Heavy rain dampened the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series, Rolex Series and Sportsman Showcase Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway over this past weekend as all the race teams put Continental’s rain tires to the test.
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Saturday’s Sports Car Challenge started under rainy conditions that had both the GS and ST classes starting on the rain tires. The Rum Bum race team qualified on the pole but a technical infraction sent them to the back for the start, yet Nick Longhi piloted the No. 13 Porsche from back to front in the rain with virtually no issues before handing off driving duties to Matt Plumb, who drove on dry tires.
On the ST side, Martin Jensen and Ryan Ellis captured their first win of the season in their No. 18 BMW. Both classes moved to dry tires about an hour into the 2.5-hour race, with the drivers complementing the performance of both the wet and dry tires.
“The rain tires worked fantastic for me obviously,” said Longhi following the race. “It started to dry out and I was still able to keep the pace up. And it was really, really remarkable that as the race track was getting drier they (the tires) were really holding up well. They did not drop off the way that I thought they would, they were really good.”
Plumb pointed out that “as far as the dry tires are concerned, the great thing about these tires is that they’re super consistent. So that’s just one of the variables that you don’t have to constantly be thinking about as a driver. It just makes my job a whole lot easier.”
Torrential rain hit the Homestead area on Sunday as the Rolex Series prepared to do battle for the third time this year. The 2.75-mile race started on time but heavy periods of rain and spinning cars mired the race in cautions for more than half the time. With just under an hour to go, racing officials made the call to cut the race short due to the weather.
The Sun Trust team of Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli emerged overall victors and DP winners while Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato chalked up a win in the GT class for the No. 69 Ferrari team. Due to the rain, teams were only able to race on Continental’s rain tires, which received great marks during the post-race press conference.
“The Continental tires were fantastic in the rain, so that wasn’t an issue,” said David Donohue, half of the No. 5 Action Express Racing team that finished third in DP stated. “And that’s the one thing everyone was worried about going into this race if it was all dry and saving tires and so forth, and it ended up being a non-issue.”
The Sportsman Showcase Series took to the track for its debut for 20 laps in heavy rain. There was plenty of passing and action but when the checkered flag fell, Ernie Francis Sr. was able to lock up the win as his son and car owner, Ernie Jr., looked on.
The Grand-Am Series travels next to New Jersey Motorsports Park for a May 11-13 racing program.
For more information, visit www.conti-online.com.
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