Alex Job Racing drivers Bill Sweedler (Westport, Conn.) and Townsend Bell (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) drove to an eighth place finish in today’s running of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park.
After a tough day of practice and qualifying yesterday the team and drivers came together and put in a solid run to come home in eighth. Sweedler had the wheel of the silver Audi R8 LMS at the start and turned the car over to Bell toward the front. Bell rejoined the race as the pit stops cycled through in ninth. Just under two-hours into the race, Bell had to serve a drive-thru penalty for contact on the track. He rejoined and was able to make a couple of moves in the last half-hour, keeping the car under him for the eighth place at the checker.
“It wasn’t as hot as it was in practice and qualifying yesterday,” Sweedler said. “I had a pretty good stint with no real drama. It is tight racing around this short track and you have to pay attention every second. I turned the car over to Townsend in good shape and he put in a competitive run. The team did a good job to make some adjustments to the car for the race and they performed flawlessly in the pits.”
“It is unbelievable that this race went without a single full-course caution,” Bell said. “That makes it tough on the tires. Since most of the time you are in a turn here at Lime Rock it really makes the back half of a tire run a real handful. I was able to make a couple of moves in the last 20-minutes to move us up the finishing order, so a good day.”
“Bill and Townsend put in good drives today,” Alex Job, team owner said. “The guys were able to get the car handling better and Bill put in a very solid first stint. Townsend had to hang on to the car in the latter phases of his runs and unfortunately had some contact which cost us track position. He was able to make some of that up in the last quarter of the race, but eighth is pretty good here today in a very fast and furious race at this short Lime Rock circuit.”
Source. Kyle Chura/Alex Job Racing
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