LAKEVILLE, Conn., TRG co-drivers Tim George Jr. and Spencer Pumpelly led their team’s four-car effort with a sixth-place finish in today’s Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Lime Rock GT Classic 250. Ted Ballou and Bryce Miller finished 10th.
George started today’s 164-lap race from the seventh row in the No. 67 Monster Cable/Gleukos/WIN Institute/944 Magazine/Karma Foundation GT3 Cup. He moved as high as seventh overall by lap 11 and managed to keep the car in contention throughout his 46-lap stint. That is when brought the No. 67 Porsche GT3 Cup in and turned it over to Pumpelly.
“The car started out pretty good,” George said. “I was playing with the bars a lot. The tires started to go pretty quickly. It was amazing to watch the Pontiacs brake into [turn] three and carve these corners up. I thought I had a pretty good stint. I passed a bunch of people. I kept it out of trouble and gave it to Spencer. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a yellow and had to pit under green.”
Pumpelly returned to the track after the green flag pit stop in 12th. He would spend much of his 118-lap stint trying to get back on the lead lap due to the sizeable gap the front-running Pontiacs had opened up on the entire field. Meanwhile, Pumpelly recorded the duo’s best lap with a 0:54.080 on lap 52. He continued to push hard throughout the race and brought the No. 67 machine home sixth.
“It was a really good car today,” Pumpelly said. “We could not ask much more from the TRG Porsche. We just didn’t have the pace today to match some of the other makes. The team is good when the cards are up or down. We pulled out a sixth-place finish today when we were probably a 10th-place car. It just shows how good this TRG team is. I hope we can turn this around and get back up on top in points.”
Ballou started alongside George in row seven and had the No. 66 Marquis Jet/Mitchell Rubber/Resorts International/IPC/Total Lubricants Porsche GT3 Cup just outside the top-10 for the majority of his 42-lap stint. In fact, Ballou ran as high as 11th before handing it over to his co-driver Miller.
“The car was oversteering quite a bit,” Ballou said of his stint. “We somewhat held our position out there and waited for the onslaught of Pontiacs. Overall, it was a clean stint.”
After the green flag pit stop, Miller found himself in 16th. He continued to run some pretty consistent lap times to have the No. 66 Porsche in 13th by lap 61 and then made the tandem’s second pit stop on lap 94 for tires and fuel. On lap 95, Miller ran his fastest lap of the race with a 0:55.164 and used it to finish 10th today.
“We fell back early on and made some adjustments that helped balance it out,” Miller said. “We were able to pick up our pace and, as the tires began to wear, we were able to go faster and the balance of the car came to us. I think we are moving in the right direction. Watkins Glen should be a good track for the Porsche. Hopefully we can get some points back.”
Piloting the No. 68 CRG/Maxter/Rotex/MBA Group/F1 Air Porsche GT3 Cup, Bryan Sellers started the day as the top-qualifying TRG Porsche, which was ninth on the grid. Early on, Sellers put on an impressive driving display and had his car in fifth by lap 15 - a position he held for the next 10 laps.
