The Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing overcame early weekend setbacks to capture its first top five finish of the 2007 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve season in the Mexico City 400k at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Starting from the outside of row four, German Jörg Bergmeister spent the most of his 52-lap stint fighting an understeer issue, which dropped the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team Porsche Crawford Daytona Prototype to 10th place just two laps into the race. But, keeping with Ruby Tuesday mantra of Quality, Passion, Pride; Bergmeister managed to fight through the understeer condition and move to sixth position by lap 41.
Ten laps later, the Alex Job Racing prepared Porsche Crawford was in seventh position when they went a lap down to then race leader Colin Braun in the No. 75 machine. Just as the Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team got lapped, the team decided to make a pit stop, which included a driver change and a tire pressure adjustment to accommodate for the understeer problem.
The team completed an outstanding 37-second pit stop, which allowed Las Vegas resident Patrick Long to be back on the lead lap when he left pit lane. Early in Long’s stint, he managed to rattle off consecutive fast race laps, including a team-best fast lap of 1:22.593 (only a little more than three-tenths slower than their qualifying lap). By lap 63, Long had the No. 23 Porsche Crawford in fifth place and looking to catch eventual fourth place finisher Scott Pruett. But, in then end the Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team brought home a solid fifth place finish.
“I told someone before the race, ‘that sometimes the weekends that go all wrong from the beginning until the race happens are the ones that turn out for the best,’ Long said about his team’s fifth place finish. “This team never gave up all weekend. We love that ‘never say die attitude,’ which motivates Jörg and I.
“Jörg did a great job in the early stint to give us some feedback on the car. We made a few adjustments on the tire pressure and I was able to battle the car in between all of those Rileys. It was hard work. But, in the end it feels good to get Ruby Tuesday back into the top five after a slow start to the season.â€
“The team did a great job on the pit stop and Patrick did an awesome job with the lap times he was running,†Bergmeister said. “I think that is all we had this weekend. We had a top-five car and I am happy with that.â€
“The way this week has gone for us, the way the last event [Daytona] went, and how the start of the season has gone, right now I’ll take the top-five finish,†team owner Alex Job said. “The team did a great job. We had a killer pit stop. We beat every car except the 01 car on the pit stops and the two drivers did a great job.
“Unfortunately, we had a car that just wasn’t handling as good as it should have been. To get a top-five finish after that, I am very happy. Right now we’re just concentrating getting more points and we’ve done that today.â€
The Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team next travels to Homestead Miami Speedway for Round Three of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve March 22-24.
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