ESM Patrón finishes third at Baltimore; fourth podium this season

BALTIMORE, MD – September 1, 2012 – Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) continued its successful season by scoring a third-place finish at today’s Baltimore Sports Car Challenge presented by SRT. This result marks the fourth podium finish the season for drivers Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek.

#01 Extreme Speed Motorsports: Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek

Photo by: Richard Sloop

Today’s finish is the second street course podium for the team this season and second podium finish in the last two races. Sharp and van Overbeek earned third place finishes at Long Beach, Road America and Baltimore, and its first victory during the July race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Sharp qualified the No. 01 Tequila Patrón Ferrari 458 Italia in the sixth position and took the first one-hour stint at today’s race. Despite some minor contact during a lap one, turn one incident, the stint was clean for the driver/owner, reaching a high of second position during his one-hour stint.

At the midpoint of the race, van Overbeek climbed into the Ferrari for his one-hour stint, emerging from the scheduled pit stop and driver change, in the third spot. The final hour of the race was clean for the No. 01 machine and van Overbeek remained in third in the GT class for the remainder of the race.

Starting from the 11th position, Ed Brown was the first driver aboard the No. 02 Tequila Patrón Ferrari 458 Italia. Brown was unaffected by the opening lap incident and spent the majority of his stint under yellow flag conditions, unable to advance his position before handing the car over to Guy Cosmo.

Shortly after the driver change in the No. 02 machine, Cosmo began working his way through the field. He started in the 12th position and reached as high as seventh. With three minutes remaining in the two-hour race, Cosmo was hit by a fellow GT competitor, causing a flat tire and damage to the right side of the Ferrari. Cosmo was forced to pit for tires and to assess the damage, and after returning to competition, was scored in the 11th position at the checkered flag.

Scott Sharp “It was good run for the team, especially the way everyone worked really hard to get our Ferrari better. We had a real fast car during my stint. Now that we’re getting these podiums, we’re hungry for something better than third.

“I had a wild start, just like I knew it would be. We came hauling down three abreast and up ahead we all saw a couple of prototypes start spinning, everybody started short-braking and slowing way down. I tucked in behind the Corvette in front of me and I was nailed from behind.

“That hit unfortunately knocked out the rear view camera, but other than that, it didn’t hurt the car at all. I just followed everyone around the escape road. A couple guys got by me and I got by a couple guys, so it ended up being an okay move for us.”

Johannes van Overbeek “My stint in the car was great. Scott got me in a great position to get the No. 01 ESM/Patrón Ferrari on the podium.

“It is just so narrow here and the competition doesn’t make many mistakes, so it was really hard to make up any ground. We had a really quick car and Scott did an awesome job. The team did a great job, the car held up and I’m happy with another podium but disappointed that it wasn’t better.

“This season we’ve been on the podium for both street races. On paper the Ferrari is not a great car for street courses, it is a better car for fast, flowing types of tracks, but we never gave up. Scott and I kept pushing the set-up and the Tequila Patrón Ferrari was the best it has been all weekend during the race, which is where you want it. I’m happy to get out of here in one piece. Another podium is great, but disappointed that it wasn’t better.”

Ed Brown “This was definitely not the race we were hoping for in the No. 02 car. There was a caution almost immediately at the drop of the green flag and I think I drove only one lap under green flag conditions. I was looking forward to and hoping to get more track time during the race today because Baltimore is such a great place to be. There was an amazing amount of fans here and we really wanted to put on a good show – which came towards the end of the race.

“Guy did a great job during his stint but for some reason, we get always seem to find bad luck in the closing laps of the race. Guy was on his way to a solid finish for us and was hit by another car which ruined our good race and solid finish.

“Congratulations to the Scott, Johannes and the No. 01 team. Four podiums this year is a great accomplishment for the team and Tequila Patrón. We were just hoping to have both cars on the podium tonight. We’ll look to do that in two weeks when we race at Virginia International Raceway.”

Guy Cosmo “The ESM Patrón Ferrari engineering team on the No. 02 car was improved since yesterday. The guys did a bunch of work to get us where we needed to be for today’s race. They made good changes. The Ferrari was certainly better that it had been yesterday and this morning. We were quick.

“I feel bad that Ed only drove a single lap under green. Then I got in 15 minutes into the race. With a two hour race, it was what we needed to do for the strategy.

“We were on the lead lap at the end and working our way towards a good finish. Unfortunately we were hit by another GT competitor and our day was affected, but that’s how it is on street courses, which are always tight.”

Source; Extreme Speed Motorsports