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Accumoto takes back to back podiums in Rounds One and Two of the 2007 IMSA Lites Championship at Sebring!
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Posted (03/16/2007) -
Sebring, Florida.
Accumoto Motorsport's Mark White is leading the L2 championship after two solid 2nd place finishes in the opening rounds of the 2007 IMSA Lites series!
A new car, a new Crew Chief and a new season produced an intoxicating mixture of excitement in the Accumoto camp at Sebring. Accumoto's '07 WR-1000 was delivered to the Wisconsin based team in Florida, just prior to the start of testing. Crew Chief Doug Turnbull summed up the task; "It is never an ideal situation when you have to shake down a new car close to a race weekend. Things always end up coming down to the last hour. In this case, it came down to the last minute. It forced us to hit the ground running."
Hit the ground running was exactly what the team did as White charted the 2nd fastest L2 lap in the first practice session. Unfortunately, new car growing pains did not allow White to finish that first practice session or any other pre-race session for that matter. "We got exactly one lap before we had to park it.." said White in reference to the mechanical problem that side-lined the team in qualifying.
That one lap equated to a disasterous 21st overall, 6th in class grid position for Round One. White's point of view differed from everyone else's however, "Even though it looked pretty bleak for us, I still felt better than I had all week long. I knew the guys had the data they needed to give me a car that would finish the race. The rest was up to me.' Athough there was a disproportionate amount of carnage all over the 3.7 mile Sebring circuit, everyone's hard work was rewarded when the Accumoto Motorsport/ThrottleThreads.com WR-1000 ran trouble and incident free resulting in a 2nd in class and a remarkable 8th overall in a 30 car field!
The weather proved to be a formidable adversary in Round Two as the field lined up on a rain soaked track. The performance in Round One had given team Accumoto somewhat better grid position (competitors are gridded by the lap times of the prior race) but due to the large field of higher horsepower L1 cars present, White was still starting mid-pack. He described the atmosphere at the green flag; "The start was crazy! It was zero visibility and you just had to trust that the hole you saw when you went into the mist would still be there when you came out!" That trust payed off as White picked up several spots as he emerged out of the spray and arrived at turn 1! Round Two then became a wet carbon copy of Round One as it was dominated by yellow flags and ultimately finished under the yellow with Accumoto again claiming a 2nd place L2 spot on the podium and finishing 6th overall.
"I can't thank Doug and Jake (Jacob Heiden) enough for the effort they put forth this week. Both of these guys did an awesome job and the car consistently progressed. We started with a lot of problems and we're leaving with a 4 point lead in the championship!" White also gave kudos to his fellow L2 competitors, "My hat is off to all the guys in L2. They displayed a ton of patience this weekend and continued to race cleanly even though some individuals from the other classes didn't seem to be too concerned with crash damage. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in Utah!"
IMSA Lites Rounds Three and Four take place on 5/18 and 5/19 during the Grand Prix of Utah at Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Accumoto is a West Race Car distributor as well as being a full service race prep and support center with expertise in the West product line. They have a stellar record campaigning West's DSR, CSR and IMSA Lites spec cars. The Accumoto team chalked up 16 victories in '05 and '06 and have seven podium finishes in the IMSA Lites series to date.
To learn more about Accumoto visit www.accumoto.com.
http://www.accumoto.com
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"Auto racing, bullfighting and mountain climbing are the only real sports. All others are games." -- Earnest Hemmingway
"The crashes people remember, but drivers remember the near misses." -- Mario Andretti
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