In TA, BCR was represented by Allan Lewis who had an uneventful two days of practice and qualifying, limited by running on well-used tires from last year. He started the race in 17th position, but moved up consistently as high as 8th till an off-track excursion dropped him back to 14th. He fought his way back to 7th, narrowly missing 6th place by 0.1 seconds at the finish line.
It appeared that a BCR built TA car was finally about to win, piloted by AJ Henricksen and prepared by the ECC crew. AJ led many laps and looked certain to take the checkered flag first, but a last lap incident in Turn 7 dropped him to 11th. Great showing and speed from AJ!
In TA2, our weekend proved much more challenging! The #48 of Mike McGahern had electrical issues in practice ,which were expertly resolved, but put us too far behind to recover. Starting towards the back, his race was filled with incidents and pit stops, eventually finishing in 26th place.
The #78 of Harry Steenbakkers was also involved in a major wreck during practice on Thursday, but the crew was able to rebuild the front end by Friday’s qualifying. In addition, we were struggling to resolve a mysterious brake issue and a stiff/hanging throttle pedal. As such, our true potential was never realized, but Harry brought the car home in 19th.
Jordan Bernloehr in the #07 Millers Oils/BCR Camaro steadily improved thru the weekend, never having previously turned a lap at this highly technical race track. He put in a great qualifying lap and ended up starting 9th out of 35 cars. At the pointy end of this field, the slightest change makes a big difference: the cloud cover that settled over the track during the race resulted in our green machine becoming looser and looser as the race went on. Jordan was up as high as 7th, but was not able to hold on at the end after a few cautions bunched the field up. He finished 9th, a great drive and well deserved top 10!
Up Next: Atlanta in April.
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