Last Friday’s full day of Grand-Am series racing was a big success for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the brand new BMW 4.5 liter 8 cylinder engine making a splashy debut in the Rolex Series three hour race. Max Popow and Ryan Dalziel drove their Daytona Prototype No. 2 Starworks Motorsport Riley/BRM to a three and half second victory over Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas in the Chip Ganassi entered No 01 Telcel/TELMEX Riley/BMW in the DP Class. Pruett and Rojas gained enough points with their second place finish to win the North American Endurance Championship with added a $100,000 to their winnings. Jeff Segal and Max Pappas won the Grand Touring Class in their No 61 R, Ferri/AIM Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia. In the GX Class, Tom Long and Sylvain Tremblay piloted the No. 70 MAZDASPEED/SpeedSource Mazda 6 to a win.
In the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, the No. 43 TrimTex/BCKSTGR BMW M3 entered by Fall-Line Motorsports car owner and co-driver Mark Boden along with driver Bryan Sellers took the win under caution with just six minutes left in the race. Terry Borcheller and Mike LaMarra drove the No. 23 Burton Racing BMW 128i in the ST division race. This win put Borcheller and LaMarra back in the lead in the race for the Street Turner championship. Burton Racing is located in Brownsburg, Indiana and Terry Borcheller hopes to compete in the Indianapolis 500 one day. All in all it was a day loaded with great racing and lots of fun for the fans and the racing teams. Let us hope that this is an event that continues to grow and become an important part of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s racing calendar.
As to the Brickyard 400 last Sunday, the good news was that South Bend Indiana’s Ryan Newman took home the checkered flag to gain his first Brickyard victory. The Purdue grad piloted his No.39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet from the pole position to victory lane with an average speed of 158:585 finishing the race in 2 hours, 32 minutes and 22 seconds which is a record for the Brickyard 400. It’s always great to see a Hoosier-born driver on the victory podium in any race at IMS but this was especially sweet because his father, wife and two daughters, along with other family members were there to share the joy of Newman’s 17th Championship Cup victory. It was also somewhat bittersweet for Ryan because last week he was informed by his boss Tony Stewart that his contract to drive for the team wouldn’t be renewed for the 2014 racing season. He is being replaced by driver Kevin Harvick. Ryan Newman will not be unemployed for long, so don’t worry about him not being around for next year’s Brickyard 400 event to defend his title. He’ll get a good ride soon enough.
As I said before, it was a great weekend for racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway!
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