On lap 45, Sellers made his first green flag pit stop and took two tires, fuel and stayed in the car for another stint. The team’s strategy was to only take two tires and leave Sellers in the car to try to regain some of its track position. The strategy worked because Sellers was in sixth by lap 49.
Sellers continued to stay within striking distance. On lap 102, he was only one lap down and in eighth when co-driver Andy Lally took the reigns.
“It seemed like long stint, I know it wasn’t too bad,” Sellers said. “I had a race this morning and this one this afternoon. I was glad Andy was standing by ready to get in. It felt like a good stint, we had some problems with the tires going off during the first run. The track got greasy toward the end of my stint because of the heat. We had a new guy sitting up on the pit box, Ryan Eversley, calling the shots and we gave it all we had today.”
Lally, who raced in Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in Mansfield, Ohio, returned to the track in 11th place and quickly began to turn up the pace. In fact, his fastest race lap came on lap 118 with a 0:54.818. Throughout his stint, Lally showed why he is such a great sports car driver because he drove his No. 68 machine up to eighth-place before giving to RJ Valentine, who eventually finish 11th.
“It was good to be back,” Lally said. “Of all of the tracks you don’t want to be racing a Porsche against other cars, it is Lime Rock. I am looking forward to getting back to another track where the playing field is a little more level. I went out, had some fun, thrashed around a little bit and burnt up some of Kevin’s tires for him. We tried to play with some strategy, but we needed a yellow that never came today. It was a tough one this weekend. TRG put a good car under us, it just wasn’t our day.”
“I was racing with two great guys today,” Valentine said. “Andy and Bryan are at the top of their game. There was not chance at all against the Pontiacs. I had a great stint. I drove the car as hard as I could with in my parameters. I got into the 56s and that is where I wanted to be in the race.”
John Potter got a good start in his No. 65 Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing/Total R Insulation Solutions Porsche GT3 Cup, picking up three positions in the first 13 laps. He was TRG’s iron man today driving two stints totaling 106 laps before teammate Craig Stanton got in the car on lap 106.
“It was good to get a lot of laps,” Potter said. “It was the longest I have ever been in the car. Given that there were no cautions, it was a perfect opportunity. I was alright in the car. I was glad that I did a lot of laps, it was good practice. I was really close to my qualifying time in the race, which is about all I could ask for.”
Once Stanton got in the car, it only took him three laps to turn that car’s fastest race lap with a 0:54.415. Stanton’s consistently quick pace earned that duo a solid 13th-place finish.
“Given the circumstances, we had a great run today,” Team Owner Kevin Buckler said. “We finished 1-2-3 in the Porsche class. We were out gunned by the Mazdas and the Pontiacs, it wasn’t even close. Spencer and Tim did a fantastic job. Bryce and Ted worked really hard to keep their positions. RJ got in with Andy and Bryan and turned some great laps at the end. John Potter was fantastic. He had a little off and got nailed by a Corvette and then recovered. The big guy [Potter] drove a stint-and-a-half. Craig Stanton drove some killer laps at the end. Hopefully, Grand-Am is going to figure something out here. We need some parity. We have been saying that these tires were not built for our cars and that manifested itself here 100 percent today. All of the left side Porsche tires were destroyed and the Pontiac tires are perfect. We also got slaughtered on the lap times. It was embarrassing for everyone. The series is going to have to do something. They usually try do the right thing, so we will see what happens.”
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