Indianapolis, Ind. (25 July 2014) – Racing on hallowed ground, Stevenson Motorsports continued to make the most of the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R platform as the team won its third consecutive race, and fourth of the 2014 season, with a huge victory in the Brickyard Sports Car Challenge on Friday.
Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell backed up their breakthrough win at Sebring International Raceway in March with the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro Z/28.R with a return to victory lane in Round 8 of the 2014 IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge season, this time at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“It’s super important and so good for the guys – good for everybody to say we’ve been to Indy and we’ve won at Indy,” said a very pleased John Stevenson. “It puts us in a much better position here for the rest of the year to charge up in this championship. We are definitely back as a contender so that’s a great result. The guys did great, they had a great day!”
The Speedway has been the scene for some dramatic highs—including securing the GRAND-AM Endurance Championship last year—as well as some disappointing days, so the victory was extra sweet for the all-American squad as Chevrolet looks for a big weekend at the Speedway.
“It’s awesome,” said Team Manager Mike Johnson as he celebrated with his family on hand. “Indy is the one you always want to win. We’re on a roll and everything is working well. I feel bad for the No. 9 guys because they would have been there as well. We took a real early gamble coming in under green when nobody else did. I was worried that if we got a yellow it could have gone real bad for us and it didn’t happen. The only car that was near us was the guys that did something after we did it. It’s Indy!!”
The No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro Z/28.R also had a promising race before it went south as the car that won the Watkins Glen and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park races opened the race from pole position and led the opening 19 laps with Matt Bell behind the wheel.
A lap 28 pit stop saw Bell turn the car over to Lally to take to the finish. But the duo saw their race come undone when Lally was hit in the side by the championship-leading BMW, sending him into the path of a fellow Camaro Z/28.R and causing significant damage. The team rallied to make repairs, allowing Lally to return to the track but several laps down to the leader.
The No. 6 Camaro Z/28.R duo of Davis and Liddell started from seventh on the grid with Davis making early progress to run in third by the time the second yellow flag flew on lap 25. As the field went back to green, both cars dove for the pits for the first service, with Liddell taking over the controls and returning to the pack 25th in the order.
As the race went into a long green flag run, Liddell showed unstoppable upward mobility, moving up to third with over an hour to go before taking the lead on lap 54 before a final green flag pit stop that same lap. Good pit work saw him return in third as he took the lead for good on lap 58 to pace the final 28 laps to score the victory.
“I’m at a loss for words,” said Davis. “Winning at Indy is something every little boy dreams of for sure. A big victory for us. A great day for points. I am just so proud of this Stevenson Motorsports group – these guys just fight, fight, fight. Robin did a superior job. I’m over the moon after a little bit of disappointment in qualifying to have a good run at the start and then be able to bring home our third victory of the season for the Camaro Z/28.R. I’m so happy for everybody. It’s a great day!”
“It was an awesome way to bounce back after Mosport,” said Liddell.
“Qualifying yesterday we were a little bit disappointed but we knew we had a great race car. It is hard to pass in this car, that is one weakness, there is just not much straight line speed. But Andrew getting the car up to third was a brilliant job and exactly what we needed to do and then from there I just tried to keep the pressure on. Getting these results at this track is brilliant. We have come close a couple of times and finally getting the result here is really good. I was a bit disappointed with our result at Mosport so to come back and win here I am just really happy.”
The Brickyard Sports Car Challenge event will be televised on FOX Sports 1 on August 3 at 12:00 PM ET.