Brumos brings home a top five finish in difficult Road America race

Jacksonville, FL: When the GRAND-AM Rolex Series released their 2012 schedule, it was apparent that the month of June would be the most difficult stretch of the season. With two back-toback race weekends that month, Brumos Racing was aware of the challenges ahead. As they headed to Road America to kick off the second set of back-to-back weekends, the team was ready to rebound from recent disappointing finishes.

Andrew Davis, Leh Keen

Photo by: Jackie Buys

The first day of practice saw struggles, but the crew put in late hours to make the needed changes and the Brumos #59 Porsche 911 GT3 posted some of the fastest laps the next day. The team’s hopes for a pole were dashed as heavy rains caused cancellation of qualifying. As a result, Andrew Davis started the race from 7th place, based on points. Driving his usual strong stint, Davis put the #59 up front, despite damage to a rear wheel from early contact. Strategy also fell into place as the car was handed off to Leh Keen. Keen, who ran as high as 2nd in the closing laps, was unable to hold that position, but brought the #59 home in 5th place, the best Porsche result of the day and Brumos’ best finish since opening the season with a pair of podiums.

While hoping for a better result, Keen was pleased with the overall effort, saying, “At the end of the day, we were in GRAND-AM tech, which means we had a top 5 finish. That’s good, because we’ve had a tough time the last few races. The car was awesome in the morning warm-up, but the track had changed a bit by race time, so we didn’t have quite the car we were hoping to have for the race, but we had good strategy and it got us up to the front. I was trying to hold off the cars behind me but it was really tough at the end. The tires had gone away a bit so we didn’t have quite the speed we needed to stay in front, but now we are back to our top 5 program and really looking forward to heading to the Glen next.”

Starting driver Andrew Davis was especially disappointed the qualifying session was rained out, saying, “The guys had worked really hard to get us a great car and we were posting quick times in practice. Having to start from 7th was tough, and from the beginning there was quite a bit going on. I got checked up at the start when the car in front of me got on the brakes early and I lost a position. Then I had contact from behind that damaged the right rear wheel. I struggled with that through my stint, as it affected the balance of the car. I have to commend Leh for his drive and the entire team for their superb job. I am really proud to be a Brumos driver and part of this organization. We got good points and regained some ground, so we can take this momentum on to our next race at the Glen, the site of our first win in 2011 and one of our favorite tracks.”

The 5th place finish boosted Brumos to 6th place in the team championship standings.

Source: Brumos Racing