Indianapolis Made Podium Appearances That Much Sweeter

GRAND-AM’s initial visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was every bit the spectacle advertised beginning with a jam packed Fanwalk and ending with participants and thousands of fans already looking ahead to 2013. “This is amazing,” said Eric Curran, who shared the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series GS-winning CKS Autosport Chevrolet Camaro GS.R with Lawson Aschenbach. “Hats off to GRAND-AM and everybody who put this event together. It’s great to be here.”

Aschenbach was equally thrilled – and not just to win a race, the team’s first.

“It’s great to just be here at Indy. I’ve raced here once in Formula 4 in 2005 during the F1 weekend. I had a taste during that year,” Aschenbach said. “But I don’t think it really sunk in until we crossed that checkered flag right at the end of the race here and kissing those bricks. An awful lot of history, all of the races and winners and everything that happens here really does mean something.”

Rolex Sports Car Series GT winner, former Rolex Sports Car Series champion and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie of the year Andy Lally expressed similar thoughts.

“I’ve said it 60 times since we took the checkered flag: ‘We won Indy,’” Lally said.

His teammate and owner, John Potter, said, “I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to say. This is so overwhelming.”

Seth Thomas, co-driver of the ST-class winning No. 82 BimmerWorld BMW 328i, said, “I think of all the people that have won here and the history that’s here and we have kind of reined it in. That’s one of the coolest feelings you can have as a driver.”

For Mitchum Motorsports, Indianapolis was the perfect place for the team’s first podium finish – a second in GS for the No. 62 Chevrolet Camaro of Jeff Bucknum and George Richardson.

“I am speechless,” said team principal Chris Mitchum. The winning car was brand-new replacing the Camaro virtually destroyed in a roll-over accident at Watkins Glen. “Our first GRAND-AM podium couldn’t have come at a better place. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is hallowed ground for racers. To be racing across the bricks was amazing and this memory will be with us for the rest of our lives.”

Fonte:http://www.grand-am.com