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Rain Puts a Damper on PR1's Plans

May 4, 2009

A strong start to the weekend-1st in practice and 6th in qualifying- did not translate into a great race for the #32 Miracle Sealants/Dynacor Media/PR1 Motorsports car as the pair finished in 12th position.

Drivers Mike Forest and Lawson Aschenbach were greeted with a torrential downpour Sunday afternoon for the Verizon 250 at Thunderbolt Raceway in Millville, New Jersey. Three off track excursions and a stop and go penalty added to the suffering. Lawson posted the fastest time for the GT class in Friday afternoon's practice session, while Forest improved his best qualifying position in his short Grand Am career to 6th on Saturday afternoon.

With a major storm moving through the area on Sunday afternoon, the race started under the worst conditions the drivers had seen. An incident at the start of the Prototype class, caused the GT field to go under a full course yellow even before they took the green flag to start their race. Forest advanced the car up to 4th position and ran there for the first 4 laps of green flag racing. As the standing water on the track quickly increased, both Forest and the GT leader got caught out by the unsighted pool at turn 12 sending them through the grass. Forest quickly rejoined the race in 10th position. Within a few laps the race was slowed again as another full course yellow came out to clean up another incident. On the ensuing restart Forest was quick to get around the Corvette in front of him, too quick. Forest was given a stop and go penalty for initiating a pass before the start/finish line.

"I couldn't believe it when the team told me about the penalty over the radio. I had no idea where the start/finish line was. It was a giant cloud, I could hardly see the car I was passing which was 3 feet away let alone the starter waving a flag. I was driving into corners looking 90 degrees out the side window for a brake marker to know when a corner was approaching. The mist and fog in the cockpit was so bad that for 40% of every lap I wasn't sure if I was on the pavement, the curbing or the grass. It was just awful visibility," said Forest. "There was so much water on the cockpit floor, a wave would fill the heel of my boots every time I hit the brake pedal."

An hour into the race the PR1 crew performed a full pit stop with Aschenbach taking over behind the wheel. Shortly thereafter officials decided conditions were too dangerous to continue racing and placed all the cars behind the safety car for an extended full course yellow. Fuelled to the end, Lawson was in good track position running in 4th. Visibility issues forced an extra pit stop causing Aschenbach to fall back eventually bringing the car home unscathed in 12th position.

With Porsches finishing 1 through 4 and having fast laps over 4 seconds quicker than the rest of the field they were clearly the manufacturer to beat. With sealed cockpits and efficient defrosters the light weight rear engine cars proved superior in those conditions. The Riley Pontiacs suffered from being a tube frame chassis with numerous openings for water to enter the cockpit & create constant fog on the inside of the windshield. The #57 Pontiac performed a mid race windshield change to help them regain visibility.

For more information & photo's visit www.mikeforestracing.com

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