in Atlanta Historic Races at Road Atlanta
Davis Takes Pole and Claims Victories in Both Sprint and Endurance Races; Bob Schneider Takes Home First JRZ Suspension Engineering “Fine Tuning Award”
Cayman Interseries standout Lee Davis earned his first pole of the 2011 season with an early morning flyer around Road Atlanta in cool, cloudy conditions, and followed it up by winning both the morning sprint race and the two-hour afternoon endurance race.
In the morning’s qualifying session, Davis turned the fastest lap time of the weekend so far at 1:33.701 around the 2.54-mile natural road course in Northern Georgia.
“It went well for us," said Davis, who is teamed up with Steve Jenkins for this weekend’s contest. "We made a few minor, little changes on the car yesterday. The track is cool, we had stickers and ran a pretty good lap this morning.”
Davis started from pole position in his No. 33 Cayman S, which is styled after the Advan Porsche 956s and 962s and represents Luna C Clothing, but was passed just after the field took the green flag. Once he regained the lead on the second lap he never looked back, taking his first victory in the 2011 Cayman Interseries season by just under one second over the pink and white, Blaupunkt/Joest Racing-themed No. 9 Cayman S of Tim Lewis, Jr.
“The sprint race went well,” Davis said. “I didn’t get that great of a start, so I just put my head down and was fortunate enough to get by Mark Sandridge in turn one, and led the rest of the way. I saw Tim Lewis coming there at the end but I was able to hold him off. It was great to get the first win out of the way here at Road Atlanta. As I said on the podium, I dedicated that win to my grandmother who passed away earlier this week so it was nice to have her looking down on me and smiling down on that win.”
The No. 33 Cayman was strong from the start of the afternoon’s two-hour endurance race, Davis once again starting from pole and immediately building a 15-second lead within five laps of the start. Davis and Jenkins led a combined 15 laps over the course of the race.
“I had a blast,” Davis said. “I don’t know how long I stayed in the car but it was a pretty good while. I really enjoyed being in there. I’m looking forward to going out and hopefully getting a win tomorrow afternoon.”
Davis was joined by two-time Road Atlanta Cayman Interseries race winner Jenkins this weekend, as his coach and regular co-driver Ryan Eversley was challenging for a championship in this weekend’s season-ending GRAND-AM event at Mid-Ohio.
“I want to thank Steve Jenkins for filling in for Ryan, he did a fantastic job,” Davis said. “I’ve definitely been thinking about Ryan, he finished second in the GRAND-AM Continental Tire ST Championship, came this close to pulling off a win so I just want to give him a shoutout and congratulate Nic Jonnson for winning it.”
The No. 33 Cayman pitted during the race’s one brief caution session on Lap 9, handing the lead over to the No. 9 Cayman S of Lewis and Jim Thomason. Thomason and Lewis finished second in the afternoon race.
“That was a great race,” Thomason said. “I had a really great time out there racing with these guys.”
Eventual third-place finishers Bob Schneider and Chris Hall led 22 of the race’s 68 laps aboard the No. 40 Cayman, which is styled after the Martini Porsches of 1970’s fame. The team took the lead from the No. 9 entry on Lap 19 and held it until pitting on Lap 41, handing the lead back over to the No. 9. When the No. 9 Cayman pulled into the pits for the final time on Lap 52, Jenkins’ piloted the No. 33 back into the lead and held it until the checkers.
“My stint was short, which is great,” Jenkins said. “Lee drove the race of his life. It was awesome; we had a great car and a lot of fun.”
Schneider was awarded the inaugural JRZ Suspension Engineering “Fine Tuning Award,” for demonstrating the most progress over the weekend by improving car setup, on-track performance and lap times. The No. 40 Cayman ended up being within two tenths of a second of the endurance race’s fastest lap time.
“It was awesome,” Schneider said. “The great part about this weekend, aside from getting to drive with Chris, was learning a lot about car setup. Brian with JRZ was hugely helpful. On a scale of one to 10, I went into this weekend probably knowing two about setup, and with Brian’s help, I probably got up to a six. It isn’t where I want to end up, but it’s definitely a lot further than where I started.”
The “Iron Butt” award was given to Bill Riddell for running the entirety of the two-hour race in a single stint. Riddell gets two complimentary Hoosier tires as part of the award. He finished in fourth position in his No. 80 Cayman S, which is styled after a David Piper Racing Porsche 917K.
Saturday’s seven-lap sprint race was one of the weekend’s two sprint races for the Cayman Interseries,
