First TOTAL Pole Award A Milestone For Goldcrest Motorsports

Goldcrest Motorsports achieved a milestone in the recent Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race at Road America, with Andy Lee giving the Kennesaw, Georgia-based team its first TOTAL Pole Award.

Qualifying for only the second time in his career, Lee turned a lap of 2:32.062 (95.8 mph) early in the session in the No. 22 Wright Automotive Group Porsche Cayman co-driven by Kris Wright. Moments later, the session was briefly red-flagged for a car stopped on-track. When the session resumed, given the 4.048-mile length of the circuit, competitors only had time for one more flying lap. All of them came up short of the fast lap put down by Lee.

“I’m usually the second-stint guy, so this was my first official time qualifying for Kris Wright Racing,” Lee said. “Since we’re not in championship contention, we decided to try some things and see how they pan out.”

Lee’s only other career-qualifying attempt came in 2013 at Lime Rock Park, when he qualified 15th for Skullcandy Team Nissan and finished 11th with Vesko Kozarov.

“Honestly, I thought our car probably would be somewhere in the top five,” Lee said of Road America qualifying. “I put in one flier, and they said ‘P-1,’ so I thought I had a shot at it, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to hold it for the rest of the session. Then after the red flag, I tried to put in another good lap, but it wasn’t quite as fast. So it was one and done.”

Once the green flag waved for the race, Lee ran in the top five throughout his stint before turning the car over to Wright with one hour, four minutes remaining. Wright rejoined the event in 19th, and without the benefit of additional caution periods, wound up 21st.

“Winning the pole was great for Wright Automotive Group and Goldcrest Motorsports,” Lee said. “It’s a big milestone for us. It’s only our first year in the series fulltime. That gets us some press. It makes everybody happy, and it’s a great boost for the team. We’re learning a lot. It’s great for me – it’s a sign of progress.”

Goldcrest Motorsports is a partnership between Bob Sanderson and Steve Cosgrove. Goldcrest entered the Continental Tire Challenge in 2015, joining Matt Dicken to field the No. 36 Strategic Wealth Racing Porsche Cayman. The team finished 14th in the ST championship, scoring three late-season top-10 finishes that included ninth at both Road America and VIR, followed by 10th at Circuit of The Americas.

For 2016, Goldcrest added the No. 22 Kris Wright Racing Cayman to its operation. Entering the Oak Tree Grand Prix at VIR on Saturday, August 27, the No. 36 Porsche is 12th in the ST points, with Dicken and Corey Lewis finishing fifth at Daytona and third at Watkins Glen. The No. 22 is 16th in the points, with its best finish sixth at Sebring.

Road America marked a major milestone for the team, but there’s an even bigger goal on the horizon.

“Winning the pole was awesome,” said Sanderson. “We’ve worked hard for this. The pole is big, but of course, a win would be bigger. That’s what we’re going for.”