Fuel Pickup Issue Blindsided Pumpelly

Subtitle:Notes and Quotes from Road America

Spencer Pumpelly appeared to run out of fuel in the final turn on the last lap while leading Saturday’s race at Road America. Turns out, that wasn’t the case.

“I had enough gas in the tank, and we really weren’t worried about making it,” Pumpelly explained. “Our sister car pitted at the same time, and they had enough gas to finish and make it around another time with fuel to spare. We had a fuel pickup issue. It just wouldn’t get that last little bit out of the gas tank, and it was a big surprise to me. I wish I had gone a little farther. It never even bobbled – it was just done. It suddenly quit coming out of Canada Corner, but I could only make it through the last turn.”The No. 17 RS1 Porsche Cayman started by Luis Rodriguez Jr. was looking for its third Street Tuner (ST) victory of the season. Unfortunately, Pumpelly did not have enough momentum to roll to the finish line – which is a 172-foot climb from the exit of the final turn. “I wasn’t able to coast across last year at [Mazda Raceway] Laguna [Seca] either,” Pumpelly added, recalling last year’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race when he ran out on the final lap. “I also ran out here twice in 2011 – in GRAND-AM running with Steve Bertheau, and later in the year in the ALMS with Duncan Ende.  So I’ve had my fair share of heartbreak running out of fuel, but we’ll move on.”Common Thread For Leading Winners: Sylvain Tremblay had no problem with passing the torch to Matt Plumb as the leading winner in Continental Tire Challenge history. Matt joined his brother Hugh in scoring his 21st career victory in the series, breaking a tie with the SpeedSource team owner. 

Tremblay was happy for both the driver and his crew chief.“Remember, there’s a common thread between both Matt and I winning in the series,” Tremblay said. “Joe Varde was there for most of the victories for both of us. If you add everything together, he has at least 57 victories as a driver and crew chief, dating back to the old Firehawk (Series), Speedvision Cup and Motorola Cup. Joe understands this form of racing more than anybody else.”Tremblay took his first Street Stock victory in 1996 co-driving a Mazda with Varde. “I’ve always looked up to him,” Tremblay said. “Before I started racing, I had a poster of Joe’s Dodge Charger from the IMSA Champion Spark Plug Challenge on my wall.”Helping Out a Friend: When Jon Mirachi invited L.P. Montour to join Racers Edge Motorsports for his second race of the season in the No. 57 Ford Mustang Boss 302R, he asked if he had any recommendations for the team’s No. 78 entry.“My first thought was of Brian Faessler,” Montour said. “He’s very good, and he’s already a Mustang driver.”Faessler, from Cincinnati, ran with the series for the first time. “I’ve been around Mustangs since I was in the womb,” Faessler said. “This was the first time I was asked to run in this series, and it seemed like a good fit. The Racers Edge team is very professional and treated my dad and I like family. They worked their butts off to get the No. 78 ready for the race. Despite getting a very limited amount of practice, [co-driver] Chris Beaufait and I still came home with a top-10 finish.”Faessler had one prior trip to Road America, running in a NASA event last October, where he won the first race on a cold weekend. Montour joined Nick Galante in the team’s No. 57 Mustang, finishing 11th.Local Favorites Take Turns In Lead: A pair of regional drivers took turns leading the Street Tuner class.Danny Bender led six laps driving the No. 25 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5, eventually finishing 10th with co-driver Britt Casey Jr.Bender, a Chicago resident who sells Mazdas at an Illinois dealership, won three events racing Miatas at Road America this year.  He won Touring 4 at Road America in 2015 June Sprints, then won both T4 races during a recent SCCA Majors weekend. He was the T4 champion at 2014 SCCA National Championship Runoffs, where he was awarded Kimberly Cup.Despite his winning experience in Miatas, he found the Freedom Autosport car a different animal.“This is more of a ‘Mad Miata,’” Bender explained. “It takes more work to get it to go fast than the cars I’ve raced here, but when you get it right, it’s rewarding. It was fun, being out there and being passed by guys I’ve been watching on TV for the last four years.”The driver who took over the lead from Bender was Josh Bilicki. A resident of Richfield, Wisconsin, Bilicki led nine laps in the No. 21 Trim-Tex Drywall Products BMW 128i for Burton Racing. Like Bender, he has plenty of club racing experience at Road America. He was a victim of bad luck on Saturday, when the yellow flag waved just as he was getting ready to pit for fuel. He finished 20th as a result of entering the closed pits.“It was still a great learning day, and I can’t wait to be back with this amazing team,” Bilicki said.With Bilicki’s planned co-driver Joe Koenig still recovering from an incident in a club racing event in Michigan, veteran Anthony Lazzaro was called on to co-drive. Koenig hopes to rejoin the team later this season. Quick Turnaround for Fall-Line: Fall-Line Motorsports’ day in the recent race at Lime Rock Park ended with the car bumped off track and atop a tire barrier – the second consecutive DNF for Ashley Freiberg and Trent Hindman in the No. 46 Trim-Tex/IHG Rewards Club BMW M3. The team managed to turn the car around and have it ready for Road America – coming through with a podium finish.“Considering our luck the last couple of events, P3 was like a win for us,” Hindman said. “I’m super happy that Ashley did a double-stint, because the last 55 minutes were the hardest I ever had to drive. But I’m more than happy to fight like that. Everyone was racing clean, and we gave each other, well, almost enough room to race.”“I’ve got to thank everyone at Fall-Line for getting the car back together as quickly as they did,” Freiberg said. “It was a missile today.” Foss Continues Momentum: Defending ST champion Eric Foss finished third in the No. 56 Murillo Racing Porsche Cayman, following up a runner-up showing at Lime Rock Park. Co-driver Jeff Mosing took the lead on the second lap and paced 16 circuits before turning the car over to Foss – who battled his friends Spencer Pumpelly, eventual winner Ryan Eversley and Owen Trinkler down the stretch.“This is why the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge is the best sports car series in the country, hands down,” Foss said. “The racing out there was great today. I got to battle with three of my great friends today – Spencer, Ryan and Owen. It was like a dream to be in such a heated battle with them, and it’s great to be on the podium.”Back to the Podium: Owen Trinkler seemed headed for his fourth fourth-place finish of the season in the No. 44 Cruise America/Thor Motorcoach Honda Civic Si started by Sarah Cattaneo. But that changed on the last lap, with Trinkler gaining two positions for a runner-up finish.“To take second here was great for us – I almost didn’t remember how to get to the podium,” Trinkler said. “I backed off some so I could take a run at Foss. I wasn’t going to settle for fourth today – the guys have been working way too hard. We played it patient – and it almost turned into a win for us.”