Grand-Am

Birmingham: Guy Cosmo race report

Though the weather threatened and the track was enveloped in extreme humidity and heat, it would take a broken suspension piece to spoil the day for Guy Cosmo, Bobby Labonte and the Spirit of Daytona MarineMax 09 Pontiac Crawford. Through it all, ...

Edited: Aug 2, 2006, 2:20 AM

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Though the weather threatened and the track was enveloped in extreme humidity and heat, it would take a broken suspension piece to spoil the day for Guy Cosmo, Bobby Labonte and the Spirit of Daytona MarineMax 09 Pontiac Crawford. Through it all, the team stayed focused and Bobby and Guy wrestled home the ill-handling 09 MarineMax Prototype in 21st place for the Porsche 250 Presented by Bradley Arant at the Barber Motorsports Park.

The team qualified 16th with Labonte in the car. As the qualifying driver, it was Bobby's role to start the race. After running a 7 lap caution period at the start of the race, the No. 77 Doran made contact with Labonte putting him off line and into the grass. A suspension piece broke sending Bobby [in an extremely muddy #09 car] to pit lane and the team scrambling to repair the damage.

After going nine laps down and enduring another long caution, Labonte turned the car over to Cosmo. A result of the earlier damage created quite a challenge braking in traffic.

"With the repair we had to make to the rear suspension, the corner weight in the car was a bit off," noted Cosmo. "That has a big effect on the car under braking. It made things much more difficult to get through traffic.

"It was pretty tough on the front left and I was braking really early," Guy continued. "I flat spotted the front tires pretty bad. The car was still very good though,"

Cosmo remained optimistic in Spirit of Daytona's efforts and their potential to be competitive.

"The team did an excellent job getting the car ready for this weekend," Cosmo acknowledged. "And, I think Bobby and I are communicating well as teamates. It is just a shame that we were not able to show how quick we were. We owe this one to MarineMax, a big thanks to them for being loyal to us."

The Porsche 250 Presented by Bradley Arant at the Barber Motorsports Park was the 11th Grand American Rolex Series race of the season. Labonte and Cosmo will return to the track once again at Watkins Glen on August 11.

-jt-

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