John Edwards and Trent Hindman, driving the #46 Fall-Line M3, had a difficult race at Kansas Speedway, but their sixteenth-in-class finish in the 2½-hour Saturday-night race was enough to maintain the Grand Sport drivers’ points lead going into the late June race at Watkins Glen. Edwards started fourth on the grid, but soon fell back as the #46 Fall-Line M3 lost power. He and co-driver Trent Hindman soldiered on for the entire race, with power coming back and then going away again.
They finished sixteenth in a race won by Kris Wilson and James Davison in an Aston-Martin. Wilson led early in the race, but the Rum Bum Porsche driven by Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi took over 70 minutes into the race. The Aston and the Porsche battled until Plumb had to come in for a splash of fuel with just two laps remaining. Wilson, who was second in points behind Edwards and Hindman going into the race, received 35 points for his win. But IMSA pays points for every finishing position; even sixteenth gets fifteen points. The gap from Edwards and Hindman to Wilson is now just five points.
All of the BMW runners struggled on the combined oval-road course Kansas circuit. The best BMW finishers in Grand Sport were Shelby Blackstock and Ashley Freiberg in the #48 Fall-Line M3; they came across the finish line ninth. In the Street Tuner class BimmerWorld’s Tyler Cooke and Greg Liefooghe in the #81 328i finished eighth, and their teammates Seth Thomas and Dan Rogers, who were running fifth near the end, were classified ninth after the #82 M3 encountered problems in the waning laps.
The Mazda MX-5s that had been dominating the season in ST had problems in Kansas as well; the best finishing Mazda was tenth in class. Chad Gilsinger and Michael Valiante won the class in a Honda Civic Si, while Wayne Nonnamaker and Will Nonnamaker finished second in a Porsche Cayman.
CTSCC competition resumes on June 28 at Watkins Glen.—Brian S. Morgan
