Promising Start Yields Double Top-10 for Stevenson Motorsports in Audi Debut at Road America

As the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship enters the closing chapters of the 2016 season, Stevenson Motorsports continues to hit their stride with the all-new Audi R8 LMS machinery.

Racing at Road America, a track that has featured some highlight days for the team, Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase saw Stevenson Motorsports continue to show strength with the two-car Audi R8 effort in GTD Class competition.

After running in podium contention for the majority of Round 8, the team accepted a third consecutive double top-10 finish as the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 of Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis crossed the finish line in fifth while the No. 9  Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 of Matt Bell and Lawson Aschenbach filed in right behind in sixth.

The result was less than the Jacksonville, North Carolina-based team had been hoping for, having posted their best qualifying effort of the season on Saturday. Davis took the green flag in the No. 6 from second place with Bell just behind in the No. 9 in third for Sunday’s event.

The longest track on the WeatherTech series docket at 4-miles, Road America presents a unique challenge to all of the teams and Stevenson Motorsports began playing their fuel strategy even before the drop of the green flag.

In the opening stages of the race, both Davis and Bell did their best to both maintain position and also save every last bit of fuel possible. The duo ran second and third through their entire stint, running in tandem to stave off the competition and also save fuel before Davis pitted one lap before Bell as they both took on routine service and handed the twin Audi machines over to their co-drivers.

Flawless work by the team saw both Liddell and Aschenbach join the pack safely within the top-five. As the race moved into an extended green flag run, both drivers challenged for position as the GTD field ran at a blistering pace, with the top-six cars all within just a few seconds of each other.

Unfortunately a lack of pace over the longer green stint saw both slip back as Liddell took the checkers in fifth and Aschenbach followed in sixth.

“As a team we’re doing all the right things,” said Team Manager Mike Johnson. “We’re qualifying up front, our pit stops are getting better – we moved some things around and found a little more time. We ran second and third the whole race. After the restart we just didn’t get up to speed the way the others did and we fell back a few spots. It’s a disappointing day because we had second and third place cars and we’re losing so much time in pit lane under fueling. The good news is that we’re running up front, we just have to have all the pieces fall together and we have three more races to do that.”

The team now looks forward to a short break before heading to their home track event at VIRginia International Raceway on August 24-26.