ALMS

Mid-Ohio: Porsche race report

Dream season continues for The Racers Group as Buckler/Zacharias wheel their Porsche 911 GT3 RS to top spot at Alms Mid-Ohio LEXINGTON, Ohio -- June 30 -- Fresh from their victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the ...

Published: Jul 1, 2002, 11:14 AM

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Dream season continues for The Racers Group as Buckler/Zacharias wheel their Porsche 911 GT3 RS to top spot at Alms Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio -- June 30 -- Fresh from their victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the #66 Racers Group made it two in a row as team owner Kevin Buckler and local hot-shoe B.J. Zacharias, from nearby Cincinnati, piloted their Porsche 911 GT3 RS to a 2.64-second victory to win the GT class at the American Le Mans Series race at M id-Ohio.

"We didn't have the fastest car for qualifying, and we didn't start the race like a house on fire, but we knew we had a good race car and we let the race track, the competition, and the car come to us," said Buckler, who had not won an ALMS event previous ly.

The lead changed nine times among four cars in the GT class, with Johnny Mowlem grabbing the early lead in the Petersen Motorsports as pole-sitter Sascha Maassen lost his vision when an LMP 675 car dumped oil on the windshield of his #23 Alex Job Racing Porsche. Timo Bernhard, in the #22 Alex Job Porsche, has a similar proble m, and both cars fell back.

Meanwhile, Buckler, and Justin Jackson in the #79 Porsche, hung near the front, and when things began to happen, they made their move. Kevin jumped into first place just before the yellow flag at the one-hour mark caused the collision of Joe Policastro in the #42 Orbit Porsche and an Audi LMP car.

After driver changes and the green flag, it was Randy Pobst, now in the Petersen Porsche, in first place with Lucas Luhr, now in the #23 Alex Job car, right on his tail. The two cars dueled for nearly a half-hour before they collided with each other conte sting a corner, and knocked each other out of the event. This left the door open for Zacharias, now in The #66 Racers Group car, to turn his five-second deficit into a five-second lead.

Jorg Bergmeister, who had taken over for Bernhard in the #22 Alex Job Porsche, got by Mike Fitzgerald, now in the #79 J3 Racing Porsche, but couldn't catch Zacharias.

Peter Baron put the #43 Orbit Racing Porsche into the lead on the first lap, but spun into the gravel trap on lap #2, putting him three laps down. David Murry and Larry Schumacher, in the Schumacher Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RS, finished fourth.

The official Porsche web site - www.porsche.com - has information on the Mid-Ohio event for all the Porsches entered.

-porsche-

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