Austin, Texas (18 September 2014) – After just two quick practice sessions in the constantly evolving weather conditions at the famous Circuit of the Americas, both Stevenson Motorsports Camaro Z/28.R machines will start the penultimate round of the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge championship among the top-10.
The No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro Z/28.R shared by Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell led the charge in spite of fighting an ABS issue as Davis posted a fast lap time of 2:23.325-seconds to score a fifth place position on the starting grid. Just behind him will be Stevenson Motorsports teammate Andy Lally who will start seventh in the No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro Z/28.R that he shares with Matt Bell.
“We’ve been struggling with the brakes and the ABS system – it’s been failing all day,” said Davis. “But we were able to get a decent lap in there, considering the traffic. On the next lap I was starting to push harder and I lost it going into turn one. It was a full ABS failure so we had to bring it in. It’s very unfortunate, the guys have been working really hard trying to get the car competitive. It looked like we were going to have something but it just didn’t turn out that way. I’m very proud of the team. It’ll be good but it’s another tough day for the Camaro Z/28.R.”
It was a day full of changing conditions as the brother Stevenson Camaros headed out for the first practice of the morning onto a track still cool and wet from a morning of rain. Despite the slippery conditions, the drivers managed to post fast times to finish up the session safely within the top-10. For the second session in the afternoon, the track had dried completely and the temperature climbed to make it a sticky day as both Camaros shaved two seconds off of their fast lap times.
The forecast calls for the possibility of rain in Friday’s 2.5-hour race and the Stevenson Motorsports team is prepared, rain or shine, to showcase the strength of their Chevy machines and work in pursuit of their first championship title.
“The biggest concern we have right now is that we had an ABS failure in the last practice session,” said Team Manager Mike Johnson after qualifications. “We changed a bunch of things but that didn’t fix it. Our next session is the race so we’ve got one more crack to get it right. If we get the issue resolved then, we’ve got a good car, we’ve got a good team, we’ve got good drivers and we’ll just work to keep the momentum going. With the BoP changes that they made after the last race, we didn’t expect to be fast here, especially in a straight line and there are some pretty long straights here. But at the end of the day, we’re not racing the Mustangs. It’s the No. 6 against the No. 46 for two races so if we beat the No. 46, we’ll be happy.
The green flag will fly at 12:20 PM (CT) and the entirety of the race will be streamed LIVE on imsa.com. It will also be broadcast on FOX Sports 1 on September 28 at 12:00 PM (ET).
