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Forest Achieves a 12th Place Finish Despite Setbacks at Mid Ohio

Jun 25, 2009
The Beyer Racing Team and its four young drivers had a busy day at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course last weekend. Round 6 of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16, turned out to be an incident filled day for the Beyer Racing squad that included on-track incidents, slow traffic, pit lane problems, ending with a 12th place result for the #13 Lennox/Brach's/Dynacor Media/Konica Minolta car.

Mike Forest started the race in 13th position, but quickly moved up the field and by lap ten was running in 10th. Stuck behind the slower #59 car, he tried a couple passes including some "body rubbing" as he kept losing time to the leaders. Forest kept the pressure on when he forced his rival into a mistake and pulled a great passing manoeuvre into Turn 1 on lap 20. Lap times immediately dropped 2 seconds once he was free and things were looking up for the Canadian who ran as high as 7th before making his first pit stop on lap 27. As Forest rejoined the race he came out just ahead of #59 car who chose to punt him off the track. The damage forced an unplanned pit stop for repairs and effectively ruined any chance of a top result for the #13 Beyer Racing machine.

"It was a tough go out there. I was patient with the #59 car, I knew I was faster, but I wasn't going to pull a move that jeopardized anyone. He was able to pull away on the straights so overtaking on the narrow, twisty backside was difficult. Our first "rubbing" was just good tough racing with no harm to either car. However after the pit stop I was astonished that he would be so blatant about taking me out. He shoved his nose into my rear bodywork which punctured my tire forcing an extra pit stop." Forest said in frustration.

The contact did not end there. In another incident, this time with the #58 sister Brumos car, Forest was struggling with an ill balanced car (rear bodywork damage) and was about to let the #58 pass after turn 8. However, the #58 tried to dive into the apex at the same time Forest turned in. The two wide didn't work and the #58 took to the grass and carried on.

Teammate Ricky Taylor got behind the wheel on lap 36 and had to deal with an ill handling, damaged car. Due to the aerodynamic damage to the rear of the car, the Beyer Racing crew brought Taylor in on lap 66 to install a different nose with reduced downforce that would help balance grip and make the Riley chassis more drivable. As the #13 car neared the pit box, the #09 car stopped early and parked in the Beyer Racing teams pit box forcing the mechanics to push the car out of the way making room for the #13 car. For the remainder of the race the Orlando native adjusted his driving to suit the new handling characteristic and fought his way back up the field, eventually finishing in the 12th position.

Next up for the Beyer Racing team will be the Brumos 250 at Daytona International Speedway. It will be an action packed day on July 4th as it is a 1 day event with practice and qualifying in the morning and the race start at noon. Live television coverage at 12:00 M.S.T. will be provided by SPEED Channel.

For more information visit www.mikeforestracing.com

Schedule/TV Times

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