Tyler Cooke and Greg Liefooghe in the #81 BimmerWorld 328i led a BMW sweep of the Street Tuner class in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race at Road America. BMW did not fare as well in the Grand Sport class, where Mark Boden and David Donohue finished fifth in the #46 Fall-Line M3. The overall and GS win went to Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi in the RumBum Porsche 997.
Fuel strategy played a huge role in the final results. Porsche racer Spencer Pumpelly led Matt Plumb before he pitted for fuel with four minutes remaining; Plumb moved into the lead, taking the win and running out of gas seconds after he took the checkered flag. In the Street Tuner class race leader Tom Dyer’s Honda Civic ran out of gas on the last lap, allowing Liefooghe to take the lead and the win. Liefooghe said afterward, “Everything came down to a call from our engineer. He pitted us a little later than everyone else, and we were able to finish even though we were on fumes.” It was the second CTSCC win for Liefooghe, and the first for Cooke, who also scored his first ever ST pole.
Jesse Combs and Jeff Mosing finished second in ST in the #56 RACE EPIC/Murillo 328i, and BimmerWorld’s Connor Bloum and Greg Strelzoff finished third. The Burton Racing 128i driven by Terry Borcheller and Mike LaMarra, the ST points leaders coming into Road America, had wheel bearing problems early in the race; the car finished 23rd. As a result Combs and Mosing moved into the ST drivers’ points lead.
In GS, Plumb and Longhi extended their points lead over Camaro racers Matt Bell and John Edwards.
Three races remain in this year’s CTSCC series, including a race at Kansas City on August 17, another at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on September 8, and the finale at Lime Rock on September 27-28. Brian Morgan
