CORE autosport survived the treacherous streets of Long Beach and took home a top-10 finish in Round Three of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Starting from 13th, Jon Bennett avoided some opening lap chaos that collected a Prototype and brought out the first of three full-course cautions. He hung with the Prototype pack on the restart, turned consistent lap times and kept the car out of trouble until it was time to hand the car over to Colin Braun.
A perfectly timed caution allowed the team to pit Bennett under yellow and put Braun in the car. Braun took the No. 54 Flex-Box / Composite Resources ORECA 07 LM P2 all the way to fifth before it was time to pit again. He rejoined the field in 10th.
It was in this final stint that Braun reported a handling issue, one that was getting worse with time. The team suspected it to be related to the missing dive planes on the right front. Braun pressed on and muscled the car to the finish line in 10th place. The finish places CORE third in the season point standings.
CORE autosport’s next IMSA race will take place at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, May 4 – 6.
Jon Bennett
Driver: No. 54 ORECA 07 LM P2
“I was in a little bit of tight spot at the beginning of the race. I was in front of our great GTLM partner Porsche and staring ahead at our Prototype competition. The start was a bit chaotic, but luckily we found a hole through the opening lap crash, which was helpful.
“I had a good restart and really focused. It turned out pretty good for my stint in that we didn’t have to mix with the GTLM cars and we kept up with the Prototypes. I was able to hand the car over to Colin on the lead lap.
“We’re leaving here P10 with the car in tact. We got the most out of the weekend that we could expect. We’re always happy to get through a street race with a good result. From here, we go onto more natural road circuits, which I think will suit our type of car and I think the racing will get more interesting as we go.”
Colin Braun
Driver: No. 54 ORECA 07 LM P2
“Jon did a really nice job on the start. We had some timely yellows and then it got really congested on pit road. When we left pit road we were missing our dive planes somehow, so that was unfortunate in that first stint, but we were making our expected pace.
“Then we came in under green for our last pit stop and when I left the box it never really felt right from then on. I’m not sure what it was, but we really struggled in that last stint. At that point, our goal was to get to the finish and not put it in the wall. I’m sure the guys will sort out whatever that issue was.
“All and all I thought a top-10 finish on the weekend wasn’t too bad!”
