SPORTSCAR

Following the team’s second consecutive championship-winning season in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, RS1 will start the first race of the season on the pole position after Spencer Pumpelly posted the fastest lap in the Grand Sport (GS) qualifying session on Thursday. » RS1 is picking up where they left off – on top. Following the team’s second consecutive championship-winning season in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, RS1 will start the first race of the season on the pole position after Spencer Pumpelly posted the fastest lap in the Grand Sport (GS) qualifying session on Thursday. Driving the No. 28 Porsche Cayman GT4 MR, Pumpelly’s time of one minute, 55.136 seconds (111.306 mph) bested the previous track record, set last year by Dean Martin in a Ford Mustang, by .618 seconds. “Big thanks to Daniel Morad,” Pumpelly said. “I got a little tow from him coming across the start-finish, and I followed him all the way through the first half. He had a little issue coming out of the infield, and I thought maybe it would slow me up, but sure enough, he slid right out of my way, so it was a big advantage. The rest of it was just trying to maintain what I gained and we were able to do that. It was a good lap, a good team, a good car and I’m excited for tomorrow.” The new year marks Pumpelly’s fourth season with RS1, which coincidentally won its first race of Continental Tire Challenge competition – at Daytona – in 2015. “Right away, I knew the team had some good, solid foundation underneath it,” said Pumpelly, who with Luis Rodriguez, Jr. brought home the victory in 2015. “But any new team is going to have some area where they’re rough around the edges and I think our first year, we fought mechanical reliability. But...