Bodymotion Racing's No. 21 Porsche Cayman sponsored by Competition Motorsport showed great pace in Saturday's IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race at Road America. Driver Jason Rabe of Monticello, NY maintained second place for the first 16 laps of the two-hour race, including and leading lap 17. Unfortunately, another driver made contact at the rear on a restart due to caution and the team had to make an unscheduled pit stop to change a Continental tire that was going flat due to the contact. That caused it to end up where it started, which was fourth in the Street Tuner (ST) class, when the checkered dropped on lap 43.
Jason Rabe qualified fourth in the #21 Porsche Cayman on Saturday morning with a time of 2:33.100 (95.184 miles per hour), but when the green flag dropped he deftly fought his way into second place on the first lap. Rabe set the car's fastest lap of the race on lap nine with a time of 2:33.638. He was able to stay very close to the BMW that sat on the pole and won the class, and turned the car over to his co-driver, Max Faulkner of Rumson, N.J., in good shape.
Faulkner was poised to battle for the victory but the contact occurred shortly after he took over, dropping him to fifth. Instead of vying for the victory Faulkner found himself focused on simply finishing the race. He advanced from fifth to fourth on lap 27 with 38 minutes remaining in the race.
The Ocean Township, N.J.-based team has to count its blessings after this event, as one Grand Sport (GS) car suffered extensive damage when it flipped and caught on fire after being hit by another car while it was out of control. The initial reports are that both drivers luckily escaped major injury in that frightening accident.
Following the race, Team Owner Mike Bavaro had this to say:
"The guys did a great job. We managed to get the car set up to the drivers' liking and they did show good speed. At the beginning of the race Jason was right there and right on the No. 81's back bumper. Unfortunately on the restart a Mini got into the left rear and cut our left-rear tire down. That would usually put you a lap down, but the guys did a fantastic job. The stop went fast, they banged out the sheet metal and put a new tire on it and sent it back out. We managed to stay on the lead lap. Had there been a caution in the second half we would have been right there running with them, but you can't count on cautions and it didn't go our way. We missed that podium by a spot, but the guys did a good job."
The race will air on FOX Sports 1 on Sunday, Aug. 12 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Eastern time.
The next IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race is the two-hour Biscuitville Grand Prix on August 18th at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Va.
