The RACE EPIC/Murillo Racing team escaped the second round of Grand-Am’s Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) Barber 200 at Barber Motorsports Park with a top-20 finish and a damaged car after running among the lead group. Jeff Mosing qualified the #56 Coolgas / Frank’s International BMW 328i in the 17th position and used an early pit strategy to gain track position for his teammate, Jesse Combs. While the result wasn’t as strong as the team’s 3rd place finish here last year, the duo took away from the weekend some positive highlights.
"We finished in the top-10 for each session all week,” said Mosing. “Ken Murillo and our entire crew did a great job in preparing the car. I believe our qualifying position would have been much better as a black flag was thrown for debris on the track. I was forced to slow down to avoid it and it certainly cost us a top-10 starting position. My stint in the car was a bit surreal as we were under caution laps almost the whole time. ”
The RaceEpic BMW made an early pit-stop hoping to be able to capitalize on caution laps later in the race and returned to the track in the 20th position. Now with Combs in the car to finish, he began to work his way through traffic in a five-car dice, making his way up to 12th before getting hit in the left-rear in turn 11. The incident left the rear wheel “toed out” and put the team in survival mode running many seconds off the pace.
“I had my hands full for the last 45-minutes of the race,” said Combs. “I just continued to pray for double yellows and rain knowing that nothing could make the car any harder to driver after the damage.”
The team is already preparing for the next round of the series, the KIA 200, on April 28 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. They hope to improve on their 23rd place result in 2011.
For more information about Race Epic/Murillo Racing, visit www.raceepic.com. For information regarding Grand Am’s Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, including schedules, visit www.Grand-Am.com.
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