Montag, 11. August 2014
Aug 11, 2014: The #8 Martini-liveried Starworks Oreca FLM09 soared to Prototype Challenge class victory at the ‘Continental Tire Road Race Showcase’, Road America,
Round 10 of the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship with the usual suspects of Mirco Schultis and Renger van der Zande behind the wheel were all set in the #8 Martini Racing LMPC.
Practice for the car ran with a few minor issues on Friday and Saturday, with the qualifying producing a P4 starting grid result for #8 car.
Race day on Sunday brought a great result for the Florida based squad.
Following great start by Mirco Schultis in #8, who was soon up to P2, an incident between the a LMPC and DP car at Canada corner brought out the first full course yellow caution (FCY).
The team strategy was to go for an early refueling.
The race returned to green on lap eight with Mirco in P6 and the third FCY coming out at the 1 hour 50 minutes mark. The PC pit window opened on lap 21 with a driver change and Renger van der Zande stepping in to the #8 car.
The track went back to green on lap 25 with Renger running in P6. During the fourth yellow caution of the day (with just over an hour of the race remaining), the Starworks team fuelled adequately to take the car to the finish and when Renger was released he made the “Audi Move of the Race” to take the PC class lead from Rayhall in #25.
After 20 minutes and a brief spell at green, Renger was able to make a charge in the 8 car to knock on the P class door, only 1.73 seconds behind the #60 Ford Riley of Negri Jr in P3 overall. The final FCY was brief and the sprint finish to the 2 hours 45 minutes long enduro was 10 minutes of nail biting tension with Renger maintaining his dominant lead to win the PC class in style and in sixth place overall.
Renger van der Zande: “That was a great race, but all the hard work was done at the beginning! Mirco did a great job to get to P2 in the first stint. After that we were running well and the team made the call to get me in for a pit stop and back out again in first. I love my team! The guys are fantastic and did a great job. I am very happy for everyone as they have worked so hard, and for Mirco, to get our second win of the season.”
Next race
Round 11 of the 2014 TUDOR United Sportscar Championship is the Oak Tree Grand Prix at VIR, 23-24 August.
Championship standings: http://www.imsa.com/series/united-sportscar/standings
