Burton Holds Off Late Race Run From Pumpelly, PF Racing Wins Daytona

ShareFacebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, Email

Posted in:

27 January 2023, 10:54 PM

Rising NASCAR Cup Series star Harrison Burton and reigning NASCAR Truck Series champion Zane Smith won the season-opening BMW M Endurance Classic at Daytona International Speedway, with Burton holding off the #83 BGB Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Spencer Pumpelly over the final laps of Friday's IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge opener – and winning by less than seven tenths of a second.

The four-hour race began with the #28 RS1 Porsche of Stevan McAleer leading a pack of 32 Grand Sport (GS) class entries into turn one, while Smith slotted into second in his Mustang, and began giving chase. After just fifteen minutes of racing, the #74 Deily Motorsports Hyundai Elantra N TCR came to a stop at turn two, bringing out the first full-course yellow of the race.

The race had barely restarted when Frank DePew lost control of his #71 Rebel Rock Racing Chevrolet Camaro GT4 exiting turn one, and crashed head-on into the barriers. Thankfully, this was far less severe than Lucas Auer's accident 24 hours prior, and DePew was able to walk away. The #71 Camaro, beginning its last season of competition, was too damaged to continue and retired. This second FCY prompted the leading cars to pit – RS1 took the opportunity to make a driver change for their #28 Porsche, putting Eric Filgueiras in for his first stint.

John Capestro-Dubets stayed out to lead laps in the new #25 AutoTechnic Racing BMW M4 GT4, while Hailie Deegan, NASCAR's most prolific young woman driver, restarted third in the #41 PF Racing Mustang, as the top car that pitted. Just before the start of the first hour, Deegan went to the lead by passing JCD around the outside of speedway turn four, using all of the might of the Mustang's V8 engine to pull past – with Sean McAlister now running second in the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Porsche.

Deegan's advantage didn't last for long as McAlister, Chad McCumbee, and Smith ran a three-car train past Deegan. McCumbee's #13 Mustang was by this point missing its rear bumper after contact with Bob Michaelian in the #59 KOHR Motorsports Mustang, but it didn't stop the past series champion from edging ahead of McAlister to lead the next lap. From third place, Smith got past both McAlister around the outside of the Kink (turn four) and then past McCumbee to take the lead for himself. All of this, in the first hour of the race.

Once the first round of pit stops were completed, Smith was leading with Filgueiras in second aboard the #28 Porsche. That was, until the black and green Porsche spun out in the tri-oval ahead of McCumbee. At the fastest part of the circuit, the right rear tyre had burst, sending Filgueiras into the wall and out of the race. The full course yellow was displayed for a third time. Smith led the GS class field into the pits during this round of pit stops. But when the cycle was complete, Jeroen Bleekemolen was leading in the #83 BGB Motorsports Porsche, with Smith shuffled down to fourth.

Smith would pick his way past Christian Szymczak (#72 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4) and Rory van der Steur (#19 Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4) to retake second before another full-course yellow, this time for a frightening incident where the TCR-class leading #5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Alfa Romeo of Roy Block lost control on braking into the Le Mans Chicane, spun and crashed into the side of Alex Rockwell's #10 Rockwell Autosport Development Audi RS3 LMS DSG. This happened just after the #89 HART Honda Civic TCR of Steve Eich made contact with the #11 Wilsports Mercedes of Kris Wilson on the transition back to the banking at turn six. The #5, #10, and #89 retired from the race due to damage.

The race restarted just before half-distance, Bleekemolen led Smith back to the green flag. But on the next lap, Smith was able to tuck the nose of his Mustang tight out of turn six, then used the Mustang's power to drive past Bleekemolen and lead at half-way. Bleekemolen then dropped down the running order to sixth before the #83 BGB Porsche pitted and changed drivers to Pumpelly.

After two and a half hours, Smith brought the leading #42 Mustang in for a pit stop, but Elliott Skeer in the #47 NOLASPORT Porsche was able to outbrake him into the entrance to pit lane without overspeeding! The #47 Porsche had started down in 23rd in the hands of co-driver Adam Adelson, but was now in position to take the lead once all the GS cars made their routine pit stops with 75 minutes to go.

Burton took over the #42 Mustang, but slid through the grass on cold tyres on his outlap, conceding second position to McCumbee. Burton wouldn't have it easy on his IMSA debut as he went door-to-door with McCumbee to regain position. In doing so, he let the #39 CarBahn/Peregrine Porsche, which had changed hands from McAlister to Nolan Siegel to Jeff Westphal, through into third place for a brief period before Burton retook the position.

Then, Westphal suffered a burst tyre at the exit of speedway turn four, and crashed into the SAFER Barrier. Westphal was able to climb out under his own power, but the #39 Porsche was too damaged to continue. A fifth full-course yellow was deployed. Skeer came into the pits for a final time from the lead before a final 33-minute sprint to the finish. Skeer took the ensuing restart from third place – but the leading #64 Team TGM Aston Martin of Owen Trinkler was off-sequence, and the second-placed #11 Mercedes was in the hands of amateur driver Kris Wilson. Skeer was able to overtake them both by the time he exited the West Horseshoe (turn five).

