Spencer Pumpelly Daytona Post-Race Report

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 27, 2015) – In the 2015 IMSA season opener at Daytona International Speedway, Spencer Pumpelly walked away with a Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge win and an unfortunate retirement in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

For 2015, Pumpelly is balancing driving duties between Rennsport One in the Continental Tire Challenge ST class and Park Place Motorsports in the TUDOR Championship GTD class.The weekend got off to a fantastic start, as Pumpelly’s co-driver in the No. 17 RS1 Porsche Cayman, Luis Rodriguez Jr., qualified the car fourth on the ST grid in his first professional race event. At the start of the race, the rookie kept a cool head and a clean nose and brought the Cayman back to pit lane in sixth place for Pumpelly.Not long after Pumpelly took over the controls, a full-course yellow was issued, enabling the No. 17 to catch up to the leaders. On the restart, Pumpelly rocketed into second behind the Cayman of Eric Foss.“Eric and I talked before the race about working together because the draft in the Continental cars is such a big deal at Daytona,” Pumpelly said. “We figured if we could hook up and stay in line we could pull away and we did for a little bit, but then as the laps started to go on, I noticed that Eric was having a bit of a braking issue and couldn’t quite slow down as effectively as we needed to, to keep pulling away. My team car was definitely catching us as a result. Eric moved over and let me take the lead so maybe he could take advantage of my draft, but he wasn’t able to stay with me. As a result, my RS1 teammate Adam Isman was able to pass Eric for second.”Isman took the lead with three laps to go when Pumpelly got bogged down in traffic. Pumpelly then re-took the lead the following lap and watched as Isman faded in his mirrors, out of fuel. From there, Pumpelly was able to cruise to victory in Rennsport One’s race debut.“It was a fantastic race and I think we’re going to have a tight fight in ST this year,” Pumpelly smiled. “I didn’t know what to expect from this new team. I knew they could prepare a car, but I didn’t really know what we had until we hit the track. I’m extremely excited about our season coming up and I’m proud of all the guys pulling together as a team and Luis performing like a pro in his first race. It feels unbelievable getting a win our first time out.”Pumpelly’s TUDOR season also got off to a promising start with the Rolex 24 at Daytona, though he did not come away with any hardware representative of the team’s efforts.Partnered with Patrick Lindsey, Dr. Jim Norman, Nelson Canache Jr. and Kevin Estre in the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America, Pumpelly qualified seventh on the GTD grid. In his opening stint, he was able to move the car up to fifth in class before handing over to Norman.“I had a really good opening stint, holding my own with all the top guys that did the qualifying,” Pumpelly recalled. “We were pretty optimistic about the rest of the race at that point. Jim, Patrick and Nelson all did really good stints and we were having a clean race except when Jim was out there, one of the prototypes spun in front of him and he had to come to a stop to avoid it. He nicked it and that ripped off about half of the splitter, which wasn’t a big deal, the car was still really good.”During Pumpelly’s night stint, however, a move onto the grass to avoid a crash scene ripped the rest of the car’s front splitter off. From 11pm onward, drivers wrestled with understeer and decline in top speed, making passing difficult.“We struggled to pass slower cars, but we were certainly there and in the hunt,” Pumpelly said. “A couple times we lost a lap, but we were able to get them back with pit strategy. The Park Place guys did a really good job in the pits and on the timing stand to make sure we played the strategy right every time. While we were on the lead lap, things were going well, we were in the hunt.”Then, just before sunrise, an engine issue brought the No. 73 into the garage. The team diagnosed a crank sensor failure and were able to replace it and get the car back out on track, several laps down. With a podium out of the picture, Park Place refocused its plan on finishing as high as possible to collect as many points they could.In the early morning hours, with Norman behind the wheel, a gearbox problem brought the car back to the garage once again. Upon further inspection, it proved to be terminal and the car was retired with five hours left in the race. This classified the No. 73 as finishing 16th in class.“It was really disappointing, because the effort by the Park Place guys was phenomenal,” Pumpelly said. “We did everything we needed to do, we kept our noses clean and we did a good job of moving on with the car slightly damaged. To have a bunch of things not go our way, but still be running well, it’s disappointing that we weren’t there for a podium. On the bright side, it gives me optimism for the future of Park Place and I think that we’re going to be a force to reckon with as the season continues.”Next up for Pumpelly is a trip to Sebring International Raceway in Florida for the 12 Hours of Sebring and the second round of the Continental Challenge, March 19 – 21.