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Created on Monday, 30 September 2013 08:52

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• Wayne Taylor Racing captures DP driver championship and race win while Ganassi Racing claims team championship.

• Chevrolet, BMW, Ferrari, and Porsche all claim GRAND-AM championships at Lime Rock Park on Continental tires.

Lakeville, CT – September 29, 2013.  Emotions were high for the final races of the GRAND-AM Series at Lime Rock Park before the series heads into the future.  Four of five classes had their championships determined during the final race of the year and no one left anything on the table.  Through it all, the Continental ExtremeContact Race tires remained consistent and provided the confidence and performance needed, to every championship contending team.  

Rolex Series Max Angelelli and Jordan Taylor combined for their fifth Daytona Prototype (DP) win of the 2013 Rolex Series season in the No. 10 Velocity Worldwide/Toshiba Corvette at Lime Rock Park.  The pair needed to finish fifth or better to solidify the driver championship and as they worked their way from the fifth starting position to first, they made it look easy.  Taylor goes down as the youngest DP champion, at 22, while Angelelli marks championships with both Taylor and his father, and car owner, Wayne Taylor.  Following the race, the team applauded the performance of the Continental tires.

“The tires performed really well,” said Angelelli in a post-race press conference.  “The Continental tires did really well for the entire weekend.  Even in the cold they were good, quick to pick up grip and in the race there was no problem so rear, front, they were really good all the way.”

While problems plagued other DP championship contenders, the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates team came from last place to finish third in the race and win the team championship with the help of Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett.

For the second year in a row Ferrari claimed top honors in the Grand Touring (GT) class.  But this time, it was the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 team winning the team championship while Italian-born driver, Alessandro Balzan brought home the driver championship.  Lawson Aschenbach and Eric Curran took the race win followed by Balzan and his Lime Rock co-driver, Leh Keen.

The consistency of the Continental tires has been an ongoing theme during post-race press conferences with Dr. Jim Norman in 2013, and Lime Rock was no different.  In GX competition, Dr. Norman, won the driver and team championship in the No. 38 BGB Motorsports Porsche Cayman GX.R.

Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series The No. 13 Rum Bum team didn’t leave anything to chance when seeking the 2013 Grand Sport (GS) championship.  The team was conservative early in the race and even double stinted a set of Continental tires in an effort to maintain track position and solidify their place in history.  And that strategy worked.  Coming from mid-pack, the duo of Nick Longhi and Matt Plumb drove to the 2013 driver championship as well as the team championship in the No. 13 Rum Bum Porsche while collecting a third-place finish in the race.  

Tire management was a factor in the 2.5-hour GS race, even down to the final lap.  The No. 9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro, driven by Matt Bell, and the No. 61 Roush Performance Mustang Boss 302R, driven by Billy Johnson, battled door-to-door in the closing laps.  Bell had a mirror full of Johnson who slid by the No. 9 in turn three of the final lap to win the race.  Johnson credited tire management and the performance of his Continental’s with helping to get him the win.  Johnson was joined by co-driver Jack Roush Jr. on the podium and John Edwards joined co-driver, Bell.

“Tire management is really important, especially for the GS class,” said Johnson after the race.  We are the heaviest car in the GS class, we weigh more than a Sprint Cup car, and to have a much smaller Continental tire than a Cup car has, and to have it go through that kind of abuse, is just really impressive.  Our team has always done a really good job on tire longevity and tire management and this race was another example of where I think we had a little more tire left than the Camaro and that made a huge difference.  But for the Continental tire to do what it does is extremely impressive.”

The Mazda duo of Tristan Nunez and Joel Miller spoiled the party in the Street Tuner (ST) class by capturing the pair’s first win in ST in the No. 27 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5.  The win helped the No. 23 Burton Racing BMW 128i team, with Terry Borcheller and Mike LaMarra, secure the ST championship.  While the No. 75 Compass 360 team of Kyle Gimple and Ryan Eversley settled for second place in the championship following a sixth-place finish.  Through it all, the Continental tires provided consistency to all the ST teams throughout the duration of the race.

The GRAND-AM Series officially closes the book on 14 years and now looks forward to The Future.  Follow off-season testing and updates @continentaltire.

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