Alternate Strategy Pays Off For Action Express

Subtitle:Notes and Quotes from Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda

Action Express Racing team manager Gary Nelson was not playing favorites during the rainy Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda. He was pulling to win 

the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, while letting the race circumstances determine which of the team’s two cars made it to the top of the podium.

Nelson didn’t care which of his cars won – the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP of Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa or the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP of Dane Cameron and Eric Curran – just as long as one of them was out front when the race ended. While the No. 31 car held the lead while conditions continued to deteriorate, when that car pitted for fuel the team’s No. 5 entry was in position to take the lead – and the victory and championship along with it."We knew from the drivers briefing that the potential existed to have a rain-shortened event," Nelson said. "With that understanding, our team was able to pit the Mustang Sampling Corvette DP and the Whelen Engineering Corvette DP at opposite times to keep the lead in the event. We didn't know when the race was going to stop, but we wanted to protect our seat at the head table. Thankfully, our plan worked out."Entering the event, having either of the Action Express Racing cars winning the Prototype (P) title was a difficult task. The two cars were tied for second, trailing the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP by six points, which meant a podium finish for the Daytona Beach-based team would win the championship for drivers Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante. Nelson’s task looked even tougher two hours into the rain-soaked event. Westbrook had a brilliant drive despite the conditions. Winning the TOTAL Pole Award in the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP, Westbrook led the opening hour through his first pit stop, and then needed less than 20 minutes to pass Cameron to regain the lead – which he held through his second stop near the two-hour mark.The race then unraveled for the points leaders, with both Valiante and Mike Rockenfeller spinning shortly after a pair of restarts. The second incident left the car stranded in the runoff area – costing the team several laps and all but ending its title hopes.At that point, the championship was up for grabs between the two Action Express Corvette DPs. Westbrook’s second pit stop put Cameron in the lead, who held it through the three-hour, 38-minute mark. Sebastien Bourdais – third driver on the No. 5 Corvette – took over the lead at Cameron’s stop, and held it for the next three hours (which included a red-flag stoppage of nearly one hour).One lap after the caution flag waved to end the red flag period, Bourdais pitted and turned the No. 5 over to Joao Barbosa. Curran stayed out in the No. 31 – which had been running third behind Bourdais and Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP – and took the lead. Curran remained out front for one hour, including for what proved to be the final 24 minutes of green-flag racing. Curran held a 45-second lead in the Prototype class when he was forced to pit for fuel at the seven-hour, 34-minute mark – giving the class lead to Barbosa. With darkness falling and conditions getting worse, the race was checkered at the seven-hour, 51-minute mark, giving the victory to Barbosa.  "This was a team win in every way possible," said Nelson. "Throughout the race both of our cars were in position to win the TUDOR Championship and that's a testament to everyone who works at Action Express Racing. We had a major challenge entering the race but as a team we kept our heads down and did all of the small things which add up to the big thing – and that was winning the race and both championships.”“The weather conditions were absolutely insane, but we fought through the conditions,” Curran said. “Obviously, we would have loved to win the championship with the No. 31 car, but it was give or take. I’m happy that the No. 5 guys won the championship and that Chevrolet won the manufacturer’s championship. It was fun to have such a successful season the first year out and to be fighting for the championship at the end of the year.”Pilet Had Unexpected Personal Highlight: Asked about his personal highlight of his GT Le Mans (GTLM) championship season, Patrick Pilet didn’t mention his overall triumph at Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda, or one of his three other victories co-driving the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR with Nick Tandy.Instead, the Frenchman singled out his worst finish of the season – sixth at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.“I think the highlight was Watkins Glen,” Pilet said. “It was the first race that Nick was back after Le Mans (where he scored the overall victory for Porsche), and we were starting to feel that we were really competitive. We were pushing hard, and we felt we had the potential to win. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the result we expected at Watkins Glen, but the pace was there.“After that, it was incredible – the pace of the car and the work of the team. It was just getting better race after race.”Pilet and Tandy won the next three races after Watkins Glen, at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Road America and VIRginia International Raceway. A third-place finish at Circuit of The America preceded the overall triumph at Road Atlanta.“To win the championship – and especially to win the race overall – was mega,” Pilet said. “It was an unexpected bonus for us. We didn’t work for the overall win, but late in the race, we said, ‘OK, we have to push to stay in front of the field. It was an incredible feeling to watch Nick cross the line.”Mission Accomplished: CORE autosport had to “only” complete one objective at Petit Le Mans to repeat as PC champions: for Silver driver Jon Bennett to complete the minimum two-hours, 30-minutes driving time in the scheduled 10-hour event.Easier said than done, especially given the steady rain and challenging conditions throughout the event.“My personal highlight of the season was climbing out of the car in the rain at Petit Le Mans,” Bennett said. “Our mission was a very easy one – and at the same time a very difficult one – which was not to crash the car. Somehow, finding a compromise to get enough speed so that I wouldn’t be a hazard, but not getting into position to hurt the car, I was very relieved to finally be able to climb out of the car after two hours, 32 minutes.”Joined by Anthony Lazzaro at the finale, Bennett and Colin Braun repeated as champions with a fourth-place finish in the No. 54 Flex-Box/Composite Resources ORECA FLM09. They won the title by five points over Mike Guasch and Tom Kimber-Smith, who won the finale in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Cuttwood/Spyder ORECA FLM09.Rookie Takes Patrón Endurance Cup: Cameron Lawrence made his debut in the TUDOR Championship this season, joining Riley Motorsports to co-drive with Al Carter in the No. 93 TI Automotive/ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R in the four Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup races.Victorious in the rookie start – the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona – Lawrence added a victory at Watkins Glen International and the team locked up the GT Daytona (GTD) Patrón Endurance Cup following the opening four-hour segment at Petit Le Mans. The team went on to finish third – its third podium finish in four races.“Winning the Patrón Cup is huge – especially since it’s my first year in the series,” Lawrence said. “It was really awesome to get to race with all the big guys I’ve been looking up to over the past few years, and to be as successful as we were.“Winning this is big for my career, along with it being a real cool experience.”Lawrence said his personal highlight came the day before Petit Le Mans, when he was called on to qualify the No. 93 car for the first time during challenging conditions.“To put it on the pole was an unreal experience, totally unexpected,” Lawrence admitted.