Road America, a truly holy site for sports car racing, was none too kind to the Autocon Motorsports duo of Mike Lewis and Chris McMurry as clutch issues first aborted their qualifying effort, then reared again to bring a premature end to the Generac 500 ALMS event for the team. The #12 JeanRichard entry was forced to retire on lap 65 but that was well enough to score sixth place points in the 2006 Championship chase.

"It is truly a shame that this weekend didn't give us a better opportunity to let our Lola perform," stated Autocon owner/driver Lewis. "It was a frustrating time for me this weekend. I usually do very well on this track and was really disappointed at the car's performance. This track IS the reason to drive these cars."

"We were a bit off the pace in our practice sessions, particularly when compared to our rivals at Highcroft who campaign the same package," continued Lewis. "We got a big set back when the final pre-qualifying practice ended with a clutch issue. There was not sufficient time – less than an hour – to effect the repair before qualifying so we were forced to stay parked and assume a position at the rear of the field. It was a big disappointment but we still felt we could move through the field in the race."

The Autocon group made a lot of changes prior to the race to find more performance, but they did not all work out as planned. "We studied a ton of data in the evening and morning and worked closely with our engine partner AER," continued Lewis. "We were striving to close the gap in straight away performance compared to the other prototypes, but we may have missed the mark on some changes. My initial laps were slower than practice, which suggested we additional problems cropping up, and we went a lap down just prior to the first yellow. That was a lap we were unable to recover."

McMurry assumed the wheel at the midpoint and confirmed before reaching the first turn of his out lap that the changes had a negative impact of performance, but perhaps more importantly that something else was not right in the back of the car. "The car struggled to just get the car out of the pits, and the acceleration from that point on was not right. I thought we were going to have a gearbox or engine failure eventually,” said McMurry who noted the sound pitch from the rear of the car had changed from practice sessions.

Autocon managed to run in 12th position overall for most of the race, despite the challenges. During the routine and final pit stop, the clutch again failed, and the #12 was unable to get rolling again. Post-race inspection also identified a crack in the intercooler, perhaps explaining the Lola being down on power.

"There were many positive things that happened during the weekend, it is just that the ending wasn’t too happy other than that we did finish in a points paying position, the fifth consecutive points finish for Autocon this season. Everyone tried hard, and sometimes things just happen. We’ll recover and be ready for Mosport in two weeks," added McMurry, who will be joined by a new teammate John Graham in the Canadian race. Graham is slated to campaign Autocon’s second car in 2007.

Lewis looks forward to the upcoming Mosport event. "We have little interest in dwelling on a bad weekend except to learn. We learn from good weekends to get better, which we have done all season, and we also learn from bad weekends. The measurement is the next race and we will perform. That much is a commitment."