Oct 11, 2017
BRASELTON, Ga.—Friday’s IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge season finale at Road Atlanta was anything but predictable for Freedom Autosport. An unexpected finish left two of the team’s Mazda MX-5s out of the running, while propelling the No. 25 ModSpace/Spartan Cargo Trailers Mazda MX-5 to a third-place finish.
This is the third podium of the year for Chad McCumbee and Stevan McAleer, who had two wins this year and closed the season fifth in the ST class championship with the No. 25 ModSpace Mazda.
Freedom Autosport Mazdas were rarely outside the top-three throughout the two-hour race. McCumbee moved into third early in the race, a spot later held by Britt Casey, Jr. in the No. 27 TRUMPF, Inc. Mazda MX-5. Casey’s co-driver Tom Long later took the lead. The No. 26 Semper Fi Fund Mazda MX-5 of Liam Dwyer and Andrew Carbonell also ran in the top-three during the race.
Disaster struck during the final caution. As the field prepared to take the green flag for a sprint to the finish, a competitor at the front of the line of ST cars braked hard, causing a chain reaction of impacts behind. Both the No. 26 and 27 Mazdas were caught up in it, ending the race for both with only two laps remaining. The shake-up allowed the No. 25 Mazda to move into third.
Freedom Autosport QuotesChad McCumbee:We had a car that was probably capable of battling for the lead all race long. In terms of long runs, I think we had the best car today. We developed a stumble in the engine about 30 minutes in, and ultimately that was our demise on battling for the win. I’m frustrated because I think we had a car capable of winning, but I’ll take a solid result to finish the year for ModSapce and Freedom Autosport.
Stevan McAleer:The car has been good all season in terms of pace, but reliability has hurt us. We had a good car, just like we did last year, and we ended up in a similar situation where the car developed a misfire on a restart. Halfway through, the car started coming back in and we were hunting the lead group down before the final caution.