Brumos Undeterred despite tough weekend at Detroit

Brumos Undeterred despite tough weekend at Detroit

#59 Brumos Racing Porsche GT3: Andrew Davis, Leh Keen

Photo by: Adriano Manocchia

Jacksonville, FL: As the GRAND-AM Rolex Series headed to Detroit’s Belle Isle for their first race, Brumos was aware of the challenges ahead. In a weekend shared with IndyCars, the schedule allowed little practice time for Andrew Davis and Leh Keen to get familiar with a track neither had ever driven. Torrential rain cut the sessions even shorter, but another strong qualifying performance by Davis put the Brumos Porsche 911 GT3 in 3rd place for the next day’s start. Race day brought sunshine and Davis drove a strong opening stint, bringing the Brumos #59 in under the race’s first yellow for the driver change to Leh Keen. As Keen took off, it became apparent that there was a problem with the left rear wheel. It worked loose, bringing Keen limping back to the pits and putting the #59 down 4 laps in the process. Keen drove a phenomenal closing stint, posting consistently faster times than the leaders, but time ran out before he could regain the ground that was lost, ending the day with a 13th place finish.

Despite the problems, Keen focused on the positives, saying, “First things first, we had a great car. I felt like we had a car we could be on the podium with, a car good enough to possibly win the race. That’s a big plus. This race year is really crazy – it’s been hard to just keep it off the walls and try to stay clean. We had an issue in the pits, and the tire came off on my out lap when I first got in the car. When something like that happens, you’re pretty much done as far as having a good race finish, but we learned a lot and got some good data for the future. The guys gave us a great car and we were the fastest Porsche in the race, so overall, there were a lot of positives. Now, we will just head on to the next race and concentrate on regaining our momentum there.”

Andrew Davis also remained upbeat despite the disappointing results. “I had a good start to the race and quickly realized we had a really good car. I believed we could win with the car or certainly be on the podium,” he said. “I felt like we were going to fly the flag for Porsche at Detroit, but auto racing is very fickle, and only a small number of teams reap the rewards of each race. Our finish was certainly not indicative of the effort the entire team put into the event. I’m proud of our team for not giving up, especially Leh, who soldiered on, but still pushed very hard and was able to show Brumos was the quickest Porsche out there. We took a knock in the points but we don’t give up. We proved that last year and will just keep fighting to claw our way back. It’s time to take the gloves off now and just go for race wins. The only way to fight our way back into the championship run is to win some races, so now we are going to take the fight to everyone.”