The Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team rebounded from a last row starting spot to claim a ninth-place finish in Round Four of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve VIR 400K at Virginia International Raceway.
Due to a suspension failure in qualifying and the resultant last place starting position, the Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team was going to need a sound race strategy if it was going defend its VIR race win from a year ago. Knowing that VIR is one of the toughest tracks to pass on, coupled with team’s starting position, the team knew that getting to the front would be no easy task. Undaunted by the challenge, the team’s strategy was to have driver Jörg Bergmeister pit on the first lap and hope for an early caution. The thinking behind this strategy was that if a caution came out early in the race, coupled with the team making an early pit stop, the result would find the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team Porsche Crawford Daytona Prototype near the front of the field because the race leaders would pit under caution.
One lap into the race, Bergmeister made his scheduled pit stop. The team topped the Alex Job Racing-prepared Porsche powered Crawford off with fuel and sent Bergmeister back out. Now the team needed a full-course caution for the strategy to work. On lap six, the team got exactly what it needed. A full-course yellow came out after the No. 99 Pontiac Riley made contact with the No. 05 BMW Riley leaving debris on the course. As a result, the leaders came in for pit stops, while Bergmeister stayed out on course and was in ninth-place when the race went green.
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