(Leeds, AL) -- Compass360 Racing team-mates Zach Lutz and Ryan Eversley bounced back from disappointment at Miami in March with a strong result at the beautiful Barber Motorsports Park on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. The pair built on Lutz's fifth-place qualifying and stayed close to the leaders throughout the race, bringing the #75 JC Concrete Honda Civic Si home in third place, just ahead of the team's #74 Skunk2/Honda HPD car in fourth. The result marks the pair's best result in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
"I'm so happy. It's just unbelievable," enthused Lutz. "The team gave us a great car and we had an amazing pit stop. (Technical Director) Ray called the strategy perfectly. After the blow-up in Florida, this is amazing and just what we needed. Now we're back in the championship hunt!"
Meanwhile, current championship leaders David Thilenius and Lawson Aschenbach managed to extend their lead by two points, to ten ahead of the #80 Bimmerworld BMW. "This is about the best we could hope for," explained Aschenbach. "We just didn't have the pace of the little Mazda today, and it seemed like the 75 was working a bit better at the end of the race, so we'll take fourth and hope to be back on the box at VIR."
Jesse Combs and Greg Liefooghe brought their #77 Coolgas/Exclusive Management Civic across the line in 14th, keeping that car in the top-five in points. Marv Weidner, making his series debut with the team, was in a good position to hand his #76 Honda to team-mate and fellow rookie Alex Kirby when he was tagged from behind by a lapped car. Thankfully unhurt, Weidner was nonetheless disappointed. "The guys were just great and helped me get up to speed quickly. The car was so much fun to drive and I know Alex would have done a great job. It's tough when someone who is a bunch of laps down wrecks your race, but I'll be back in an orange Honda soon!"
The team's returned to its Toronto base to repair and set the cars up for the next race on April 24th at Virginia International Raceway. "There's not a lot of time between these races, so I know we'll be busy repairing the damage and making some new improvements," reflected Team Principal Karl Thomson. "But as always, we'll be ready."
The Barber race will be broadcast on April 17th at 3:00pm on SPEED.
Compass360 Racing (C360R) is the motorsports division of Compass360 Branding Communications, a firm offering marketing expertise to clients in diverse industries across North America. The Championship-winning race team, with support from Honda of America, fields four front-running Honda Civic Si's in Grand-Am's KONI Challenge, as well as cars in Canadian Touring Car. For details visit http://c360r.com/.
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