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American Series WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (August 12, 2005) – For the second-straight race, Synergy Racing could almost taste the Victory Lane champagne but came up short of the team's first Rolex Sports Car Series GT win of the season. A pit stop one lap too soon ended up costing the team its one-lap lead and resulting in a sixth-place GT finish. After starting seventh on the GT grid, David Murry (Atlanta, Ga.) moved the points-leading No. 80 Porsche GT3 Cup into the top three and then claimed the GT lead during a full course caution on lap 41. Because the No. 80 Porsche's track position was ahead of the overall leader at the time of caution, Murry was able to gain a one-lap lead on the entire GT field when he was waved passed the safety car as it positioned itself in front of the overall leader. However, the No. 80 Porsche still needed a pit stop to refuel, take on fresh tires and allow Craig Stanton (Long Beach, Calif.) to take the controls. Ideally, the team wanted to catch up to the pack behind the safety car before pitting, which would have allowed the No. 80 to return to the race before losing its lead. However, when Grand American officials discussed returning the race to green on the radio one lap earlier than the team had anticipated, Murry ducked into the pits before he was able to catch up to pack. While the team's pit stop was flawless, the Synergy crew did not have the benefit of a full caution lap to complete the stop and Stanton was a few seconds too late in his attempt to beat the safety car out of the pits. Since the No. 80 Porsche had to wait until the entire field passed by before exiting the pits, it dropped the car from first to 11th. “If we had waited one more lap to pit, we'd be drinking champagne in Victory Lane right now,” said Murry after the race. “I wanted to go around the track one more time after the wave by to catch back up to the pack, which would have given us more time for the pit stop, but Grand-Am officials said on the radio they might go green and we couldn't risk not pitting before the green flag. “But they didn't go green on the next lap, and it was heartbreaking when I saw that safety car come around the corner again with the pack behind it and we were still in the pits. Our strategy was perfect up to that point,” continued Murry. “We have to roll the dice a little more because we clearly aren't as quick as the other cars,” remarked Stanton. “We rolled the dice tonight and it was a perfect plan. But in this game of inches and centimeters, we just missed it by a millimeter. “We lost a few points in the championship, which is unfortunate,” he continued. “I'm grateful for the 11-point lead I still have though. This was a sprint race, and we have more of an endurance platform, so hopefully we'll go to Mid-Ohio and recoup some points when we're back to the endurance format.” Stanton has 253 points in the unofficial GT driver point standings following the race, holding off BMW driver Joey Hand by 11. Murry slips from his second-place tie with Hand to third with 235 points. Synergy Racing continues to hold the lead in the GT team standings with an eight-point advantage over Prototype Technology Group. |
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