The #73 Mini driven by Mat Pombo and Derek Jones won the Street Tuner class in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Series season opener at Daytona on Friday. The command to start engines for the four-hour race, officially The BMW Endurance Challenge at Daytona, was given by BMW CCA North Atlantic Region Vice President Lou Ann Shirk, who served as grand marshal.
All of the Minis and BMWs ran in the Street Tuner class; they were in the hunt for the entire race. The #73 car either led or was in the lead group through much of the caution period-punctuated enduro. Pombo had a five-second edge until a late race caution flag was brought out when the #52 Mini went off course. The race resumed with just minutes left. Pombo held on for the win, finishing ahead of a pair of Porsche Caymans.
Bimmerworld’s Greg Liefooghe, who shared the #81 F30 with Ari Balogh, was poised to finish on the podium, but an off-course excursion in the first turn of the last lap set him back to seventh. The second Bimmerworld F30, car #84, was driven by team owner James Clay, Tyler Cooke, and Tyler Clary, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist in the 200-meter backstroke, who made his IMSA debut at Daytona. It was in the hunt until it lost a water pump belt and fell back to finish fourteenth in class. The Michael Johnson/Stephen Simpson #54 228i finished fifteenth, just behind #84. The third Mini, the #37 car driven by Mike LaMarra and James Vance, was running in the top three until it fell back to twelfth after it was hit by a competitor and forced into a wall with just two laps left in the race. The overall and Grand Sport win went to Trent Hindman and Cameron Cassels in a Porsche Cayman GT4.
The CTSCC race was a prelude to the Rolex 24, which begins on Saturday, January 28 at 2:30 PM. CTSCC competition resumes at Sebring on March 17.—Brian S. Morgan
