Ebben and Stretch lead second practice at Brainerd International

 

The omnipresent heat slowed the cars by a fair measure in comparison to the first session of the day, with the temperature tempering the engines’ performance.   Still, the temperatures did not stop plenty of drivers from taking to track, trying to get a feel for the nuances of the new surface. 

 

Cliff Ebben, in the #36 Stumpf Ford/McMahon Group Ford Mustang, led the second session with a time of 1:30.400, leading a tightly knit pack of four TA competitors within half a second of each other. 

 

Following Ebben was defending TA Champion Simon Gregg in the #1 Gregg Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette.  Gregg notched a time of 1:30.705, just edging Amy Ruman’s time, in the #23 McNichols Chevrolet Corvette, of 1:30.710.  Likewise, Ruman narrowly beat out current TA points leader Doug Peterson, in the #87 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet Corvette, whose time of 1:30.839 was well behind his time from the morning session of 1:28.636.  

 

Luckily for the TA drivers, and all others participating, qualifying tomorrow morning will take place relatively early at 10:00 a.m. CDT.  Temperatures are also predicted to be far lower tomorrow after an evening storm. 

 

In TA2, times also lagged behind from the morning session, but two-time defending TA2 Champion Bob Stretch was able to overcome the heat with his fastest lap of the day, which was also the fastest of the session.  Stretch logged a time of 1:34.592 in the #98 Wheels America Racing/ Fix Rim Mobile Chevrolet Camaro, not quite the 1:33.960 of Robert Huffmaster from the early session, but still strong enough to beat out every other TA2 time so far this weekend. 

 

Huffmaster, in the #27 KRYDERACING/VirSec Chevrolet Camaro, had the second fastest time of the session with a 1:35.036 but was well off his morning time.   Following Huffmaster with third position for the session was the #11 Ctek/Motorstate/NorthStar Battery of current points leader Cameron Lawrence.  Lawrence was also unable to match his morning time in the day’s heat. 

 

Tim Gray and David Seuss continued their battle back and forth, once again fractions of a second off from one another, albeit at a diminished pace.  Gray in the #60 Ryan Companies US Inc. Porsche GT-3 Cup 997 had a time of 1:41.549, while David Seuss’s #9 Northern Light Porsche 996 GT3’s fast lap was 1:41.708.  With margins so close, tomorrow’s clash of Porsches should be one to keep an eye on. 

 

Joining the Trans Am field rather unexpectantly for Round 7 of the 2013 Season was Jed Copham, owner of Brainerd International, in the #40 Derhaag Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette.  With Trans Am once again making an appearance at BIR, Copham could not pass up an opportunity to join in the action as a member of the TA class.

 

“I love driving, and I love driving different cars,” Copham said.  “It’s always been a goal of mine to drive as many different cars as I can.  The opportunity presented itself, and I decided that rather than just racing SCCA this weekend I’d give this a shot and see what I can do.”

 

“These are a lot more car than I’m used to.  Compared to the very light open wheel cars that I usually drive, this is a completely different driving style.  The lines are different, the braking zones are different, the turning points—it’s a completely different experience.  But they’re great cars to drive, 850 plus horsepower Corvettes. . .  they’re ready to rock.” 

 

One of Copham’s pet projects for BIR has been the restoration of the track as a frequent stop for road racing series to go along with the continuous drag racing action the track sees week in and week out.  

 

“When we were established here at in 2006, BIR was pretty much just a drag strip.” Copham said.  “The road course hadn’t been worked on for quite some time and the entire focus in the area was drag racing—some people didn’t even know we had a road course.  Very little was maintained or barricaded strictly because of the expense involved, the track was pretty much unchanged since ’68.  So we had plenty of work to do.”

 

“Primarily, we focused on making the track safer and up to speed for future certification.  The days of cars going into grandstands in racing has to be over.  You see it too much in racing across the world, and it’s our responsibility to make sure that the track is safe for both spectators and drivers and that it never happens here.  And I feel we’ve done just that.”

 

“Road racing is in BIR’s heritage, just like Trans Am is.  We want to make sure that BIR is once again one of the great road racing courses in North America, and I feel we’re on our way to accomplishing that.  Nothing happens overnight, but BIR is committed to its road racing heritage; and we’re looking forward to the future. We want to see weekends like this grow and flourish; they’re too much fun and too exciting to simply set aside.  Getting to drive in a series like this is an added bonus along the way to those goals. ” 

 

Copham placed sixth in the first practice of the day with a time of 1:30.870 and fifth in the second session with a time of 1:31.226.  He’ll join the rest of the Trans Am paddock for tomorrow’s qualifying session at 10:00 a.m. CDT, the driver’s autograph session at 12:15 p.m. and the 100 mile, 40 lap race here at Brainerd International Raceway at 4:00 p.m.  

 

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