with Goldcrest Motorsports Sees Potential Top-10 Finish In Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen End In The Race’s Final Hour

No. 17 FOAMETIX/Burtin Racing Porsche GT3 Team Suffers Race-Ending Minor Fire in Middle Round of North American Endurance Championship presented by VISITFLORIDA.com with Drivers Claudio Burtin and Martin Ragginger

 A promising and potential Top-10 run for the No. 17 FOAMETIX®/Burtin Racing with Goldcrest Motorsports Porsche GT3, and drivers Claudio Burtin and Martin Ragginger, literally went up in smoke with just an hour to go Sunday in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen when the GT-class contending team retired after a small fuel cell vent fire.

Ragginger, who started the No. 17 at the beginning of the race, was in the middle of his final stint when he noticed something was wrong with the Porsche just as the race’s final hour was beginning.  Some quick thinking on his part prevented what could have been a major car-destroying fire.

“I smelled fuel when I was going up Turn 2 and 3, then I saw fuel coming out of the hood,” Ragginger said.  “I parked the car as more smoke and fuel were coming out of the hood from the fuel cell. I lost all the fuel and I was afraid it was going to catch fire. Once it starts burning it will cause a lot of damage to the car but we were lucky there was a Fire Marshall who gave me a fire extinguisher. We were lucky that the car did not burn down.”

Despite the late retirement, both Burtin (left in picture), Ragginger (right in picture) and the FOAMETIX®/Burtin Racing with Goldcrest team ran the race’s first five hours without any major issues.  It was a solid showing considering both Burtin and Ragginger were competing at The Glen for the first time.

“It was a pretty good day,” Burtin said. “I did some of my fastest lap times in the (one minute) 57s which is a personal best for me. I never ran on a light fuel load and sticker tires, so I think I can go faster. Unfortunately, at the end we had the problem with the fuel cell causing a small fire around the fuel tank. Other than that, we were going pretty well. Other cars were falling out and we were going forward. This was just bad luck on our part. We were 12th and coming forward.”

The only other minor issue was a cool suit malfunction during one of Ragginger’s early stints.

“Today everything went right and we had no real problems, just some bad luck,” Ragginger said. The only issue we had was one small problem with the cool suit from my third stint and it was pretty hot in the car. I lost a lot of energy in that stint but we could fix that problem before my last stint. The car was really quick. Everything was going on our plan but we just were a bit unlucky.”

The No. 17 FOAMETIX®/Burtin Racing with Goldcrest Motorsports Porsche GT3 is competing in GRAND-AM’s inaugural North American Endurance Championship (NAEC) presented by VISITFLORIDA.com.  The three-race NAEC battle will conclude in the inaugural GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, July 27. Burtin is already looking forward to another race on a legendary race track.

“Regardless of the outcome, The Glen is a great track,” Burtin said. “I felt more comfortable each time I was out. Now we look forward to Indy and hope to improve on our results.”