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Top 10 Finish in Virginia for Forest

Apr 27, 2009
Narrowly missing a crash, a burning car and an extra pit stop, didn't impede the #32 Dyancor Media/PR1 Motorsports team from posting a 10th place finish in Saturdays Bosch 250 at Virginia International Raceway.

Forest had qualified the car in 9th position, putting them in a position where they had opportunities to climb to the podium.

"I had a bit quicker lap going on the final lap of qualifying but made a small mistake and so 9th will have to do. It was not so bad given some of the issues we overcame that day" Forest said.

The start of the race saw relatively little drama as all of the 34 cars remained on track & unharmed. The excitement really began on the 6th lap when the #67 car made contact with the #69 car after it had run wide & spun back across the track. Forest was less than 10 car lengths back exiting the 90mph corner when the contact was made.

"It was really close, I had to lock up the tires & then at the last second swerve onto the grass because there was no other room. One car was sideways & the other car was still spinning. When I passed them on the grass I could hear parts of their cars bouncing off my windshield" Forest recalls of the incident.

Exiting the pit box after fuel and 2 new tires Forest narrowly missed a Porsche which took a last minute dive into the pit box right in front of Forest. The next 15 laps went smoothly with Forest making up time in 9th. At the 55 minute mark another full course yellow allowed the PR1 team to perform their driver change and get Lawson Aschenbach in the car. Resuming the race the car was in 10th position but this was somewhat false as some competitors ahead still had 2 pit stops remaining while the Forest/Aschenbach car only had 1 stop remaining. Over the next 60 minutes Aschenbach was able to move the car up to 7th position & ran as high as 3rd just before pitting with an hour to go in the race.

An unexpected driver change occurred with 30 minutes to go in the race when the 90 degree heat & fatigue finally wore Lawson beyond tolerable limits. The problem originated with an uncomfortable seat creating severe back pain & was made worse because his cool suit (vest with cooling tubes worn to combat the 140+ degree cockpit temperatures) failed to operate properly. The extra stop dropped the car to 10th position which is where Forest brought it home as there was not enough time to catch the cars ahead. Adding to the excitement in the closing stages was the Childress-Howard Jack Daniels car which had a gearbox or fuel issue causing it to drop fluid which was ignited by the exhaust leaving a trail of flames burning to within 5 car lengths of Forest. If not for that final stop the PR1 squad feels a 5th place finish was possible but the long awaited podium will have to wait until next weekend.

The Rolex Grand Am series continues with another 3 hour race at Thunderbolt Raceway this Sunday in Millville, New Jersey. SPEED Channel will again be providing live coverage starting at 11am M.S.T. May 3rd.

For more information visit www.mikeforestracing.com

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