The Download: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Subtitle:Notes And Quotes From The Continental Tire Challenge At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

The No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang Boss 302R used some strategy of its own on its final stop, giving Billy Johnson a pair of right-side tires in a bid to take the fight to the Camaro and the Nissan of BJ Zacharias.

“We definitely didn’t have the power for them, but Multimatic called perfect race strategy giving us those tires at the end. The fact that we had slightly better tires put us on a more even playing field, and we were able to charge to the front. We were there in the corners and brakes, but not enough to get it done in the straights. Who knows? Another lap or two and maybe I could have got them, but just not enough for today.”Didn’t Need Final Yellow: BJ Zacharias was licking his chops when got into the No. 14 Doran Racing Nissan Nismo GT Academy Nissan 370Z. Teammate Brad Jaeger had qualified the car in seventh and worked his way up to second before his pit stop.“I was talking with Nissan’s Rick Kulach (Nissan North America Competition Director) on the stand before I got in the car, ‘If this goes green the rest of the way, we’ve got this one in the bag,’” Zacharias said. “Brad did a great job in his stint, and Kevin (Doran) and the team did a great job setting up the car. I really thought we had it. I thought we had something for the Camaro, but we’ll take the podium.”

Mazdas Battle to the Checker: The final laps of the ST race proved to be a battle among the Mazdas of Tom Long, Chad McCumbee, Christian Szymczak and Andrew Carbonell. The late caution enabled Carbonell to get in the thick of the battle for the lead, where he had an exciting battle with Czymczak for second that was finally resolved in Carbonell’s favor coming to the white flag. Carbonell then caught Long on the final lap to take the victory in the No. 26 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5 started by USMC Staff Sgt. Liam Dwyer.“It was real intense,” said Szymczak, who took over for pole winner Justin Piscitell in the No. 34 Alara Racing Mazda and was seeking the first ST triumph for both drivers and the team. “I’ve never been in such an embroiled battle in all my days of racing. That was an awesome race.” “It was worse standing outside watching than sitting in the car,” said Piscitell, who won the ST TOTAL Pole Award at all three races in 2015. “Christian drove his butt off.”“It was good, hard racing,” Carbonell said. “(Christian) sent me for a ride at one point, but that’s all understood, it’s part of the nature of the sport. We came back and didn’t make any more mistakes, and unfortunately for him, he made one small mistake coming out of Turn 5 that gave me the run. From there, it was a matter of chasing down the No. 25 at the end.”Owen Trinkler broke up a potential top four sweep by getting in the thick of the fight in the closing laps, bringing home the pink No. 44 CRG-I Do Borrow Honda Civic Si started by Sarah Cattaneo fourth.Climbing Towards the Top: Matt Bell took over sole possession of second place on the list of all-time pole winners on Friday. He won his second consecutive TOTAL Pole Award, giving him 11 for his career. That broke a tie with David Haskell and Joe Foster. Devon Powell is the all-time leader with 13 poles. Putnam Returns: Less than eight months after an accident at his ranch near Casper, Wyoming, Charlie Putnam was back behind the wheel in Continental Tire Challenge competition. Back on Sept. 14, Putnam was trapped under his ATV and spent the night and most of the next day in near freezing temperatures.  After 20 hours, the diligent efforts of the Civil Air Patrol and “a friend of a friend” of the driver resulted in his rescue. He then spent more than a week in a hospital before beginning two and a half months of rehab.Automatic Racing’s David Russell invited Putnam to test at Savannah just before Christmas, and Putnam spent another test at Sebring with the team.Saturday, Putnam made his return, finishing 15th in the No. 09 Automatic Racing Invisible Glass Aston Martin Vantage.  He’s got a busy schedule coming up, including a 24-hour race at Germany’s famed Nurburgring, and an additional four to five races in the Continental Tire Challenge. He’ll be doing double duty at Watkins Glen International, racing in both the Continental Tire 150 and Porsche GT3 Cup USA during the June 26-28 weekend.Bike Accident Sidelines Phillips: While Automatic Racing welcomed back Putnam to the Continental Tire Challenge paddock, team regular Steve Phillips was missing. Phillips was involved in a bicycle accident near his home in Charleston, S.C., and will be out for about four months while making his recovery from various injuries, including a broken right clavicle that required surgery.Brett Sandberg stood in to co-drive the No. 99 Invisible Glass Aston Martin Vantage with Rob Ecklin Jr., with the pair finishing 10th – the team’s best finish of the year and matching Ecklin’s best at the circuit.Too Good to Miss: C.J. Wilson has a long-time habit for days when he is scheduled to take to the mound for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: stay in bed for as long as possible.The opportunity to see his race team in action on Friday was too tempting to turn down, so Wilson spent the morning at Mazda Raceway before returning to San Francisco to take on the Giants. CJ Wilson Racing made its GS debut with the No. 33 (Wilson’s uniform number) Porsche for Tyler McQuarrie and Marc Miller, while Steven McAleer and Chad McCumbee drove the No. 5 Mazda MX-5 in ST.“This was too good an opportunity to pass up – Mazda Raceway is one of my favorite tracks. We’ve been working on finding our way into GS for a while, and it’s exciting to see our car turning laps with the other cars. Now I just hope our GS and ST cars play well together!”Both cars played well together. The new Porsche went on to finish eighth, while the Mazda placed fifth after running at the front for most of the race.“The Porsche came a long way in only one day,” Miller said. “It was a real handful when we unloaded, and we were real pleased qualifying tenth. It got even better in the race. Our biggest challenge was getting it good over a long run on a set of tires. We were not able to do that until the actual race.Friday evening, Wilson allowed only four hits and one earned run in seven innings pitched, getting no share in the decision as the Giants pulled out a 3-2 victory with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.