2021 Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes had taken over the #41 Mustang from Deegan by this stage and muscled his way past Wilson into second, while Burton regained his composure and overtook Wilson and the two TGM Aston Martins of Trinkler and Matt Plumb to slot into third. Skeer pulled out a lead of over two seconds, seemingly assured of victory as the sun was setting.

Instead, with 22 minutes left, the #47 NOLASPORT Porsche broke down at the side of turn six with a mechanical failure, a bitter shame for Skeer and Adelson in their first race with the team. Burton inherited the lead from his PF Racing team-mate Rhodes. Pumpelly was down in seventh place, but within five seconds of the lead. He passed Wilson and Szymczak to move up into the top five quickly, then the Aston Martins of Plumb and Tom Long to take third place with fifteen minutes to go. Pumpelly had a gap of over three seconds to Rhodes to erase. The Virginian closed up to Rhodes’ bumper and with four minutes to go, he passed Rhodes with a perfect exit through the Le Mans Chicane and a slipstream around the tri-oval into turn one.

It left him with a 2.1 second deficit to close down in the final minutes of the race. But with two laps left, Pumpelly closed to within 1.4 seconds, and then closed it down to just 1.1 second with a lap to go.

It was a valiant charge from the well-traveled sports car veteran Pumpelly, but it wasn't enough to deny Burton – the son of a past champion of the Firecracker 400 at Daytona – the chequered flag after 107 laps and four hours of racing. It was Burton and Smith's first IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge victories in just the second start for Burton and the first for Smith.

"I felt like I was a little bummed out early because we got shuffled back a little after the first pit stop," said Burton, "It was taking me a little bit to get back to the lead and I was like, ‘I don't want to be the guy that lets the team down and not finish the race off like we should.’ But a few restarts came our way and I kinda shuffled my way through there. A lot of hard racing," he added with a grin. "Pretty similar to NASCAR racing, to be honest with you, the amount of bumping and aggressive dive bombs and stuff. I felt kinda home in that. That was fun."

"Watching Harrison at the end with Spencer coming had me shaking in my boots, but he didn't make a mistake," Smith added.

"If you can win anything at Daytona, whether it's a dirt bike or a go-kart or a stock car and now a GT4 Mustang, is just so dang cool. Daytona just brings such a different vibe than really any other racetrack. Not only to win at Daytona but in our first start is just so cool."

Pumpelly's late-race run helped salvage a degree of dignity for Porsche after three of their top teams during the race suffered misfortunes. He, Bleekemolen, and co-driver Tom Collingwood finished in second place, just 0.668 seconds away from the victory.

Rhodes and Deegan put two Fords on the podium with their third-place finish. In fourth, Szymczak edged out Long by 0.007 seconds to finish fourth in the #72 Murillo Mercedes shared with Kenny Murillo, while Long, Jim Jonsin, and Brett Sandberg finished in fifth in their #9 Automatic Racing Aston Martin. Michael de Quesada also had a hard charge in the closing laps, taking the new #58 Crucial Motorsports McLaren Artura GT4 from 13th on the final restart to sixth alongside co-drivers Henry O’Hara and Aurora Straus.

In a grandstand finish for TCR honours, the first-generation #61 Road Shagger Racing Audi RS3 LMS of Gavin Ernstone and Jon Morley took the class win in its final race after Morley held off the #73 LA Honda World Racing Civic TCR of William Tally and Mike LaMarra in the closing laps.

After a two-and-a-half hour stint from team owner Ernstone, Morley boarded the black and gold Audi. Morley then overtook race leader LaMarra with twelve minutes to go, and kept the Honda in his rear view, taking the victory by 0.426 seconds.

"We had a pit stop, took new tyres, then there was a full course yellow which wiped out a big lead (13 seconds)," Morley said. "From there, it was a battle. I couldn't get rid of him (LaMarra). Once I got by him, I still thought I was going to drop him because the car was good early on. I could not get him out of my mirrors."

"It was nice to go out there and a get a win," Ernstone said, after the first win in nearly two years for the Road Shagger Racing team. "Most races, we finish on the podium. Last year was just miserable. It's just good to get straight back out there and get a win."

"We got a new car about two weeks ago and we haven't had a chance to test the car," he added about their newer-generation Audi that is due to make it's debut.

"It was always planned for this to be the last race for this car. This car goes into my trophy cabinet, if I can squeeze it in there," he said of the older car.

The #98 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR of Mark Wilkins and Mason Filippi rounded out the TCR podium in third, after leading on the final restart, followed by the #70 Deily Motorsports Hyundai of Tyler Maxson and Jacob Deily in fourth.

BHA's other Hyundai entries suffered their own misfortunes: Robert Wickens, the former IndyCar star on the comeback trail, and co-driver Harry Gottsacker lost two laps after a broken exhaust pipe, they finished sixth in the #33 car. Two-time and defending TCR class champions Taylor Hagler and Michael Lewis finished eighth in class, 22 laps down, after breaking down at turn two with a mechanical issue.

Roy Block's crash in the second hour ended what had been an eventful start for the #5 KMW Motorsports/TMR Engineering Alfa Romeo: After spinning out on the formation lap and picking up a drive through penalty for overspeeding into pit lane, Tim Lewis had moved into the lead after the second full course yellow.