Alpharetta, Ga - This past weekend was the 5th round of the Grand-Am Koni Challenge Series in Barber Motorsports Park, in Leeds Alabama. The JBS team had recently finished in 7th place at Mosport and 9th in Watkins Glen, and were sitting in 5th place in the driver and team standings entering into the weekend in Barber. James Gué shared the driving with Bret Seafuse in the #37 Mustang FR500C.
Barber Motorsport Park is considered Gué‘s home circuit as he is an instructor at the Porsche Sport Driving School. The whole team had high expectations coming into the weekend. They got off to a good start with the #37 car rarely seeing the outside of the top 10 in the practice sessions leading up to qualifying. Seafuse qualified the car a respectable 9th place out of 34 cars. Heading into the race the team was very optimistic especially after Gué set the fastest time of the session in the morning warmup.
In the race Seafuse wasted no time moving up through the field picking his way to the front; after an hour and ten minutes into the race Seafuse had made his way all the way to 2nd place before pitting to turn the car over to Gué. After a great stop by the JBS crew, Gué returned to the track with a 12 second lead. Gué continued to lead for the next 40 laps. The nearest competition was Scott Maxwell in the #55 Hypersport Mustang who inched closer to Gué over the final hour and fifteen minutes. The JBS team looked like they were finally going to get their first win, however with 2 laps to go Gué ran out of fuel, which forced him to pit for a splash of fuel. After returning to the track Gué was still able to keep 2nd place. The second place finish was the second podium of the year for Gué and Seafuse, it also moved the duo up to 3rd in the Driver and Team team standings.
Gué commented: “This was a great weekend for the whole JBS team. I really thought we were going to get our first win for JBS this weekend. I’m a little disappointed not to win, especially after leading for half the race and to come up short on fuel, but 2nd is a great result for us. Bret and crew made it easy for me; the crew made up 15 seconds on the #55 car and they are the ones that put us in the lead.”
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