May 17, 2022, Lexington, Ohio.- PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports No. 11 entry finished with a second place finish after leading most of the LMP2 class Lexus Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
A very successful qualifying session for the California-based team, brought the pole position for the No. 52 Oreca 07 LMP2 entry with Patrick Kelly leading the charts with a time of 1:14.340, and Steven Thomas in the No. 11 Oreca 07 LMP2, registered the second fastest time, 0.936 seconds behind Kelly. +0.936
"What a great event for the whole team," said Bobby Oergel, Team Principal. "To qualify 1st and 2nd was a perfect way to start. Sadly the No. 52 was taken out of the running by a GTD car trying to make the pit lane entry, then the No. 11 car was impacted twice causing large damage in both impacts. I am super proud of our team as a whole with a realistic possibility of both acts being on the podium", Oergel finalized.
“Tim (Lewis), engineered us a great car, Bobby (Oergel) and Marcus (Shen) called a great race, the crew did great pit stops and Jonathan drove a great race—we only missed a win because of contact” said No. 11 Driver, Steven Thomas. “The team deserved the win but we are honored to be on the podium in second place and we will keep trying to outwork our talented competitors. Never been prouder to be a small part of PR1 Mathiasen”, Thomas finalized.
“The good part of the weekend is that we finished 2nd and everyone did a fantastic job” added No. 11 Driver, Jonathan Bomarito. “The team executed flawlessly and Steven drive was amazing! The bad news is our chance at winning was taken away when we were hit in the right rear. We will move on to Watkins Glen with a lot of momentum from a good weekend overall”, Bomarito concluded.
The No. 52 Oreca 07 LMP2 driven by Patrick Kelly and Josh Pierson ended up in the 6th position after suffering some incidents with traffic during the 2-hour, 40-minute race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
“Disappointing result for us in Mid-Ohio, but a few positives to take away”, said No. 52 Driver, Josh Pierson. “Although we ran into trouble which took us out of podium contention, we had a fast car underneath us and strong race pace. With just a few things going right for us we may have had a much different outcome” Pierson finalized.
Photo credit: Sideline Sports Photography
PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports returns to action for another historic endurance race, the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen International, June 23 – 26.