Kelly Moss Excels With Nine Porsche Podium Finishes At Two Tracks - Speedway Digest

Kelly Moss Motorsports entered the last weekend of June facing the daunting task of competing in five races in two different series. The powerhouse team responded with nine podium finishes, including two overall wins, one Hard Charger award and four championship leads.

It’s all in day’s, or three days’, work for this team.

“It really is a team,” Kelly Moss Vice President Jeff Stone said. “It’s a big family, and it’s amazing to see how hard everyone – from engineers, to mechanics, to drivers and everyone in between – works. We love seeing that effort turn into podiums and great results. You can’t do this job for the money. You have to do it for the satisfaction that comes with seeing your efforts pay off.”

The weekend started with the Kelly Moss team heading to Watkins Glen International for the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama.

After relinquishing the driver and team Platinum Cup championship lead in April at NOLA Motorsports Park, the Brey-Krause-sponsored team sought solid performances from its young Canadian star, Jesse Lazare.

Lazare didn’t disappoint, finishing with a second and fourth-place finishes in Rounds 5 and 6, respectively. It was enough to propel him back to the top of Drivers Championship and put Kelly Moss in first, tied with Wright Motorsports, with 88 points in the Team Championship.

“That was our focus coming into the weekend,” Stone said. “We were well prepared but didn’t have much luck getting ahead of the guys in front of us. When Jesse did, he was able to catch (Angel) Benitez but just didn’t have quite enough time. It’s great to see Angel back, and he deserved both of those wins. Jesse hasn’t had a lot of seat time in the wet, and The Glen is a hard place to find the wet line. He kept the car together and was able to do what we needed him to do.”

Platinum and Platinum Masters Cup drivers William Peluchiwski and Jay Patel both had strong performances, each picking up a podium finish. In Round 5, Peluchiwski captured his first podium of the season after he finished third in Platinum Masters.

In Round 6, Patel meticulously made his way through the field during a wet race to earn a second-place Platinum Masters and top-10 overall finish.

“Bill was coming off a pretty significant crash at Watkins Glen a couple of weeks ago,” Stone said. “He had a completely re-tubbed car but never missed a step, and it was great to see him up there. And the same for Jay. It was awesome for him to get that podium finish. He continues to mesh with our team and get better and better, and the chemistry is paying dividends.”

Patel sits in second place in Platinum Masters Cup standings, with Peluchiwski in fourth.

In his season debut, Dan Weyland earned two top-10 finishes with an eighth- and ninth-place result in the Platinum Masters championship in Rounds 5 and 6, respectively.

“We love having Dan back and his drives this weekend were inspiring for all of us, especially knowing that he is coming from such a long break of not being in the car,” Stone said.

Frank Selldorff finished 11^th in Round 5 in the Platinum Masters class.

“This was probably his best race ever,” Stone said. “He is on a new fitness regimen. He’s doing really well, and it’s showing in his driving as he continues to improve each time on the track.”

The team’s Gold Cup and Gold Masters drivers also brought home some hardware. David Ducote picked up his second and third consecutive podium finishes in both classes, bringing his weekend podium count to four. In Round 5, he was forced to start from the back of the grid because of a tire change on his No. 6 Waskey Porsche from qualifying. He worked his way through the field for a third-place finish, with a similar result Saturday for Round 6.

“David absolutely had what it took to get a win this weekend,” Stone said. “You look at his times cumulatively, and he was quicker than his competition throughout the entire race. But coming from the back, he just had too much ground to make up. But they were great races for him, and if he continues to perform like that, he will be back in the championship hunt.”

Wayne Ducote was involved in an incident on Lap 2 of Round 5 but recovered in Round 6 to win the Yokohama Hard Charger Award, given to the driver who picks up the most positions throughout the race.

“He did a great job this weekend,” Stone said. “This guy just loves to race. No one gets the start he does. You watch his starts, and he is picking people off left and right. It was almost better that he got the Hard Charger than a podium.”

Round 4, which was a makeup of the postponed round in April at NOLA Motorsports Park, succumbed to a similar fate this weekend. The round was abandoned once again due to heavy rain. Future dates and locations are being considered.

While the team waited for the announcement about Round 4 Saturday afternoon at Watkins Glen, they gathered around TVs and mobile phones to watch if Colin Thompson would dominate the Pirelli World Challenge Championship GT Cup class at Road America.

Thompson delivered. The young star from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, led every session of the weekend in his No. 11 Kelly Moss/Porsche of Bucks County Porsche, coming away with an increased points lead in the championship and two more victories. Thompson has nine victories this season.

“We’ve found a sweet spot with that driver, that car and that series,” Stone said. “There is a perfect chemistry, and we’ve found what it takes to be successful. To have nine wins with Colin is incredible.”

In Round 10, Thompson was joined on the podium by Kelly Moss/TruSpeed AutoSport partnership teammate Sloan Urry in second.

Thompson holds a 1,098-795 point lead over second place Lorenzo Trefethen.

“It was great to have all the guys back in the mix,” Stone said. “Alec Udell was back and he is a genuinely good kid. Alec and Sloan and Brett Sandberg are always a threat, and we have to take our hats off to them for continuous performance and clean racing.”

The PWC series will travel July 31-Aug. 2 to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, for Rounds 12 and 13. It will headline with the Verizon IndyCar Series as part of the Honda Indy 200.

Rounds 7 and 8 of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama will take place July 10-12 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, during the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix Presented by Hawk Performance weekend.

The team will welcome driver Kurt Fazekas to the team. He will race in the Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy event July 31-Aug. 2 at Road America and join the team for the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama weekend Aug. 7-9 at Road America.

For the latest news on Kelly Moss, visit www.kellymoss.com. For updates throughout race weekend, like the team on Facebook and follow @kellymossmotors on Twitter.

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.