Tuesday, August 9, 2016 – Fresno, CA – After a third place finish at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park two races ago, and a second place finish at Lime Rock Park, PR1 drivers Robert Alon and Tom Kimber-Smith took the checkered flag at the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America and climbed to the top step of the podium over the weekend.
Both Alon and Kimber-Smith showed impressive times throughout the weekend finishing in the top five at all of the practice sessions. Alon, who qualified the car for Sunday’s race, qualified P4 but was able to make his way to the front of the pack after only a few race laps on Sunday.
“I’m really happy with our result here at Road America. I didn’t feel overly confident in qualifying, but I was able to qualify the car P4,” explained Alon.
“At the start of the race I was able to catch a couple guys on the start and work my way forward. When it was time to hand the car over to Tom, I was able to give him the car in the lead. The guys did a flawless pit stop, and I have to give major kudos to Tom for driving an amazing race. He kept it clean and was able to get a decent gap to second place and set some really great lap times. I’m really pleased with our result and proud of all the guys at PR1.”
Kimber-Smith, who took over the No. 52 machine halfway through the race, led the final 39 laps and went on to take the checkered flag at the Road Race Showcase.
“We rolled the car off the truck at the start of the weekend, and it was pretty quick during all of the sessions. All credit goes to the team there for all the hard work they’ve put in to get the car set up so nicely for Road America,” said Kimber-Smith.
“Robert qualified and started P4, but he was absolutely phenomenal during the race. He went from fourth to first in a matter of forty-five minutes, and that wasn’t strategy, that was just pure pace. His driving throughout the year has just gotten better and better and I’m really looking forward to the next one to see how much faster he’ll be when we get there.”
“The team did an awesome job. Pit stops were spot on and very quick, and when I got in the car it was just a matter of maintaining that lead and keeping that gap. I hated to see the safety car come out with eleven minutes to go because I thought I would lose the gap we had, but thankfully there were enough cars between me and Colin (Braun) that I managed to keep him behind me. The last three laps I just had to make sure I didn’t put the car off anywhere, and we were able to bring it home for the win.”
The win at Road America marks the team’s second win of the season, with the first win of 2016 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in May. After their win on Sunday, Kimber-Smith and Alon have closed the gap to current PC Championship leaders Renger Van der Zande and Alex Popow after their DNF on Sunday. Alon and Kimber-Smith currently sit seven points behind (293-286) and hope to have another big finish at Circuit of the Americas in September. Stay tuned for more information on the upcoming race in Austin, TX and for all of our team and driver updates!