Chance Meeting Led To Winning Opportunity For Hindman And Cassels

Subtitle:News And Notes From The Sebring 150

Trent Hindman spent January’s Roar Before the Rolex 24 test pounding the pavement, looking for the right opportunity.

Cameron Cassels was working on his new Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport, which the Bodymotion Racing team was hoping to have ready for the season-opening BMW Performance 200 three weeks later.

While the team missed its goal of making that race, Cassels crossed paths with Trent Hindman – the 2014 Grand Sport (GS) champion without a ride – and the pair helped make history at Sebring last weekend, giving Porsche’s newest “turnkey” race car its first victory in international multi-manufacturer competition.

Cameron Cassels qualified seventh in his second IMSA Continental Tire SporsCar Challenge race and ran as high as fourth before turning the car over to Hindman near the one-hour mark. Racing a Porsche for the first time, Hindman took the lead for the first time with one hour remaining by passing the No. 21 Muehlner Motorsports America Clubsport of Jeroen Bleekemolen.

The lead changed hands four times before Hindman passed Matt Plumb’s No. 13 Rum Bum Racing exiting Turn 17, with 27 minutes remaining. He went on to win by 11.283 seconds over Daytona winner Billy Johnson in the No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Shelby GT350R-C.

“I can’t believe we were able to pull this off,” said Hindman, after scoring his fourth career victory. “I can, but I can’t. All of the Bodymotion crew worked so hard during the off season to get this car on the track. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make Daytona. I would have been confident of a similar result there, knowing how much work has gone into this.”

Up until Sebring, the bulk of Hindman’s racing has been in BMWs.

“The GT4 Clubsport is great. The BMW M3 E92 is a great car, but it’s nice to be able to drive a next-generation car in this series. I can’t thank Cameron enough for taking a shot on allowing me to co-drive his brand-new car.”

Hindman drove several cars at the Roar test at Daytona, including the Alara Motorsports MX-5. With regular driver Jason Rabe unable to participate, Hindman also ran a few laps in Bodymotion’s No. 31 Porsche Cayman, never dreaming he would be back with the team two months later.

“There are a lot of strong, proven drivers who are still pounding the pavement looking for rides,” Hindman said. “I’m just one of the lucky ones. Dumb luck – right place, right time – put me and Cameron together. Now we can’t look back. We’ve got a nice big target on our backs, so we’ve got to keep pushing forward.”

Cassels made his Continental Tire Challenge debut in the 2105 season finale, placing 11th in the No. 12 Bodymotion Racing Porsche 911 with Rene Villeneuve. Happy with working with Bodymotion, Cassels studied his options, and felt that the Cayman GT4 Clubsport was the perfect route to go.

“Fate’s a funny thing,” Cassels said. “I was looking to do something at Daytona, Trent was looking to do something, and we ended up crossing paths. It worked out really great. I like working with Trent. He’s a great coach, and as you saw today, he’s a fantastic driver.”

Long-Range Plan Works Out

Owen Trinkler wasn’t worried about running fast laps in testing and practice at Sebring. Instead, he concentrated on doing longer runs on older tires with the No. 44 CRG-I Do Borrow Honda Civic Si he co-drives with Sarah Cattaneo.

“Winning this really goes all the way back to Tuesday’s practice day,” Trinkler explained. “We did a lot of work on older tires. We were building momentum from last year, and we knew race wins were right around the corner. Rum Bum Racing also did a great job helping with our pit stops, like they always do. We came in thinking that this race would have a lot of green-flag racing, and that’s how it worked out – with only one yellow. We did all our practice setting up a long-run car, not a short-run car.”

Cattaneo was disappointed with her qualifying time in the shortened session that saw her running 16th on the opening lap. She took her time, improving at least one position over the opening eight laps when she was running eighth. From there, she came all the way to fifth before pitting with one hour, seven minutes remaining, when she turned the car over to Trinkler.

“I didn’t qualify as well as I would have liked, getting caught up in traffic,” Cattaneo said. “That threw me off, and then I had to drive my butt off to drive through the pack before handing it over to Owen.”

Trinkler was running fourth at what proved to be the final restart. He needed only four laps to get up front, and he gradually pulled away over the remaining 24 laps.

From Front To Back, Then Back To Front Again

It was a ping-pong type of weekend for BimmerWorld Racing and the No. 84 OPTIMA Batteries BMW 328i.

The car caught fire during Tuesday’s promoter’s testing. The team then hustled to get the car ready for Wednesday’s official practice, working with Roush Performance to replace the electronics and other parts just in time for driver Tyler Cooke to get in three laps.

On Thursday, Cooke got in only one lap during the red-flag shortened qualifying session, but he made it count – winning his second career TOTAL Pole Award and fourth pole for BimmerWorld. But after qualifying, team owner and co-driver James Clay “didn’t like” one of the cylinders, and decided to change engines.

That meant starting Friday’s race from the back of the grid. Cooke needed only 11 laps to crack the top three. This time, there was no downside. Cooke and Clay ran in contention the rest of the way, giving the F30 version of the BMW 328i its first podium since the team debuted the car in 2013.

“What a tremendous team – we wouldn’t have been on the grid if not for their hard work any of the days this week,” Clay said. “I knew we had a good car, the guys did a great job preparing it, and Tyler and I just had to keep it together.”

“I had a lot of close calls, but that’s part of the fun of racing,” Cooke said. “I enjoyed it, and this finish is a nice reward for the team’s great work all week.”

NOTEBOOK

· CJ Wilson Racing debuted its second Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport. Tyler McQuarrie and Till Bechtolsheimer finished fifth in the No. 35 Safecraft/New Balance entry, two positions ahead of teammates Danny Burkett and Marc Miller in the No. 33 ONE Capital Management/MotorOilMatters.org Clubsport.

· The second-place finish in the No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Shelby GT350R-C extends the lead to seven points atop the GS standings for Scott Maxwell and Billy Johnson. They have 67 points to 60 for fourth-place finishers Pierre Kleinubing and Paul Holton in the No. 76 Compass360 AERO Advanced Paint Technology/Children’s Tumor Foundation/Spyder Active Sports Shelby. The two Fords finished 1-2 at Daytona.

· Honda Civics are running 1-2 in ST, with Chad Gilsinger and Michael Valiante placing second at Sebring in the No. 93 HART Honda Civic Si to trail Cattaneo and Trinkler by four points, 60-56. Valiante had a scare on the final lap when a lapped car lost its brakes and drove into his right-side door. He was able to continue to the checkered flag despite sustaining major damage.