After half a race of cautions, numerous collisions, a pit lane fire, and some tooth-and-nail scrapping for position, Dean Martin and Bob Michaelian in the #52 Rehagen Racing Mustang GT became the third different winners in three races in the Grand Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series, winning the Barber 200 at Barber Motorsports Park on April 10.
Martin took the lead from the Mustang of Frank Montecalvo on lap 48 of the 76-lap race and defended it against spirited attacks, through repeated cautions and resulting restarts.
“I wasn’t going to let Billy [second-place finisher Billy Johnson] set me up,” Martin told a SPEED-TV reporter.
“He’s really good on restarts. I tried to make sure everybody was tight to me and I got the BizRate.com Mustang right up on the powerband and took off, every time. Made sure I got a good start.
“I just focused. I kept my head down and made sure I put the power down coming off the corners, because that Roush car is really strong. I just had to focus, and we came away with it. I’m really happy.”
Plethora of Yellows
The Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Barber 200 was a crazy crashfest of a race, with seven full-course cautions and almost half the race—1:21 out of a 2:30 race—run under yellow.
Sixty-one cars took the green flag, divided between the Grand Sport and Street Tuner classes. Continental Tire drivers are used to that kind of traffic, but the slick conditions at Barber Motorsports Park, which is already a tight, narrow track, made conditions treacherous.
The track started slick and dirty after a full day’s racing by Indy lights, Indy cars, and the Grand Am Porsche 250. As the two-and-a-half hour Continental race wore on, bits of rubber built up so deep on the track, it became like driving on gravel. This led to a lot of slides, spins, and collisions.
The green flag racing that did get done was first-rate, as a wide variety of cars fought hard for the win.
Grand Sport: Mustand vs. BMW
The Grand Sport class was a battle between Ford and BMW, as the two marques split the top eight spots.
Joe Foster in the Multimatic Motorsports Mustang Boss 302 led the first half of the race, with Jack Roush Jr. and Billy Johnson in the Roush Racing Mustang GT and Jordan Taylor in the APR Audi S4 behind them.
These three raced hard through the first half of the race, with Taylor finally passing Roush for second.
With the profusion of yellows, some teams were not able to make fast strategy adjustments and got caught out.
Foster’s and Taylor’s teams decided to leave them in the cars when most of the leaders switched drivers, which cost both teams heavily when the next yellow bunched up the field. Both teams dropped to mid-pack when they swapped drivers on the next caution.
The APR Audi, with Ian Baas at the wheel, had to head right back into the pits with a broken header, ending another promising run for this fast but trouble-plagued car.
Guy Cosmo, who had been running fourth, had to pit for tires and fuel with 45 minutes left, losing a lot of track position, eventually finishing 11th.
Three-Way Fight
The second half of the race was a series of sprints, with cutthroat racing as each driver tried to gain position before the next caution.
There was plenty of sliding, and plenty of pushing and shoving.
In one spectacular incident Manuel Gutierrez in the Racers Edge Motorsports Mustang Boss 302R slammed sideways into the #35 Subaru Road Racing Team Subaru WRX-STI 4WD of Andrew Aquilante.
The 4WD Subaru went bouncing over the grass like a rally car, as Aquilante did an amazing bit of driving to bring the car back onto the track without losing a position.
Through the closing laps, the race was a three-way struggle between the Mustangs of Dean Martin nad Billy Johnston and the BMW of Joey Hand.
As Johnston pressed Martin, Martin had to adjust his line to defend, which slowed both cars, which put Joey Hand in the BMW in perfect striking position. None of the drivers could afford to make the slightest mistake, and none of them could relax at all.
The fight never quite came to fruition, as, with eight minutes left in the race, Scott Panzer in the #11 Mustang lost control exiting Turn Twelve, hitting the guardrail very hard, and bringing out the final full-course caution.
The race ended under yellow, giving Dean Martin the victory he had fought so hard to preserve.
Barber 200 Grand Sport Top Five | ||||||
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| # | Class | PiC | Drivers | Team/Car | Laps |
| 1 | 52 | GS | 1 | Martin/Michaelian | Rehagen Racing / Ford Mustang GT | 76 |
| 2 | 61 | GS | 2 | Johnson/Roush | Roush Performance / Ford Mustang GT | 76 |
| 3 | 97 | GS | 3 | Hand/Marsal | Turner Motorsport / BMW M3 Coupe | 76 |
| 4 | 45 | GS | 4 | Borcheller/Hendricks | Fall-Line Motorsports / BMW M3 Coupe | 76 |
| 5 | 96 | GS | 5 | Auberlen/DallaLana | Turner Motorsport / BMW M3 Coupe | 76 |
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| Grand Sport Points Standings | ||||||
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| Pts | Driver | Team | |||
| 1 | 85 | Andrew Hendricks/Terry Borcheller | Fall Line BWM | |||
| 3 | 83 | Charles Espenlaub/Charles Putman | Fall Line BWM | |||
| 5 | 75 | Joey Hand/Michael Marsal | Turner BMW | |||
| 7 | 74 | Bob Michaelian | Rehagen Racing | |||
| 8 | 72 | James Gue | JBS Motorsports | |||
| 10 | 67 | Jack Roush | Roush Racing | |||
