Thomas and Rogers lead a BMW and Mini ST podium sweep
BimmerWorld’s Seth Thomas and Dan Rogers in their 328i won the Street Tuner class in the first-ever Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Their teammates John Capestro-Dubets and team owner James Clay finished second in the rain shortened race, and the RSR Motorsports Mini of Chris Puskar and Randy Smalley, the second team owner on the podium, finished third.
Fall-Line Motorsport’s Charles Putman and Charles Espenlaub finished third overall and third in the Grand Sport class behind a pair of Camaros, including winners Lawson Aschenbach and Eric Curran and second-place finishers Jeff Bucknum and George Richardson.
Drivers practiced for an hour on Friday morning, went out for a fifteen-minute qualifying session, took a deep breath, and went back out at 1:00 PM to run what was scheduled to be a 2 ½-hour race. After an hour and twenty minutes of racing punctuated by three of the full-course yellows that continue to plague CTSCC this season, heavy rain began to fall. Cars pitted for rain tires, shuffling the order, but standing water on the track soon led to a 25-minute red flag period.
When the cars stopped on the front straight for the red flag period, Espenlaub led Grand Sport while Capestro-Dubets, Thomas, and Puskar led ST. The track went back to yellow for a time, but two other cars went off just as the race was about to go green. When the green flag came out with just nine minutes left, the two Camaros got by Espenlaub, but the BimmerWorld and RSR drivers held on to their positions, with Thomas taking the lead. Yellow soon came out again as another car hit the wall with just five minutes left; the track never went back to green.
Just two races remain in the CTSCC season. The series takes to the track at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on September 7-8, and concludes at Lime Rock on September 28-29.—Brian S. Morgan, motorsports editor, bmwcca.org
