Grand-Am

SCC: Mosport: Chris Gleason race notes

Engine Blows in Gleason And Auberlen's Car At Mosport Saturday BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada, June 16 - Chris Gleason of Johnstown, Pa. had the Turner Motorsport BMW M3 up as high as third on the scoreboard and his teammate, Bill Auberlen of ...

Edited: Dec 21, 2009, 5:26 AM

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Engine Blows in Gleason And Auberlen's Car At Mosport Saturday

BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada, June 16 - Chris Gleason of Johnstown, Pa. had the Turner Motorsport BMW M3 up as high as third on the scoreboard and his teammate, Bill Auberlen of Redondo Beach, Calif., was sixth when the car's engine blew with 69 of 95 laps complete in the KONI Challenge GS race Saturday at Mosport International Raceway. They ended up 23rd in the final rundown of the race, which marked the series' halfway point.

The same problem struck their sister car, the Turner Motorsport BMW M3 of Don Salama and Will Turner. They won the pole, led more than half of the race and had a 21.822-seconds advantage at one point, but they finished right behind Gleason and Auberlen in 24th place after dropping out with 57 laps complete.

Gleason qualified tenth in the 31-car field with a lap in 1:31.885 (96.342 miles per hour) for the 2.459-mile road course. He ran in tenth or 11th in the early going, and spent a good portion of his stint sandwiched between two Daves: Dave Lacey in one of the Hyper Sport Mustang GTs, and Dave Riddle in the Fiorano/C-Max Porsche 997. That's where he was when he ran his fastest lap, a 1:32.804 (95.388 mph) on lap 24, while in tenth place.

Riddle passed him on lap 28 to drop him to 11th but he was back in tenth by lap 34, holding off Jep Thornton in the Automatic Racing BMW M3 that would go on to finish third.

Gleason advanced to eighth on lap 41 with 1:24.14 remaining when some of the drivers ahead of him pitted. He got seventh on the next lap, sixth on lap 43, and fourth on lap 44, although Thornton finally got around him on that lap. Gleason moved into third on lap 47 and stayed there for two laps until he pitted too and Auberlen took over.

After the pit stop Auberlen started his usual march through the field from 12th place with 1:11.38 remaining. He got as high as sixth, but then the engine failed and the pair's day was done with 1:48.54.399 complete in the two-and-one-half hour race. Auberlen's fastest lap was a 1:31.067 recorded on lap 52.

Joe Foster and Scott Maxwell ended up winning in a Hyper Sport Mustang GT. A similar car driven by Ken Wilden and Dean Martin was second, while the BMW that Thornton shares with Jeff Segal finished third. The race ended under the event's only full-course caution from laps 92 to 95 to retrieve a Porsche that was in the gravel trap off Turn 8.

Gleason's post-race quote follows:

"There were no full-course cautions until the end, and I ran it bone dry before I pitted.

"Mosport is a very difficult, old-style course. There are a lot of blind-pass turns. It's a hard workout. Thank God I work out. Doing the hour and 15 minutes or so I did today didn't bother me at all.

"After the pit stop, Bill was back up to sixth when we had an engine failure. The same thing happened to our sister car, so it was a bad day for the team.

"It seems that Bill and I either finish on the podium or we DNF. It really hurts our chances in the point standings. When Anders Hainer won the Grand-Am Cup GS championship last year for the team it's because he was able to maximize his points. Even when he wasn't on the podium, he was in the top 10. We haven't been able to do that so far this year, so the team is disappointed.

"But we're looking forward to going to Mid-Ohio next weekend.  We won there
last year.  Bill and I are both excited to go back and race there again."

-credit: restart communications

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