Lee Davis Closes Out Weekend Sweep with a Win in Final Day of Cayman Interseries Competition at Road Atlanta Kevin Wheeler Earns Third in Cayman Interseries Debut
Lee Davis closed out his weekend sweep at Road Atlanta with a victory in Sunday’s sprint race, the final Cayman Interseries race of the Atlanta Historic Races weekend.
Davis, who was teamed up with and coached by prominent road racer Steve Jenkins this weekend, claimed pole position in Saturday’s morning qualifying session with an impressive lap time of 1:33.701 around the 2.54-mile natural road course, posted solid performances that led to victories in Saturday’s sprint and endurance races and marched to a decisive victory in Sunday’s finale.
“It feels awesome,” said Davis, who contests the No. 33 Cayman S styled after the Advan Porsche 956s and 962s and representing Luna C Clothing. “It was a great weekend. It definitely had its challenges throughout the weekend, but that’s what makes it so great. As you go through challenges, make it through and come out with a win, it’s fantastic. Again, I have to thank Steve Jenkins for coming down and helping me, not only in the car but on the radio. And the team did a fantastic job with car setup. We kept making little changes as the weather changed, and we made the right calls. Overall it was a great team victory for us.”
After starting from pole position, Davis led all seven laps of the afternoon final, finishing 3.454 seconds ahead of the No. 40 Cayman of Bob Schneider, whose livery is modeled after the prominent Martini Porsches of the 1970s. Schneider had an impressive weekend, cutting his lap times to within two tenths of each session’s fastest time. For his improvements this weekend, Schneider was awarded the JRZ Suspension Engineering “Fine Tuning Award” following yesterday’s endurance race.
“It was such a great race,” said Schneider, who was teamed up with road racing expert Chris Hall for this weekend’s contest. “Anytime you get to race with your friends and you’ve got guys in front of you and guys behind you that are amazing drivers, it just makes you a better driver. This was a learning weekend for me. I had a great time, thanks to my coach Chris Hall, who did an awesome job of talking me through basically every corner of the race track. It was almost like he was in the car with me. We got second, so it was a great weekend.”
Third place went to a Cayman Interseries driver in his debut race. Kevin Wheeler, whose company KMW Motorsports takes care of car setup and transport for the No. 9 Cayman, was given a last-minute opportunity to drive in Sunday’s race and took home a podium result.
“Today went really well,” said Wheeler, who was immediately competitive in the pink and white No. 9 Cayman S, which is themed after the Blaupunkt/Joest Racing Porsche 962C. “I had never driven the Cayman before. It took a couple of laps for me to sort it, but once I got into a rhythm and felt the car out, it ran really well. I started running with the two guys up there, and I hung right with them. I enjoyed the car; it was a very easy car to drive. The power is good and the Hoosier tires work really well.”
Next up for the Cayman Interseries is the Porsche Rennsport Reunion IV at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, October 14 – 16, 2011. North America’s premier celebration of Porsche’s illustrious racing history, the Rennsport Reunion promises to be the biggest race event to date in the brief history of the Cayman Interseries. The weekend offers a unique and rare event that reunites the cars and drivers that together have written Porsche’s motorsports history during the last 60 years. The Cayman Interseries is an ideal addition in that it symbolically continues the rich history of many of these famous race cars.
