Photo by: Greg Nichols
Frustrating Fourth Place Finish For Mike Forest At Road America
What looked to be another podium finish for Mike Forest last weekend at Road America ended up in anger and frustration as the #8 Miracle Grout Shield machine was punted and spun out with two laps to go and forced to the fourth position in the Rolex Sports Car Series 250 Driven by VISITFLORIDA.COM, round 7 of the 2011 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season.
Forest had a strong start from the seventh spot on the grid and after quickly picking up a position he started reeling in the cars in front of him. On Lap 5 a heavy accident by GT cars in Turn 1 caused damage to a tire wall and catch fence and brought out what turned out to be a 51-minute caution, and a very boring and uneventful stint for Forest in which he was stuck driving around the picturesque 4.048-mile road course at safety car speed until Lap 11 when he pitted for a driver change.
The clever pit strategy paid off for the Starworks Motorsports team and towards the end of the race teammate Ryan Dalziel managed to climb to third place. As he was defending his position he was aggressively punted and spun out by the #10 car of Max Angelleli with only two laps to go in the race, the contact allowed Angelleli to gain a position and forced Dalziel and Forest to settle for the fourth position.
Mike Forest
- 8 Miracle Grout Shield / Dynacor Media / Ford Riley Daytona Prototype
“We are obviously not happy with how this weekend ended up for us, it’s very frustrating to be taken out like that when you are trying to race fair. My stint was pretty uneventful. The start was fun and right away we managed to pick up positions and had a pretty strong pace, but after that yellow came out we were just cruising around under yellow for a very long time until it was time for Ryan to get in. The team had a really good strategy and we were sure we had another podium in the bag, but then the #10 car just kept hitting us going into Turn 8 until we spun out and luckily didn’t make any contact with all the other GT cars around. It’s not the way we like to race and very frustrating to say the least.”
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