Brix
and Borcheller Finish 15th
Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park
In FTN/Doran Racing DORAN JE4 Ford
LEEDS, Ala., July 30 - Contact on lap 12
forced the Feeds the Need/Doran
Racing DORAN JE4 Ford to play catch-up for
the bulk of Sunday's Porsche 250
presented by Bradley Arant Rolex Series race
at Barber Motorsports Park. Drivers
Harrison Brix of San Jose, Calif. and Terry
Borcheller of Vero Beach, Fla., along
with the rest of the Lebanon, Ohio-based
team, preserved to bring the No. 77
home in 15th place in the 42-car field and
provide more exposure for the Kodak
EasyShare System, Amp'd Mobile and SIRIUS
with the live SPEED TV coverage.
Brix qualified 20th but he actually started
19th when one car withdrew before
the race. He moved up another spot
right away when Randy Ruhlman went off
course on lap one in front of him, sending
a large clump of mud onto the No.
77's windshield before it fell off. That
put Brix between NASCAR star Bobby
Labonte and Craig Stanton by the end of lap
one, and when the race finally got
going he settled into a good rhythm as he
tried to stay out of trouble and record
fast and consistent laps.
The contact occurred 24 minutes into the
race when apparently Labonte didn't
see Brix in Turn Nine of the 2.3-mile, 16-turn
road course. Brix spun but was
able to restart the car and make it back
to the pits for fresh Hoosiers and
fuel, but the car's clutch had been damaged
and the entry was now back in 36th
place, two laps down.
A yellow flew on lap 18 when two cars stopped
on the course. Many of the
other competitors pitted and Brix was able
to regain one lap by lap 20 and move up
to 30th spot. He pitted himself on lap 21
for fuel only, but he remained only
one lap down thanks to team owner Kevin Doran's
smart pit strategy.
When the green flew again on lap 22 Brix
was in 19th spot, one lap down, with
JC France in 18th position. Both inched ahead
in the standings, and by lap 31
France was in 17th and Brix was in 18th and
they were the only drivers one
lap down.
Brix said the car was very good in traffic
at that point, but then the wind
started to pick up and the skies grew dark.
The team had a strategy in mind if
a thunderstorm should occur, but it never
rained. Brix stayed in the car and
was in 17th place, sandwiched between Oswaldo
Negri and France in the
standings, about an hour and a half into
the two-hour-and-45-minute race.
With two hours gone he had moved into 15th
place, running between Darren Law
and Boris Said. He was getting tired
by that point but he was still recording
very consistent laps that were as fast as
many of the cars in the top 10 at
that point. By lap 77 his fastest lap
of the race so far was the 1:24.978 he
posted on lap 67.
The fuel light then demanded attention so
the team brought Brix in on lap 80
under green while he was in 15th place. Since
there was still no rain despite
Mother Nature's threats, the car took on
four fresh Hoosier slicks and fuel
and Borcheller took over at that point.
The entry slipped to 17th after the stop
and was two laps down at that point,
but then Boris Said crashed between Turns
Five and Six on lap 82, and with 15
minutes remaining in the race Borcheller
was up to 16th spot. Haywood and
B.J. Zacharius tangled on lap 88 to move
Borcheller up to 15th and that's where
he finished, the only driver on that lap.
Borcheller set the car's fastest lap of the
race on lap 94 of the 97-lap race
with a time of 1:24.257 (79.22 mph).
Krohn Racing's Colin Braun and Jorg Bergmeister
won.
The next Rolex Series race is Aug. 10-11
at Watkins Glen, N.Y.
For more information see doranracing.com,
grandamerican.com, tborcheller.com
and harrisonbrix.com.
Driver quotes follow:
Harrison Brix: "It was a long time to be
in the car.
"I think that Bobby [Labonte] didn't see
me. He shoved me over the curb and
sent us both into the grass. It was
Turn Nine I think. That broke our
clutch, so I had to start in fourth gear
every time we pitted.
"Our car was better in the race than it had
been in practice.
"The contact with Bobby was the only contact
I had, but there were too many
close calls to count.
"It's another 15th-place finish that should
have been an eighth; that's how I
look at it."
Terry Borcheller: "Well, I saw a great race.
My 18 minutes or so in it were
great.
"We had some contact at the beginning that
put us behind, but Harrison did a
good job keeping us in front of the leaders
so we didn't go down another lap.
We had a strategy planned for rain. We
burned Harrison to the ground but it
never rained, so he's a tired puppy." |