Doran Racing Lime Rock Park Post-Race Report

LAKEVILLE, Conn., July 25 — Brad Jaeger and B.J. Zacharias, drivers of Doran Racing's #14 Nissan 370Z, have now been on the podium in half of the six Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge races held so far this year. 

They're getting ever closer to a runner-up finish and a victory, as Zacharias was only 0.117 of a second behind the second-place car Saturday at Lime Rock Park after 2 hours of torrid competition.The team's sister car, a similar Nissan 370Z that carries #41, was in fourth place with just 12 minutes remaining but ended up seventh. It was the fourth top-10 finish for the #41, which was driven here by two Nissan GT Academy champions, Nicolas Hammann and Steven Doherty. Jaeger qualified seventh in the #14 and drove the first half of the race, setting the car's fastest lap of the race on lap 13 with a 57.952 while running sixth, right behind the #41. The #41's fastest race lap came one lap earlier when Hammann posted a 58.062 for the seven-turn, 1.53-mile road course. He qualified fifth on Friday with a 58.140 despite the fact that he was making his series debut and his first start at Lime Rock Park.The two Nissans ran in fifth and sixth from the drop of the green on Saturday until lap 21, when Scott Maxwell passed Jaeger in the Ford Shelby that went on to win the race.Hammann stayed in fifth place and Jaeger in seventh until they both moved up one position working lap 33 with about 40 minutes gone when the second-place car was hit by the third-place car. They both moved up one more spot when the guilty driver served a penalty for the contact five laps later, which put Hammann in third and Jaeger in fifth.Hammann had been battling the driver who was now second, Austin Cindric, for many laps. He was still applying pressure when he dropped from third to fourth working lap 47 when Maxwell passed him with 51 minutes gone. At the halfway point Hammann was still in fourth and Jaeger was fifth, but Hammann came in for his one pit stop on lap 57 in third place after the leader pitted a lap earlier. Doherty climbed aboard the #41 after it received fuel and four fresh Continental tires, and he began his stint in sixth place.Jaeger was still on the track and had vaulted into the lead on lap 58 due to the other frontrunners' pit stops. He made his pit stop on lap 60 as the race leader. It went perfectly, and Zacharias began his stint in fourth place with his team car right behind him in fifth. At that point Zacharias was also some 14.804 seconds behind Billy Johnson, who had recently taken over the eventual winning car from Maxwell and was third with 53 minutes remaining in the race. Johnson passed Lawson Aschenbach for the lead on lap 69. At that point Zacharias was still in fourth and Doherty was fifth. Zacharias was setting the fastest lap times of anyone at that point, and he'd cut the margin to the third-place driver, now Jade Buford, to 10.470 seconds. Zacharias was about 2 seconds ahead of Doherty, who in turn was about 1.248 seconds ahead of the sixth-place driver, Robin Liddell.By lap 77, with 36 minutes remaining, Zacharias was still in fourth place but he had cut Buford's advantage to just 3.223 seconds. Doherty was still in fifth. He not only was still ahead of Liddell, but he had built up a 3.018-second advantage over the veteran. A minute later a slower Street Tuner car hit the second-place car, which was being driven by Aschenbach. He plummeted from second to sixth when Zacharias, Doherty and Liddell all capitalized on his misfortune and sailed by him. That put Zacharias into third and Doherty into fourth with 34 minutes remaining. Zacharias had cut the margin from third to second from 5.974 seconds at that point to just 4.5 seconds when Kevin Boehm went off course on lap 92. Boehm parked his Honda Civic in a safe area, but the event's second full-course caution waved on lap 95 with 20 minutes remaining in the race when that car's brakes caught on fire while stopped.The full-course caution closed up the field, but it also let the top two Mustangs' tires cool down prior to the restart on lap 97 with 15 minutes remaining. Zacharias continued to keep the pressure on the second-place car driven by Buford right up until the end. At the checkered Zacharias was third, only 0.117 of a second behind Buford and 0.212 of a second ahead of Liddell.With about 11 minutes remaining there was contact between Liddell and Doherty, and Liddell got by him for fourth place. Doherty was experiencing problems with his car's throttle, and he was forced to let Aschenbach and Kyle Marcelli by him working lap 102 with 10 minutes remaining to drop him to seventh, which is where he finished.The race was broadcast live on IMSA.com and it will be shown on Fox Sports 1 at noon Eastern time on Sunday, Aug. 2. The next race is coming right up Aug. 8-9 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.