Wright Motorsports' Skeer Charges From Rear To Podium At Road America

ELKHART LAKE, Wis., Aug. 10 —Wright Motorsports' Elliott Skeer marched from last place to a podium finish last Saturday to highlight the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama weekend at Road America.

The rookie from Carlsbad, Calif., started sixth in the second half of the doubleheader on Sunday and finished fourth. He's now second in the overall point standings with 151 points to the leader's 154 after nine of 16 events. He's been on the podium in every race but two so far this season.

Another Wright Motorsports driver, Kasey Kuhlman, continued to dominate the Masters class, scoring double victories on both Saturday and Sunday with his Kuhlsport Porsche. Kuhlman, of Cincinnati, finished fifth overall on Saturday and sixth overall on Sunday. He is the defending Platinum Masters champion, and he now has a 50-point lead over the driver who is second in those point standings.

On Sunday Kuhlman was joined on the Masters podium by Wright Motorsports' John Goetz of Weston, Conn. It was his second Platinum Masters podium of the season.

Two other Wright Motorsports drivers had solid top-10 weekends. Santiago Creel of Mexico City, Mexico was sixth on Saturday and ninth on Sunday with his #60, which is sponsored by UNIFIN EXCORP.

Meanwhile, Michael Schein of New York City was the epitome of consistency, as he started seventh in both races and finished seventh in both of them.

Skeer's #14 is sponsored in part by an IMSA scholarship supported by Porsche and Yokohama as well as backing from Pelican Replacement Windows and Town Porsche of Englewood, N.J. He was forced to start 24th on Saturday, but he set a torrid pace to finish third, posting his fastest lap of the race on lap 16.

Skeer started sixth in Sunday's 45-minute contest and finished fourth, only 0.935 of a second behind the third-place finisher. Kuhlman recorded the second-fastest lap of the race enroute to his sixth-place finish and another Masters victory.

The next event will be very important in the championship, as points for three races will be awarded at VIRginia International Raceway Aug. 21-23. The road course near Danville, Va. will be the site of the series' regular doubleheader plus a make-up race that was postponed by rain at NOLA Motorsports Park in April.

Live video streaming of the races is available on imsa.com.

Post-race quotes follow:

Elliott Skeer: "It was an up-and-down weekend. I'm really happy with the way we bounced back after having to start 24th with the third- and fourth-place finishes. The whole team was a huge support in preparing me to get through the field. All in all I'm happy with how we attacked the weekend, and we will be strong at VIR!"

Kasey Kuhlman: "Both races this weekend were challenging. Understeer on Saturday made for some frustrating laps, but I was able to make adjustments and pull out a P5 finish. 

"I started from P4 on Sunday and I had a great first half of the race, but about halfway through I locked up my fronts under heavy braking in T5 and after that the tires were so roasted all I could do was nurse it around and try not to fall back. Only the #47 car got by, so it could have been worse.  I'm happy to leave this fast track with the car in one piece and valuable points, and I'm looking forward to VIR in 2 weeks!"

John Goetz: "Road America is a spectacular track. I enjoyed my time here. I wanted to have an incident-free experience after a tough outcome in practice at Mosport, and that was accomplished.

"Ending up on the Platinum Masters podium in the second race was nice progress on my recovery. It was especially nice as I lost a few places at the start, so I had a lot of spots to make up during the course of the race.

"I had some nice encouragement from my team at Wright Motorsports and I appreciate it. I'm hopeful for the next race at VIR that I can become more competitive. It's all about learning and being better!"