LAKEVILLE, Conn. (July 6, 2013) – It was a banner day for CORE autosport at Lime Rock Park, as both the GT and PC teams came away with podium finishes. Tom Kimber-Smith and Patrick long captured CORE’s first GT podium in the team’s second appearance in the class, while Colin Braun and Jon Bennett earned their third-straight podium finish in PC. Starting sixth in the No. 06 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, Kimber-Smith battled the heat and the traffic of the 1.474-mile road course, making an impressive move to third shortly after the one-hour mark. His handed the car over to Long soon thereafter.Re-joining the race in seventh, Long proceeded to climb back through the field and up to third, but needed a yellow to take on a splash of fuel. The team got just what it needed with only 14 minutes remaining in the race. Long pitted for fuel and returned to the course in fourth. In the chaotic closing laps after the restart from yellow, a GT car crashed in the uphill chicane, promoting Long to third where he would finish. It was the first podium finish for CORE’s GT program in only it’s second race with the Porsche.
Image © 2013 Rick Dole Photo
Patrick said, “In this day and age, in the ALMS GT class, a podium finish is no small feat. I have to say, I wasn’t sure we’d be on the podium this soon, so it’s a huge confidence booster for the team. TKS was solid at the start and then we had a perfect strategy and a car that was consistent over a long run, which is what we’d worked on all week. We knew qualifying wasn’t going to be our strong point, but certainly we had a car to run with the Corvettes and BMWs up front and fight for a win today. Traffic is always an issue here. It’s crazy. You have to stay out of the tussles. There was a big one at the end, and confidence is one thing, but experience tells you it’s going to back up at the chicane. The driver that made the mistake is inexperienced here and I think experience is a big key to traffic at Lime Rock.”