Grand-Am
SCC: Mid-Ohio: Chris Gleason race notes
Gleason Has a Tough Race Saturday at Mid-Ohio LEXINGTON, Ohio, June 23 - Chris Gleason put the Turner Motorsport BMW M3 No. 96 eighth on the grid in a solid field of 40 KONI Challenge GS cars competing at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this ...
Edited: Dec 21, 2009, 5:26 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Gleason Has a Tough Race Saturday at Mid-Ohio
LEXINGTON, Ohio, June 23 - Chris Gleason put the Turner Motorsport BMW M3 No. 96 eighth on the grid in a solid field of 40 KONI Challenge GS cars competing at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend, but problems struck the Johnstown, Pa.-based driver during Saturday afternoon's race and he finished 29th.
Hopes were high after Gleason's sizzling qualifying lap of 1:34.846, averaging 85.705 miles per hour for the 2.258-mile road course. He had a good start in the car, which is sponsored in part by Gleason Financial, and remained in eighth place until he was hit in the rear by another competitor around lap 12.
Grand-Am officials made him pit to replace his dangling bumper, which pushed him back to 32nd spot. He soldiered on, setting his fastest lap of the race on lap 21 with a 1:35.078 (85.496 mph).
He was posting smooth and consistent laps, but then the car's oil pressure warning lights flashed repeatedly. At one point the engine totally quit very unexpectedly, and a tow truck with a tow rope had to be used to bring the car back to the pits. After the crew examined the car and the engine cooled down Gleason was able to restart and continue on. More warning lights followed, however, and after losing several laps due to the earlier problems, Gleason called it a day with 58 of 83 laps complete. His co-driver, Bill Auberlen of Redondo Beach, Calif., didn't even get in the car during this particular race.
The entry's official finishing position was 29th.
Gleason's post-race quote follows:
"We didn't have a good day. I got hit in the rear and the bumper was dragging, so I had to come in for that. They topped me up with fuel and sent me back out, because the plan was for me to stay in the car as much as possible today. Bill has a Daytona Prototype race later this afternoon, so we wanted to try to limit his time in the car so he would be tired for that event.
"Anyway, things were going OK and then the oil pressure warning lights came on. We blew an engine at the last race at Mosport, so that was in the back of my mind. The warning lights came on four separate times, and then the engine just shut down completely and I had to get towed into the pits. I sat there awhile and I guess it cooled off, because it started up OK, and back out I went.
"I think I was in there for about two hours anyway, which was OK, no problem. But then the warning lights came back on. I didn't think it was worth blowing the engine; we were down a lot of laps and there was nothing to gain. We also have another race in two weeks, so I pulled the plug on the deal. We'll live again to fight another day."
-credit: restart communications
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Mid-Ohio: Banner Racing race report
Next article Mid-Ohio: GT final practice times
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Bill Auberlen
Zanardi, Auberlen to be inducted into Long Beach Walk of Fame
IndyCar
IndyCar
Long Beach
Zanardi, Auberlen to be inducted into Long Beach Walk of Fame
“We made our own luck,” says Turner after win at The Glen
IMSA
IMSA
Watkins Glen
“We made our own luck,” says Turner after win at The Glen
Auberlen drops out of Sebring 12 Hours
IMSA
IMSA
Sebring 12 Hours
Auberlen drops out of Sebring 12 Hours
More from
Turner Motorsport
Foley, Turner Motorsport ready to “Turn up the wick” in GTD title fight at VIR
IMSA
IMSA
Virginia
Foley, Turner Motorsport ready to “Turn up the wick” in GTD title fight at VIR
Jake Walker joins Turner Motorsport for IMSA endurance rounds
IMSA
IMSA
Petit Le Mans Road Atlanta
Jake Walker joins Turner Motorsport for IMSA endurance rounds
Forte Racing still reeling from “amazing” maiden GTD win at Petit Le Mans
IMSA
IMSA
Petit Le Mans Road Atlanta
Forte Racing still reeling from “amazing” maiden GTD win at Petit Le Mans
Latest news
Rackley W.A.R. to immediately shut down NASCAR Truck Series team
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Talladega
Rackley W.A.R. to immediately shut down NASCAR Truck Series team
Chase Elliott withdraws his name from NASCAR Most Popular Driver voting
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 24 min
Chase Elliott withdraws his name from NASCAR Most Popular Driver voting
Lewis Hamilton: Kimi Antonelli “deserves to be the champion”
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
30 min
Lewis Hamilton: Kimi Antonelli “deserves to be the champion”
Alex Marquez: Marco Bezzecchi ‘miscalculated’ move in bizarre practice crash
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
36 min
Alex Marquez: Marco Bezzecchi ‘miscalculated’ move in bizarre practice crash
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe