The racing and weather gods were none too kind to the Autocon group at this weekend’s New England Grand Prix at the picturesque bullring race track know as Lime Rock Park. The compact schedule, just two days, placed a premium on taking full advantage of every minute of available track time to fine tune the newly-livered JeanRichard Creation for the unique experiences faced with this ultra-short, bumpy race track, tucked into the Berkshire Mountains in Northwest Connecticut.

Two practice sessions were scheduled to precede qualification and the first session went off as scheduled with team owner/driver Michael Lewis taking all the laps, focusing on setup. After this first practice the initial obstacle to success was encountered. A major downpour arrived coincidental with the second and final practice, drenching the track and causing the session to be cancelled for safety reasons. The area remained wet enough for series officials to cancel qualifying and convert that track period to a wet practice session. The starting grid for the event would be determined by the sole practice session, which would grid Autocon fourth in class, 15th overall.

With the weather forecast for race day calling for perfect weather there was seemingly no benefit from Autocon participation in wet practice. Autocon co-driver Chris McMurry had not as yet turned a lap and the Friday events were complete.

Saturday dawned with beautiful weather, as predicted, and McMurry finally turned a handful of excellent warm up laps in preparation for the 2:45 hour event.

In the short period between final warm up and the race IMSA issued a ruling that because McMurry did not set any time in the Friday session that established the grid he was technically ineligible to compete. They then determined they would allow him to use the time from warm up to become eligible for the race but the team would have to start from the rear of the 26 car field. The same situation was confronted by fellow Creation entrant Intersport Racing who would grid next to Autocon on the last row of the field.

“Had we known the exact rule I certainly would have turned a few laps in practice but lots of things, weather and rules, impacted this and we were stuck at the back. We felt the judgement of the officials was misguided. I’ve been racing in this series for six years, have won races, and they know I can do what needs to be done. This was an example of being blinded by bureaucracy,” stated McMurry.

Now the major obstacle would be working through the assortment of lower class cars on this very tight, 1.54-mile track. McMurry was assigned the opening stint and began to carefully pick his way through the field at the drop of the green. “Chris did a masterful job of quickly getting through the field without incident and had passed 11 cars, the entire GT2 field, by lap 15, and setting his sights on the GT1 Corvettes to rejoin the prototype battle,” stated an appreciative Lewis.

Lap 30 saw an unscheduled pit stop when McMurry had a tire going down, and brought the car to pit lane for a precautionary check. After new tires were installed the car balked at restarting. Lewis described the lengthy pit stop. “The car is not a happy camper today. We had a full day of testing at Road Atlanta with absolutely no issues. Now we have an electrical issue preventing the engine to fire.”

The Autocon crew did manage to remedy the problem but the resulting 5-minute pit stop put the #12 back to the rear of the field, negating all the gains made by McMurry. But caving in is not part of the Autocon culture and Chris responded by putting the car back in play and again moving up the leader board, along the way setting times well below the session that served as qualification.

Autocon finally caught a break, the first of the weekend, when the #2 Audi had an off-course excursion causing them an extended pit stop and moving Autocon into third in class. Now the task was to continue moving up to preserve an opportunity to gain a podium finish that had looked so elusive just minutes before.

“Chris was doing a good job and we left him in for a long time,” continued Lewis. “It was pretty warm here today and Chris proved his fitness by turning quick times throughout his 1:49 hour stint.”

An opportune caution period then allowed an orderly pit stop for fuel, tires and driver change. Lewis took over the helm and built on the prior pattern of fast and clean driving, moving the entry up five more positions to 14th overall and securing the first Autocon podium for 2007.

“This is what I love about endurance racing,” stated McMurry. “You can never count yourself in or out until the checker flag flies. The entire Autocon crew hung together and we scored our best finish yet this year. Last year we led this race overall for a bit and finished on the podium. This year we achieved a similar result from the opposite end of the grid. I am pretty sure that when we visit the tracks this Creation was designed for, long fast circuits like Road America, Mosport and Road Atlanta, we will match or better this result.”

The next round of the American Le Mans Series for Autocon is the Acura Sports Car Challenge, scheduled for 3:15 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 21 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The race will be broadcast live on XM Satellite Radio's Sports Nation Channel and American Le Mans Radio via americanlemans.com, which also will feature IMSA's Live Timing & Scoring. CBS Sports will broadcast the race from 2 to 4 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 22.