Eversley, Gilsinger Triumph In ST At Road America

Subtitle:HART Honda Wins With Final-Lap Pass

After chasing Spencer Pumpelly for 11 circuits, Ryan Eversley saw his friend run out of fuel in the final turn on the last lap, allowing him to take the Street Tuner (ST) victory in the No. 93 HART Honda Civic Si started by Chad Gilsinger.

“I didn’t think we had anything for Spencer, but when he slowed up on us, I knew he was saving fuel,” said Eversley, a three-time winner in 2014 for Compass360 Racing. “I was going for the win or nothing. Our engine was at 240 degrees for the last five laps, but I kept going. I couldn’t have done it without Chad – who went all the way from 18th to second – and that’s where I was when Spencer ran out of gas.”

It was HART’s 15th career victory but first since winning at Kansas in 2014 with Gilsinger and Michael Valiante.

“We had a little bit of luck today, but we’ve had bad luck all year so we’ll take it,” said Gilsinger, who scored his third career victory. “We’ve seen people run out of fuel on the last lap here before, and that’s why we pitted when we did. We didn’t want that to happen to us today.”

Owen Trinkler charged from fourth to second on the final lap to give the CRG-I Do Borrow No. 44 Cruise America/Thor Motorcoach Honda Civic Si started by Sarah Cattaneo its first podium finish of the season, finishing .766 seconds behind Eversley. Eric Foss took third in the No. 56 Murillo Racing Porsche Cayman started by Jeff Mosing. 

Andrew Carbonell gained three positions on the final lap to finish sixth in the No. 26 SemperFiFund.org Mazda MX-5, two positions ahead of the No. 5 CJ Wilson Racing ModSpace Mazda MX-5 of Stevan McAleer. That cut two points out of the championship lead of McAleer and Chad McCumbee, who now unofficially lead Carbonell and Liam Dwyer by two points, 185-183.

Round 8 for the Continental Tire Challenge will be at VIRginia International Raceway on Saturday, Aug. 22.