KEVIN BUCKLER, owner and founder of TRG (The Racer’s Group) has his finger in many pies, especially this weekend. The sports car program (Grand-Am) is his bread and butter, he said, and that’s why he’s at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the Verizon Festival of Speed, with seven Porsches: five Porsche 997 GT3 cars in the GT class of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask N.16, and two KONI Challenge cars in the GS class. Coming into the weekend, TRG’s No.66 Rolex Series GT car raced by SPENCER PUMPELLY and TED BALLOU was leading the GT points. Pumpelly led the driver points, but Ballou missed out on points at the Virginia International Race by not driving for the required 30 minutes. At the end of the weekend, the car and Pumpelly continue to lead GT standings, by one point.
Buckler is also racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series North Carolina Education Lottery 200 Race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte with DAVID GILLILAND in the No.7 TRG Motorsports Chevrolet. He finished sixth in a field of 36 drivers.
Gilliland also raced the No.71 TRG Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Showdown race at Lowe’s. However, despite high hopes, he didn’t get pass the Showdown races, and therefore, not into the All-Star Race. Next week Gilliland will race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte.
To pull off this bi-coastal, multi-series undertaking, Buckler has more than 125 people at the two tracks. TRG has the most wins of any team in the Rolex Series – 27.
TRG Grand-Am Rolex Series GT Porsche results, in order of finish:
No.66 TED BALLOU and SPENCER PUMPELLY – P 16, fourth in class
No.65 CRAIG STANTON and JOHN POTTER – P 19, seventh in class
No.68 JOSEMANUEL GUTIERREZ and SCOTT SCHROEDER – P23, eleventh in class
No.63 RENE VILLENEUVE and HENRI RICHARD – P24, twelfth overall
No.67 JUSTIN MARKS and ANY LALLY – P 29, fifteenth in class
TRG Grand-Am Koni Challenge Series results, in order of finish:
No.39 GS SPENCER PUMPELLY and DUNCAN ENDE – P3, third in class
No.41 GS JOHN POTTER and ANDY LALLY – P28, twelfth in class
The irreverent Team Polizei 144 No.63 started fourteenth and finished twelfth. They had sufficient fuel to make it to the end without a stop, so they were hurt by the last caution – thinking they could have finished sixth overall. The team is very pleased with the first ever race, and would like to race the six hour race at Watkins Glen next month. They also plan on running a 24 Hours of LeMons-which has eight races left this season, and aspire to race in American Le Mans Series.
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