MONTEREY, CA, Saturday, September 17, 2011: Despite a solid podium finish in a gruelling six-hour event today – sometimes the hunted becomes the hunter.  Such is the case for former Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC) championship points leaders CORE autosport with one race left in the 2011 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season.

After a three-race podium drought, the #06 Excel Consultants / Composite Resources ORECA FLM09 of Ricardo Gonzalez, Gunnar Jeannette and Rudy Junco finished in second spot in the LMPC class (sixth overall).  The sister #05 Bayshore Recycling /Composite Resources machine of Jon Bennett, Frankie Montecalvo and Andy Wallace finished in fourth spot (eighth overall).

These solid results from the first-year team was not enough to hold onto the lead for the ALMS LMPC driver and team championships, a place they’ve held since the beginning of the season. With one race left in the 2011 season, CORE autosport drivers are three points behind race winner Eric Lux and the team is two points behind Lux’ Genoa racing team.

The ModSpace American Le Mans Monterey presented by Tequila Patrón eventat Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca began with young Montecalvo behind the wheel of the #05 in fourth on the grid and Gonzalez in the #06 in second. By the time the field circulated the 11-turn, 2.238-mile circuit, Gonzalez was in the lead, which he was able to maintain until the end of his nearly two-hour stint.  Montecalvo worked the #05 up to second spot prior to turning the car over to team owner Jon Bennett.

Taking over from Gonzalez, Junco held onto the lead until the 2 hour and 45 minute mark, when #89 Kyle Marcelli took the first spot.  For the remaining hour and fifteen minute stint for Junco he rallied from a low of fifth spot to bring the car in third to turn over to Gunnar Jeannette.  The #05 with Bennett ran strongly, but got caught in traffic and he handed the car over to former Le Mans 24 Hour champion Andy Wallace in fourth position, which due to a series of accidents and caution periods, would be where Wallace finished out the race.

Once behind the wheel of the #06, Jeannette immediately worked his way to second spot behind the #63 Genoa car driven by former teammate Elton Julian, and then began a battle between the two for first place that lasted until there were only 28 minutes to go.  It was at that point when Jeannette elected to pit for fuel and rear tires, thinking that he could make up the time between he and the Genoa car, which also had to stop for fuel if the race were to remain green.

Unfortunately for CORE autosport there was a yellow flag with a mere 16 minutes remaining and the Genoa team, made up of Eric Lux, Elton Julian and Michael Guasch was able to make it to the end of the race without stopping for fuel.  Jeannette tried to make up the time between the two entries and fought traffic but his efforts were denied by a mere 0.329 seconds.

The final race of the 2011 season is the American Le Mans Series finale, the Petit Le Mans Powered by Mazda, on Saturday October 1.  The ten hour or 1000-mile event held at Road Atlanta pays more points than almost any other race during the season, so the CORE autosport team still has a solid chance to take dual 2011 championships.

Gunnar Jeannette:

Wow, today was a situation where we hadn’t been on the podium in three races and we finally get there again and I didn’t want to go.

“The team gave a great effort today as they always do.  Unfortunately there were a few errors at the end and some bad luck that fell our way with that yellow at the end.

“I was in great shape to hunt down Elton and I got close, but it was a bittersweet ending.

“At least we got the #06 car back on the podium, the points are very close and it’s going to be an exciting finish for the year.”

Ricardo Gonzalez:

I don’t have much to say, but this is not the position we wanted to be in leaving Mazda Raceway.

“The car was good for my run and I was able to keep a good lead on the rest of the LMPC field, but the traffic was a little tough out there.

“It’s a team effort and I know the guys did what they could, but luck was not on our side.  After leading the whole season we shouldn’t be behind going into the last race of the year.

“Petit Le Mans is going to be quite a challenge for the team and we’ll do what we can to win it all.”

Rudy Junco:

When I first got out there I was in a very bad spot between a lot of GT traffic fighting for position and trying to take each other out.

“I tried to get into a rhythm, which went pretty well.  At the end of the stint the tires were going away, and I had a better run after getting fuel and tires for the second round.

“I ran as good as I could, just tried to keep the nose clean and bring it home for the team.

“I look forward to joining the team for the season-ending Petit Le Mans and working hard for them again.”

Jon Bennett:

The points chase to the championship was tight before and now it’s tighter for us, but in reverse.

“That’s going to make Petit Le Mans that much more important for the team, but we knew that was going to be the case no matter how it shook out.

“We did OK out there today.  Nothing really went wrong, but we also didn’t get any breaks either.  Kind of a solid day and I’m happy with the fourth place position.

“It’s certainly not what we came here to do, but we’re going home with two healthy cars and we’ll be well prepared for Road Atlanta. We’ve got a good lineup of drivers and it’s going to be ‘game on.’”

Frankie Montecalvo:

It was a workout there today.

“I was very happy with the car and the team did a great job.  I only had a problem at the end of my run, because we did the full two hours on one set of tires.  They were great when I had a free track in front of me, but it was hard to keep up the pace in traffic.  And there was a lot of traffic out there.

“Strategy didn’t work out for us with all the yellows, but we learned a lot and we’ll move onto the Petit Le Mans and get onto the podium again.”

Andy Wallace:

It was a real pleasure being a part of this team.  CORE autosport is very professional and they did an excellent job throughout the weekend.

“We had a fast race car at the end and there was nothing wrong with it at all.  I was peddling like mad and set some pretty fast times trying to get onto the podium.  Where we had trouble was with the caution periods hitting at the wrong time.  When we needed one we didn’t get one, but our competition did and that put us a bit back.

“But that’s the way it goes sometimes.  The team is good and the car is first-rate and I hope to drive with them again.”