Wittmer extends lead with another win

Kuno Wittmer extended his points lead in the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car Championship at Lime Rock Park by winning the first race of the weekend.
The race meeting held over the American Memorial Day Weekend saw Pierre Kleinubing in his Acura TSX and Chip Herr driving a Mazda6 finishing in second and third places respectively.

Pole position man Pierre Kleinubing made a poor start, spinning his wheels as the lights changed allowing team-mate Wittmer who was alongside him in second on the grid to take an immediate lead. The pair of RealTime Acuras leading the pack into the first corner.

“I just had a bad start,” Kleinubing said. “I spun the tyres way too long. I felt it was better to keep on going at that time rather than to back off and just make things worse. By the time we got to One, Kuno had the lead by quite a bit already.”

“At the start, I had the right RPM and was able to get off the line,” Wittmer said. “I had a good start and I saw Pierre did spin his tyres a little bit, so I had to take advantage of that.”

The leading duo worked together to pull out a gap on third placed Herr in his Tindol Motorsports MAZDA6, with Wittmer setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 13 at 58.607 seconds (93.982 mph).

“Kleinubing was definitely putting pressure on me the whole time and I was trying to pace myself and run the same lap times—just like qualifying, without over-driving the tyres,” Wittmer said.

Amazingly, on lap 26, Kleinubing’s engine cut-out allowing Wittmer to make a break from his hard charging team-mate. Whittner was lucky not to loose any places by the time he managed to re-start his car.

“I caught up to him maybe 10-12 laps into the run and all of a sudden, the car shut off in the downhill which is especially not a good spot,” Kleinubing said. “By the time I gathered things up, shut the power off and restarted, I lost quite a bit. That was the end of the race, really, because the car was never the same after that. It didn’t run the same and Chip seemed to be catching me.”

“It was quite unfortunate when I saw Pierre just back out of it,” Wittmer added. “I knew something had gone wrong. It kind of sucks and it sucks for the team, but he still finished second.”

Last year’s Lime Rock Park winner, Herr, ran a quiet and consistent race, starting and finishing third for his first podium of the season, as well as his first podium with Tindol Motorsports in the MAZDA6.

“I had my first good start since I ran with all-wheel drive [in an Audi],” Herr said. “Unfortunately, so did these guys [Wittmer and Kleinubing].

“We had a consistent car. Tindol Motorsports gave me a great car. The MAZDA6 was almost perfect in a third place finish. We’ll look at the data and see if there is anything we can do to improve for Monday.”

A runner-up finisher at Lime Rock Park last year, James Sofronas finished fourth in his BMW 325Ci. Sofronas also picked up the Sunoco Hard Charger Award in his first SCCA SPEED Touring Car race of the season.

Peter Cunningham made it three RealTime Acuras in the top five. Cunningham remains third in the Drivers Championship behind Wittmer and Kleinubing, with 353 points.

Round Three race winner and standout SCCA SPEED Touring Car rookie Jason Saini (MAZDA6) finished sixth.

James Clay (BMW 325i), Dino Crescentini (Acura TSX), Glenn Bocchino (Acura RSX) and Seth Thomas (BMW 325i) completed the top 10. Thomas had been running fourth, ahead of Sofronas, in the early stages of the race, but ran wide in Turn Two and fell down the order as a result.

Although a blown motor forced rookie Patrick Lindsey to retire from the race, the MAZDA6 driver did take home the Racing Electronics Holeshot Award for advancing five positions on the opening lap.