As Brumos Racing anticipated their return to Lime Rock Park for Round 5 of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Cars Series season, the team was confident in their preparations. In the challenging one-day format of the Memorial Day race, every member of the Brumos team was well aware that it was critical that the Brumos #59 Porsche 911 GT3 roll off the truck ready to race. It soon became evident that their long hours and hard work had paid off, as the drivers turned very competitive lap times in a car that required few adjustments.
Andrew Davis, assuming his usual role as qualifying and starting driver, was able to put the #59 in 4th place on the grid. Davis drove a strong opening stint, keeping pace with the leaders despite heavy traffic and challenging conditions. Narrowly avoiding problems in an incident between two DP cars early in the race, he brought the car in unharmed and in good position to hand it over to his co-driver, Leh Keen.
Strategy was key as the race unfolded with a surprising lack of full course cautions, seeing only one yellow early in the race. The car was brought in for the driver change under green, but an efficient pit stop got Leh Keen back on track quickly. Keen was able to advance through the field steadily and as the clock ticked down, the #59 was in 2nd place. Then, with just minutes to go, the low fuel light came on. As Keen switched to reserve the team gambled on staying out, running in a conservation mode rather than pitting and losing several positions. The decision proved a sound one, as Keen held on to take the checkered flag in 3rd, putting the #59 Brumos Porsche back on the Lime Rock podium. Following the race, Keen’s first words were in praise of his crew and his co-driver. “I just have to thank the Brumos guys,” he said. “They have been working unbelievably hard and it shows. We had a good top five at VIR and now we are on the podium. And Andrew did a great job – it really helps at Lime Rock to have good track position. He handed me the car in a great position, so I can’t thank him enough.” Describing the finish, he said, “It was a tough run, the whole time we were running 110%. When we got the fuel warning light with about ten minutes to go, I thought there was no way to make it to the end. Usually, when you are on reserve, you have about a lap and a half to get to the pits, but here the track is very short and I was going half throttle and short shifting the revs. Fortunately, we had a big gap over the 4th place car and we were able to make it to the end. Now I can’t wait to get to our next race at the Glen.”
Andrew Davis also expressed his appreciation for all of the behind-the-scenes work that his team put in to get the #59 to the podium. “Although Brumos has long been one of the most historic teams in sports car racing, together, we are a fairly new squad. The guys have worked tirelessly back in the Jacksonville, Florida, shop to make our Porsche 911 GT3 capable of finishing on the podium. For Leh and I to be able to bring Brumos its first podium in the GT program since the days when Hurley raced Porsche 911’s really means a lot. I’ve got to thank the guys a tremendous amount – we rolled off the truck in good fashion and they worked nonstop throughout the whole day. I just am really proud of them and happy to have the Brumos #59 back up front.”
The 3rd place Lime Rock finish boosted Brumos to 4th place in GT Team Points standings, just one point out of 3rd place as they travel to Watkins Glen for next weekend’s Six Hours of the Glen competition. That race will take place on Saturday, June 4th beginning at 1:00 PM ET with coverage via tape delay on SPEED TV.
Source: Brumos Racing
