Lakeville, CT -- The sun shown brightly at the historic and treacherous Lime Rock Park in CT for the American Le Mans Series Northeast Grand Prix and the sun also emerged to shine on the #12 Autocon entry for drivers Chris McMurry and Tony Burgess as they had a superb race, advancing from the rear of the field at the start to finish an uninterrupted race in a proud 4th in the P1 class and 6th overall.

The schedule for the Lime Rock was very compacted this year with all activities scheduled into just two days. Two practices on Friday, plus qualifying, followed by a warm up and the race on Satruday.

 

"We said going in that the key to a good grid position would be uninterupted running in the first two practices," said McMurry."There were a few red flags, and our heat exchanger failed just before the start of the second practice. We took our best wild guess at a set up for qualifying, and took a flyer."

 

The first practice session was satisfactory and helped identify some needed set up changes.The 1.5-mile bullring of a track was entirely new to Burgess, who had not raced at Lime Rock in any vehicle previously. For McMurry, about half of the track was new, since he did not race at Lime Rock since last year's track modiciations.

 

"On the plus side, the laps happen in about 50 seconds, and so of all the tracks to not have any exposure to, this is probably the best one because, even in the short practice sessions, you get a lot of laps in a hurry," added Burgess.

 

"The Lime Rock leadership was done a nice job with the track. We could probably do with one less chicane, and would encourage the Series to consider that, but itself and the surface are much improved everywhere. There used to be a mix of asphalt and concrete in most every corner, and that's been eliminated," explained McMurry.

 

With the second practice session curtailed by the mechanical gremlin, and with a bit of an unknown setup, McMurry took the qualification challenge. Three turns heading down the short back straight, the car inadvertently when into a spin and was sliding through the grass, amazingling not hitting anything.

 

"We had the turbo lag turned off to improve acceleration, but what none of us knew was that the traction control had been accidentally turned off as well. Couple that with cold, medium compounds, and that explains how a car that's going straight might spin," said team owner Mike Lewis. "We're all glad the car was unscathed."

 

After a quick stop, McMurry's qualifying effort resumed, though rain drops had started to fall. Still, the JeanRichard sponsored car managed 8th overall on the grid, though not nearly to the speed they hoped hoped to achieve.

 

"We decided to switch from the medium compounds to the softs for the race, and so that combined with an obscure rule, meant we would have to start from the back on race day," explained Lewis about the 23rd spot on the grid. "We would have preferred to start up front, and mix it up with the others. During the race we proved to have similar pace to many of the prototypes."

McMurry handled the green flag duties the following day in the sunny, 80-degree environment and quickly began his move to the front. In fact, by lap 8 Chris had cleared all the GT traffic and was sitting 8th overall and 5th in class. 

"Traffic is certainly a challenge at Lime Rock with four classes competing but our Lola really came together for the race," stated McMurry. "Our straight line speed was as strong as ever, and it was great fun using our cornering grip to pass on the outside in places like turn two. The car worked real well in my opening stint, although with the warm temps, the mediums compounds may have helped. Nonetheless, and considering the prior day, the team did a great job making calls with little info."

At the one hour mark McMurry pitted for fuel and tires, and driving duties were passed to Burgess. Tony had very limited track time in practice but promptly began turning excellent laps and made up the positions lost during the pit stop.The entire race ran with only one yellow flag -- highly unusual for Lime Rock -- so pit stops usually resulted in dropping one or two laps, no matter which team was pitting.

 

Before Burgess's stint was completed he had moved to sixth overall and 5th in class. Just past the two hour mark, McMurry returned to the cockpit to finish the event, setting the fastest team times in the process and bringing the car to the finish line 4th in class and 6th overall, gaining Autocon's second points finish of the season.

 

"We actually had a shot at 5th overall, but during our last pit stop we had difficulty geting the steering wheel back on," said McMurry. "Either way, it was a great day for the team and exactly what the doctor ordered after some tough outtings in the prior races this season. We're all bouyed for the second half of the schedule." 

Team owner Michael Lewis summarized the weekend. "We have been snake bit by mechanical issues this season which have impacted our finishing results. Fortunately for Lime Rock the issues we did have were limited to pre-race sessions. The race was our smoothest of the season and both Chris and Tony did a great job of racing and handling the traffic. We would have loved to start where we qualified and mix it up with the other prototypes from the beginning but our finish was a good one for the team."