Though the venue was new, the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge’s first visit to the Circuit of the Americas on March 2nd 2013 ended with three former championship teams on the podium—2011 season champ Paul Dalla Lana and Bill Auberlen on the top step. The highest finishing Mustang was 8th, driven by Roger Miller and Ian James.

Built in a matter of months before hosting the 2012 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, the Circuit of the Americas is a twenty-turn road course that sprawls its 3.4-mile length over 890 acres just southeast of Austin, Texas. Though the facility is brand new, it wasn’t the first time many laid rubber on the circuit, as a few teams tested at the track during the months leading up to the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge’s second round.

Those with on-track experience gained during testing were predictably fast in practice, with the Multimatic Aston Martins, Turner Motorsport and Fall-Line Motorsports BMWs, BGB Motorsports Porsches, and Stevenson Motorsports Camaro filling out the top spots during practice. 11th quickest was the best a Mustang could do, driven by Jack Roush Jr. and Billy Johnson’s #61 Roush Performance Mustang Boss 302R.

The Circuit of the Americas is a very technical course that drivers claimed required steadfast discipline to extract the best lap times. When strapped in for qualifying, drivers focused on everything they learned, jockeyed to maintain a useful gap to their competitors, and went for it. When the dust settled after the short, 15-minute qualifying session, Jade Buford in the #55 Aston Martin Vantage was on top, Lawson Aschenbach in the #01 CKS Autosport Camaro was second, and Nick Longhi’s #13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche rounding out the top three. Jack Roush Jr. qualified 7th.

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(Left to Right) Green flag at Circuit of the Americas! Lawson Aschenbach in the black #01 Camaro noses ahead of Jade Buford’s Aston Martin. Downtown Austin Texas can be seen on the horizon. Jack Roush Jr. brakes for turn one early in the race. He and co-driver Billy Johnson led the race briefly before suffering an engine failure while running third. Jim Garrett straps in after taking the controls of the #05 Racers Edge Motorsports from Joel Janco. They suffered a few setbacks in the race, and ultimately finished 23rd after qualifying 26th.

The race’s 10:05 AM start on Saturday morning came with cool and sunny weather, which meant precipitation or high track temperatures wouldn’t be a factor in the competition. At the drop of the green flag, Lawson Aschenbach took the lead from Buford, with John Edwards (#9 Camaro) up to third. Longhi dropped back to 4th.

The order at the front of the pack remained unchanged during the opening minutes of the race. The first caution flag came out on lap fifteen, 36 minutes after the start. Since the required 30 minutes each driver must do to receive championship points had elapsed, most teams headed for pit lane to change drivers, fill up with fuel, and get a fresh set of boots.

Those that elected to stay on track leapfrogged the others, with Shelby Blackstock in the #51 Roush Performance Mustang Bos 302R inheriting the lead following the pit-stop sequence. Brett Sandberg and Hugh Plumb were close behind in the #46 and #45 Fall-Line BMWs. Matt Plumb (#13 Rum Bum Porsche) was now fifth after taking over for Nick Longhi, with Scott Maxwell (#55 Aston Martin) sixth after taking over for pole-sitter Jade Buford.

Eight laps after the course wet back to green flag racing, Jim Garrett in the #05 Racers Edge Mustang Boss 302R was punted into the gravel trap by a slower-class Honda, which resulted in another full-course caution to retrieve the Mustang, and a drive-through penalty for the driver of the Honda. With the caution came another flurry of pit stops, as those that didn’t pit during the first caution period came in for service. The pit stop shuffled the running order again, with Matt Plumb (now in the #13 Porsche) to the lead, followed by Bill Auberlen (#96 Turner Motorsport BMW) and Eric Curran, now driving the #01 CKS Autosport Camaro.

On the restart, Bill Auberlen drove around Matt Plumb, and drove away from the field. After just two laps, Auberlen built a 1.2-second gap on second-place-runner Plumb. On lap 30, Auberlen clocked a 2:19.645, which was the fastest lap of the race, and the only lap below 2:20 the whole weekend.

With an hour left in the race, Matt Plumb (#13 Porsche) pitted from second place to top off with enough fuel to go the distance. Leader Bill Auberlen and Eric Curran followed suit. Others that took their first pit stop later gambled that more caution laps would help them make it to the end with their current fuel loads. The first of those on that strategy was Billy Johnson in the #61 Roush Performance Mustang Boss 302R, who moved to the lead when the others pitted.

Ironically, a short caution period followed to retrieve a broken RSR Motorsports Honda from turn one, but it was short enough to mean that those looking to stretch their fuel loads to the end would be finishing on fumes!

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Left: The landmark of Circuit of the Americas is a 251-foot, 25-story observation tower. It features a glass floor and double-helix staircase. Don’t worry: an elevator is the primary means to each the viewing platform. Right: The observation tower at Circuit of the Americas is brightly lit at night.

A few laps later, the hard-charging Auberlen in his Turner Motorsport BMW retook the lead from Johnson, and started building up another cushion—though a factor in those quick lap times was revealed a few laps later when Auberlen was warned for not staying “within the limits of the track.” (The Circuit of the Americas has large, paved runoff areas that allow drivers to maintain control of their cars if they drive off the racing surface, though drivers aren’t supposed to use the runoff to shortcut the course to gain an advantage!)

With twenty minutes remaining in the race, Billy Johnson’s race ended in a very un-Roush-like fashion: the engine in his #61 Mustang Boss 302 expired. He was running third!

With Auberlen now warned about shortcutting the track, second-running Spencer Pumpelly (#38 BGB Porsche) was able to draw up to Auberlen, and pressure him for the lead. But slower traffic on the final lap worked to Auberlen’s advantage, as he was able to pull away from Pumpelly, bogged down by the slower-moving cars. The race ended with Auberlen first, Pumpelly second, and Charles Espenlaub (#48 Fall-Line Motorsports BMW) third.

With the #61 Roush Performance Mustang’s engine failure and subsequent 25th-place finish, Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi with their #13 Rum Bum Racing Porsche now lead the championship standings after finishing 4th at the Circuit of the Americas.

Barber Motorsports Park is the next stop on the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge schedule, with the race set for April 6th. With over fifty cars packed onto the tight Alabama course, there’s never a lack of excitement!

Photos and Captions