Fast Track Ponies Build Momentum

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Faultless weather blessed the enthusiastic crowd that turned out for this Memorial Day weekend's racing at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. Saturday was to be an epic day of racing, something that guests at Lime Rock have become accustomed to seeing. They would certainly not be disappointed when the Grand Am racing got started.



Due to the relatively short length of the track (1.53 miles), each class in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge would have their own race. A total of thirty-one cars would start in the Grand Sport (GS) class, including eleven Mustangs and three Camaros. Multimatic Motorposrts was out in force, fielding a pair of Boss 302R competition Mustangs, while Racers Edge Motorsports, CMA Motorsports and TC Motorsports each brought one more.


Photos: Grand Am

Multimatic has been continuing development on the BOSS 302 racer, enduring several bouts of racing luck, while amply demonstrating the car's potential. In the first four races of the year, the #15 Multimatic Motorsports BOSS 302 Mustang has started on the front row.

Scott Maxwell, co-driver of the #15 entry explained, "Unfortunately, Lime Rock Park is traditionally not a good track for us. For whatever reason it's not suited for the Mustang. I'm not overly optimistic, but then again there have been tracks where I thought we had a good chance and we didn't do so well."



Tradition would not hold up to Maxwell's forcast, as six Mustangs lined up in Top Ten starting positions before the race. Jack Roush took pole position in the #61 ROUSH PErformance Mustang GT, while Maxwell would start beside him. The Camaro GS.R's of Stevenson Motorsports also fared well in qualifying and occupied fourth and sixth places on the grid. Their Riley Technologies-built racers have shown competitiveness right out of the box.

Jack Roush Jr. ran the best portion of the 147-lap race, eventually being brought in for a driver change, fuel and tires with about 30 minutes to go. In the meantime, Joey Hand and Michael Marsal had worked their way up from 16th at the start. Billy Johnson took over from Roush and returned to the race in third place.


Jack Roush Jr. (foreground) took Pole position for the race, while Billy Johnson brought the Mustang home just three tenths of a second out of first place.

"I tried to work my way back up through the field after that pit stop, and once I got to Joey, I was all over his bumper," Johnson explained. "It was tough at the end. Joey was one of my instructors here at Lime Rock, and we raced each other clean. It was good racing." Johnson posted the fastest lap of the race - a 57.622 (89.485 mph average) - near the end of the race.

When the Turner Motorposrts BMW M3 and the ROUSH Performance Mustang thundered across the finish line, there was a scant 0.298 seconds between them. Turner Motorsports had celebrated their 200th professional racing start this weekend, so the victory was certainly meaningful to the team.

The #52 Rehagen Racing Mustang GT finished in fourth place, the #9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GS.R in sixth and the #62 Mitchum Motorsports Camaro GS.R arrived in seventh.

The Grand Am show moves along to Watkins Glen, NY, for the next event this coming weekend. The 150-mile race starts at 10:15 a.m. EST on June 5th. The field has grown to 35 GS-class entrants, including two Camaro GS.R's from Momentum Race Group - absent from the series since Homestead - and a BOSS 302 Mustang from Jim Click Racing.




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