Jul 23, 2016
Taking a page from 2015, Chad McCumbee and Stevan McAleer combined to lead 107 of 147 laps en route to their second victory of the season in the No. 25 Freedom Autosport ModSpace Mazda MX-5. Last year, the championship-bound duo led 85 laps co-driving for CJ Wilson Racing.
“Chad did a fantastic job, getting the car in front, and that makes my job much easier,” McAleer said. “I was running good laps, getting a reading every five or six laps to see how far back the second and third place cars were.”
It was a podium sweep for Mazda, with Terry Borcheller and Christian Szymczak placing second in the No. 34 Alara Racing MX-5, 10.660 seconds back, with Liam Dwyer and Andrew Carbonell in the No. 26 Freedom Autosport SemperFiFund.org Mazda.
“It’s always great to come back home to Lime Rock, a half-hour from where I grew up,” said Dwyer, a former resident of Litchfield who scored his first career victory at the circuit in 2014. “I qualified well, raced well and finished on the podium. Today was a huge win for Freedom, and more importantly, it was fantastic seeing Mazda finish 1-2-3 on the podium. Maybe today will turn our season around.”
Nick Galante and Spencer Pumpelly combined to finish fourth in the No. 17 RS1 Legistics/RickieFowler.com Porsche Cayman. Entering the race with a 14-point lead in the standings, they now unofficially lead McCumbee and McAleer by seven points, 173-166.
Two ST contenders who were running in the top four in the championship fell by the wayside in the opening 40 minutes. Sarah Cattaneo had to park the No. 44 CRG-I Do Borrow Nissan Altima Coupe, while Chad Gilsinger went out with engine problems in the No. 93 HART Honda Civic Si.