“Road America was heartbreaking, but what hurt even more was the wreck at Road Atlanta, because the Subaru would have won there, too,” Thomson said. In the finale, Kleinubing was pressuring John Edwards for third place when the cars touched and Kleinubing slammed into the Turn 8 wall with less than 45 minutes remaining.

Eversley and Gimple also took a turn in a Compass360 GS entry. Taking advantage of Lime Rock’s split format, the pair rebounded from a disappointing finish in the ST race to place second in the GS event in the No. 77 Subaru. Eversley charged from the back of the grid to third in a sensational opening drive, while Gimple pressured eventual winner Matt Plumb late in the race.

Compass360 also campaigned the No. 74 Bionic Environments/Loud Basstard/Be The Match/Expo Systems Honda Civic Si for James Vance and Jon Miller. Their best finish was seventh at Circuit of The Americas.

With the 2014 season in the books, Thomson is already preparing for the 2015 campaign. The team plans to run a pair of new cars in ST, with Gimple set to be the closing driver on one of the entries. For GS, Kleinubing and Mason are expected to return in the No. 76 Subaru.

“It’s going to be an interesting off season,” Thomson said. “I think we’ll see a few folks switching cars, along with a few new cars. I think ST is going to be quite interesting, with a lot of big changes.”

Thomson hopes to announce his new cars and driver lineup by early November.

“We’re busy building two new cars that have never been made race cars before,” he said. “We have them ready to test at Sebring in December.

“It’s not really much of an off season for our guys, because we have to be ready for Daytona in January.”