Courtesy Grand-Am Communications
TOOELE, Utah (September 14, 2007) – In a race that was ultimately decided by fuel strategy and pit stops, Turner Motorsport drivers played the winning hand in the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Grand Sport (GS) race Friday at Miller Motorsports Park.
Joey Hand and Matthew Alhadeff piloted the No. 97 Turner Motorsports BMW M3 to the checkered flag 23.254 seconds ahead of second-place finishers Hugh Plumb and Craig Stanton in the No. 38 BGB Motorsports Performance Drink Porsche 997.
The Miller Motorsports Park event was the first time this season the duo had stepped into the Turner Motorsports machine, but it didn’t take the pair long to get adjusted to the car. Alhadeff qualified the car fifth and drove a flawless first stint, running in the top five until pitting on Lap 12.
“It was a great start. I got lucky and picked up a couple positions right at the start,” Alhadeff said. “I had a pretty good stint. I think I overworked the tires at the beginning, because I picked up some understeer. But we lucked out and picked up a good yellow and got Joey (Hand) in the car. He was able to run a great pace, real competitive. Joey ended up in first place and was able to hang on to the car and keep it out there. It was an awesome race.”
Hand had the hot shoe from the moment he took over the car. By Lap 18 Hand sat in fourth place, and a Lap 22 pass on Duncan Ende in the No. 39 TRG Carlsen Porsche/DigiTrust Group Porsche 997 proved to be for second place when then-leader David Russell of the No. 99 Automatic Racing Fresh from Florida/Imported Car Store BMW M3 pulled into the pits.
From there, Hand had a battle to the end. Andy Lally in the No. 41 TRG Carlsen Porsche/Mitchell Global Porsche 997 passed the Turner Motorsports driver on Lap 25, just before Hand made the team’s final pit stop. Hand rejoined in eighth position and found himself back in second position on Lap 35, just behind Lally. Hand took the lead for good on Lap 36 when Lally pulled into the pits for fuel.
“It’s great. I love winning, and the team loves winning,” a deservedly-excited Hand said. “Turner Motorsports prepares a great race car. With some teams, you come and fit right in and the car goes real well. This is one of those teams, and I’ve never won with this team. I’ve had a few good runs but never gave these guys a win.”
Hand’s main competition to the finish was Lally. The TRG driver had stretched the lead to 40 seconds on Lap 34, and was set to pit for fuel on Lap 35. As Lally tried to follow Nick Wittmer in the No. 31 i-MOTO Racing Acura TSX onto pit lane, Wittmer spun and hit the pit wall, blocking the entrance. Lally was left with no choice but to put his Porsche into reverse, back onto the racetrack, and run another lap.
“When it rains, it pours,” Lally said. “We had a car that could win, and we just picked the one and only lap we shouldn’t have pitted on. Just out of dumb luck, somebody stuffed it in the fence, and when you have a one-car wide pit entrance, I had to back up, and then look and decide if it was a gravel trap behind me, or dirt. At that point, we had no choice, gravel trap or not.”
That large lead evaporated once Lally was able to complete his pit stop on the next lap. With Hand 13 seconds in front, Lally began a charge to the front that ended when his car ran out of gas on the final lap. The error was an uncharacteristic one for the normally reliable TRG team, obviously trying to make up for the unavoidable incident one lap sooner. Lally finished the race in fourth position.
“I came out, lost our lead by a bunch, but we were running him down,” Lally said. “TRG gave me the best car out there, hands down, and we ran out of gas. We only needed to take about another second of gas more, but I can’t fault the guys, they do a great job, week in and week out. They were as much on the edge as I was.”
Benefiting from the TRG fuel error was the Plumb and Stanton. Plumb began the race in 11th position and spent the early laps avoiding the early lap incidents that come with 63 cars on the track. Plumb climbed into the lead on Lap 21 and led until pitting on Lap 24.
“My shift was very eventful,” Plumb said afterward. “It was a complete catastrophe at the beginning – dust, cars, wheels all over the place. We got a great start through the mayhem up to fifth. After that, I put my head down and kept working lap after lap. That’s all I could do, and give the car over to Craig and go from there.”
Stanton rejoined the race after Plumb’s stop in 13th position. Making sure to take enough fuel to get to the end, Stanton steadily climbed through the field until the checkered flag. The strategy nearly paid off, as the team finished just one mistake away from a win.
“It was amazing. We were running consistent laps,” Stanton said. “The BGB guys did a great job both on strategy and prepping the car. During the race, Hugh did a great opening stint and we continued on. We knew it would be close for a lot of teams. A lot of them were cutting it real close on fuel, and we ran it as hard as we could at the end. I think if it went one more lap, we would have won. The Turner guys were so close on fuel, and we had six gallons at the end.”
Rounding out the podium was the No. 25 Fiorano/C-Max Racing Porsche 997 of Dave Riddle and Kris Wilson. Riddle qualified and began the race in 18th position before handing the car off to Wilson. Wilson steadily climbed through the field, also taking advantage of the TRG team by passing a slowing Lally on the last turn of the last lap.
“We totally lucked out on the last corner of the last lap,” Wilson said. “The guys in the pits were telling me on the last lap that he was running out, and sure enough, in the last corner right before start finish I went by him and said, great, we’ve got a podium. It worked out real well. Fiorano gave us a great chassis, but we just didn’t quite have enough for the top two at the end.”
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