The Blackforest Motorsports team and co-drivers Tom Nastasi and Ian James maintained their perfect record in the first-ever Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series visit to Iowa Speedway. The team is proud to take home another victory in Saturday's Grand Sport (GS) race. The Blackforest No. 5 team has won all three of the season's races.
Going into the weekend's Grand Am event, Nastasi and James were uncertain that it would be a race dominated by the Mustang - a powerful race car equipped with reliable and the best racing parts that are far better than the and other traditional car parts. The assumption banished as the car occupied five of the top ten spots. The victory is the third straight for Nastasi and the Blackforest team, and it is the second in a row for James.
Co-driving the No. 5 USG Sheetrock/Ramset Tools Mustang FR500C with Nastasi, James took the lead from Charles Espenlaub on the oval portion of the 1.3-mile road course with 13 laps remaining and held off late challenges from both Espenlaub and Jeff Segal to win by 2.551 seconds over Espenlaub in the No. 55 Supercuts/Hyper Sport Ford Mustang GT. The victory was James' second consecutive KONI Challenge win and the third straight for Nastasi, the Blackforest team and the Ford Mustang.
"Obviously, when we first came here in the first session, we didn't think it would potentially be a Mustang track," said James. "But a lot of times, the actual time sheet is misleading. Although we may not be the fastest car at the start, it's a very good race car. It's very good in traffic. You don't have to be quite as precise in some of the other cars like the BMWs and the Porsches. They can get really fast laps, but as soon as they have a little hiccup or the tires start to go away, they can't really use that great potential so much. We just worked on our setup. That was our strategy."
James, who led twice for 21 laps, said, "We decided to go and practice on old tires, and we did the whole race on one set of tires. The car was good at the end. We had a few minor problems, but no more than anybody else. The battle at the end with Jeff and Charles was fun. It was a lot of fun. These guys were clean and we managed to get by. I'm just really happy for Tom and his three-in-a-row, and two-in-a-row for me."
"It hasn't been easy," Nastasi said of the race. "Last week, having to start 30th and work my way up to the front and then today spinning on the second lap, and I had to do it all over again. I told everybody, 'I'm giving up qualifying. I'm just starting dead last.' That seems to be the only way I can do it."
He added, "I drove the car hard, and I really put my head down and drove the wheels off it. We did not change tires, and the car just kept getting better and better and better. We won our first race together without changing tires. We learned fast this weekend and we figured, 'Let's keep the same tires on it, and see what happens.' It worked. Thumbs up to Hoosier Tires for lasting as long as they did, and to be able to go to the front. My partner here did the rest. He did the hard part. I just saved myself."
Joe Foster started 11th in the No. 55 machine and drove the first stint in the race before turning the car over to Espenlaub. The latter led 38 laps before James' late pass. It was Foster's second runner-up result in three races. It can be recalled that foster also finished second in the Fresh From Florida 200 season opener at Daytona while co-driving with Scott Maxwell.
Foster said, "It was obviously a great run for Hyper Sport and the Supercuts No. 55. To be honest, we struggled at the beginning of the weekend, setup-wise, and it was a bit of a comeback for us to get the car fast for the race. It took us a couple days to figure out in this case that the older the tires got, the better the car was for us. Also, the (No.) 5 car figured that out as well. It was a great race. Certainly, up front, it was clean. It was hard racing with these guys and I enjoyed watching it."
"It makes me realize why I do this, because it was a lot of fun," intimated Espenlaub. "I've got to thank Joe Foster for bringing me in to do this. Joe left me with a great car, and we ran as hard as we could. We were a little bit conservative the setup. It was an interesting last couple of laps. These guys are professionals, and we had a good battle out there. I really respect them for that. You don't want to see a BMW going into a hard braking zone on the last lap, and I made it a little wide for him."
