Burrows And Hopwood Assume Championship Lead

IOWA SPEEDWAY, Newton, Iowa (April 24, 2007) -- The Turner Motorsport BMW team extended their streak of podium finishes with a third place in last weekend's Grand-Am KONI Challenge race at Iowa Speedway. Adam Burrows and Trevor Hopwood, as rookies in the Street Tuner class, are now leading the Championship with their H&R Springs BMW 330i. TMS pilots have finished on a podium in each race this season and five straight, including the last two races of 2006. The Turner M3s made a strong early showing in the Grand Sport class but trouble ended promising finishes for both.

In the Street Tuner (ST) class, the #95 H&R Springs/Turner Motorsport BMW 330i started from fifth place on the grid of 25 cars. Adam Burrows made his way into third before the pit stop for fuel, tires, and to hand driving duties over to Trevor Hopwood. Hopwood was leading the ST class and looked sure to take the win but a speeding violation on pit road led to a drive-through penalty that dropped the #95 330i to third overall.

Despite the infraction the Burrows/Hopwood team finished on the podium for the second-straight race. And thanks to the 30 points from third place they now lead the ST Championship by three points. It was also the 11th straight top ten finish for the #95 BMW 330i – dating back to the third round of 2006.

Trevor Hopwood, #95 H&R Springs/Turner Motorsport BMW 330i:
"The strategy the Turner Motorsport guys had was just perfect. It's great to get on the podium again. It's early yet in the season but I'm happy to be where we are in the Championship and hopefully we can keep that momentum up. I'm really excited about driving this Turner BMW 330i at Laguna in a few weeks"

In the Grand Sport class (GS), the Turner BMWs experienced a bit of bad luck but not a lack of speed throughout the weekend. Will Turner started the #97 H&R Springs/Turner Motorsport BMW M3 from the pole position in a field of 34 entries. Turner kept the #97 M3 in the top three for over 30 laps and then handed driving duties over to Salama. However, it wasn't long before Salama fell victim to contact from another car which affected the handling for the rest of the race. Salama still managed an eighth-place result, the eleventh-straight top ten for the Salama/Turner team. They moved up one spot in the GS Championship to sixth overall.

Bad luck fell on the #96 StopTech Brakes/H&R Springs BMW M3. An electrical problem befell the car early in the race and the car was classified in 28th place. Chris Gleason still scored points with the car which helped him retain a top five spot in the overall GS Championship.

The next round for the KONI Challenge is at Laguna Seca Raceway in the hills around Monterey, California. That race is the weekend of May 17-20 and part of the US Sports Car Invitational with the Rolex Sports Car Series. And then the following weekend is the annual sports car races held on Memorial Day weekend at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!