Brumos Racing:  Montreal Race Report
Monday, August 30, 2010

Brumos Racing headed to Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for Round Eleven of the twelve-race GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season, in search of redemption for their heartbreaking loss of 2008. The condensed weekend schedule allowed only one day for practice, with some of that allotted time lost in sessions shortened by accidents. With that limited track time, the Brumos team had little opportunity to find the improvements needed to compete with the frontrunners. Darren Law again qualified the #59 Porsche Riley, ending that session in 7th place.

In pre-race planning sessions, the decision was made to take a gamble on strategy. Law was instructed to come in on the opening lap to make the mandatory first pit stop. In the event of an early yellow flag, the #59 would stay out on track while the rest of the field pitted, allowing Law to move to the front. It seemed as though a best-case scenario had occurred when a full course caution was called on the very next lap. As most of the entire DP field headed for the pits, the Brumos Porsche Riley was en route to leading the race.

In a procedural glitch, the pace car led the rest of the field too slowly through the course, and the pit lane exit was not properly closed, allowing pitted cars back on track out of order. As a result, the #59 fell into 3rd behind two cars that had pitted. Despite protests from several teams, the controversial situation was not corrected, costing Brumos the spot they had earned.  A second full course caution helped with fuel conservation, enabling the #59 to complete the two-hour race with only one more pit stop. The perfect opportunity for that stop arose when the third yellow flag was dropped. Law took advantage and came in to hand the #59 over to David Donohue. Law came into the pits in 4th, and Donohue headed out in the same position following a flawless stop by the Brumos crew.  He held that position throughout his closing stint despite constant challenges, bringing the #59 home in 4th place.

Law was pleased with the overall outcome, saying, “It was a very busy first stint for me, with all of the accidents and yellows. Our strategy call was definitely the right thing to do, because of the yellow on the very next lap.  The leaders all came in to pit and it moved us up from last place - we should have led, but at least we made it to third.  We really didn’t have the car to run with any of those top three, but I was able to hold us up there in third for a long time. The Brumos team did a great job with what they had and the strategy really paid off.”

David Donohue also had praise for the team, saying, “We were hoping for a little bit of a payback for 2008, but realistically, we just weren’t in a position to challenge the top three cars. The Brumos guys gave us a good race car, and although we didn’t practice well, we raced well once again. The early pit stop was really a gamble, but it worked out. Brumos held their own and the #59 was the ‘best of the rest’, so to speak. We are now focused strongly on 2011, so to come out of this race with a 4th is really a victory for us. We plan to really hit the ground running at Daytona by winning another Rolex 24 and continuing on through the rest of 2011 up front. Right now, we have one more race coming up at Miller, and then we’ll be working hard over the winter to get ready for the new season.”

The 2010 Rolex Series season finale race will be held at Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City, UT, on Saturday, September 11th.  The 2.75 hour race is scheduled for a 2:00 PM ET start time and will be broadcast live on SPEED TV.

Posted on 08/30 at 03:23 PM