Barber 200 Report

WE DID IT! We put the #75 Honda Civic Si on the podium!

Once again, a great example of the highs and lows of racing. When you come off of a weekend where you have an engine failure like we had at Homestead you almost want to walk away from the sport. But… When you come off of a weekend where you qualify P5 and finish P3, you can't wait until the next time you get on track. Fortunately, VIR is coming fast and we only have to wait a few more days.

Barber Motorsports Park is hands down the the nicest motorsports facility that I have ever had the pleasure of racing at. Every single aspect of the place is done right. George Barber, the man responsible for Barber Motorsports Park came up to us for an autograph during our meet and greet session and asked us, as drivers, what we thought could be done to improve the facility and safety of the track.

While the race weekend started off with a little trouble that kept us from going out for testing on Wednesday, we were able to get on track for practice on Thursday. Transmission trouble put us off the pace on Thursday quite a bit, but it was nothing the Compass360 crew couldn't handle. A few new parts, some transmission rebuilding and we were ready to go for qualifying on Friday. Luckily we had one more session of practice Friday morning before the qualifying session which put us back in the top of the time sheets once again. Qualifying was great, I went out and threw everything I had at the car and was able to get it into P5. Our qualifying session was over at 10:30 AM and we had to wait until 4:00PM on Saturday to race! Talk about anticipation!

Here's that qualifying lap:


Sticking with our plan of Ryan closing the race out, I hopped in the car for the first stint of the race. I settled in at P4 for the majority of the race and dealt with the cautions as they came, which was quite frequently. I tried to get in to a rhythm and save the car for the second stint in case Ryan were to have to battle with someone for position. Around an hour and 15 minutes in we had a perfectly timed full-course caution that allowed the field of ST cars to come in for fuel, tires and driver changes. I flew into the pits as fast as I could, hopped out, helped Ryan get in and jumped over the wall. This is when I started pacing. Back and forth for the next hour and 15 minutes. Karl, the team owner said I was about to have a kitten. Ryan went out in P3. He drove a great stint holding P3. We had nothing for the Cobalt and MX-5 ahead of us, they were just too fast. The race ended under caution after a big incident on the back side of the track and just like that… We had our first podium!

I was so excited that we had a podium finish, it's exactly what we needed to recover from the engine failure at Homestead-Miami. I'm proud to say that Ryan and I helped give Compass360 their best finish to date at Barber Motorsports Park! I could not be happier with our result, it's got me itching with anticipation to inch our way up that podium to the top spot at VIR!

I'll throw out the thanks, yet again, because they are so deserved to JC Concrete, the Compass360 crew, Karl Thomson, Ray Lee, Ryan Eversley and my Dad.

LUTZ AND EVERSLEY REACH THE PODIUM, THILENIUS AND ASCHENBACH FOURTH

(Leeds, AL) -- Compass360 Racing team-mates Zach Lutz and Ryan Eversley bounced back from disappointment at Miami in March with a strong result at the beautiful Barber Motorsports Park on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. The pair built on Lutz's fifth-place qualifying and stayed close to the leaders throughout the race, bringing the #75 JC Concrete Honda Civic Si home in third place, just ahead of the team's #74 Skunk2/Honda HPD car in fourth. The result marks the pair's best result in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.

"I'm so happy. It's just unbelievable," enthused Lutz. "The team gave us a great car and we had an amazing pit stop. (Technical Director) Ray called the strategy perfectly. After the blow-up in Florida, this is amazing and just what we needed. Now we're back in the championship hunt!"

Meanwhile, current championship leaders David Thilenius and Lawson Aschenbach managed to extend their lead by two points, to ten ahead of the #80 Bimmerworld BMW. "This is about the best we could hope for," explained Aschenbach. "We just didn't have the pace of the little Mazda today, and it seemed like the 75 was working a bit better at the end of the race, so we'll take fourth and hope to be back on the box at VIR."

Jesse Combs and Greg Liefooghe brought their #77 Coolgas/Exclusive Management Civic across the line in 14th, keeping that car in the top-five in points. Marv Weidner, making his series debut with the team, was in a good position to hand his #76 Honda to team-mate and fellow rookie Alex Kirby when he was tagged from behind by a lapped car. Thankfully unhurt, Weidner was nonetheless disappointed. "The guys were just great and helped me get up to speed quickly. The car was so much fun to drive and I know Alex would have done a great job. It's tough when someone who is a bunch of laps down wrecks your race, but I'll be back in an orange Honda soon!"

The team's returned to its Toronto base to repair and set the cars up for the next race on April 24th at Virginia International Raceway. "There's not a lot of time between these races, so I know we'll be busy repairing the damage and making some new improvements," reflected Team Principal Karl Thomson. "But as always, we'll be ready."

The Barber race will be broadcast on April 17th at 3:00pm on SPEED.

Photo: Curtis Creager. Reproduction rights granted.