love the last sentence...uttered by the M3 pilot. Mustangs...understeering pigs indeed!
ROAD RULE: MUSTANG BOSS 302R WINS CTSCC
4/9/2011
BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT
Birmingham, Ala. — On the first true road-course race event on the 2011 Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge calendar, Joe Foster and Scotty Maxwell drove their No 15 Multimatic Ford Mustang Boss 302R straight to Barber Motorsports Park's victory circle Saturday, defeating the second-place No. 96 Turner BMW M3 of Bill Auberlen and Paul Dalla Lana going away.
Jack Roush Jr., Billy Johnson and their No. 61 Roush Performance Mustang Boss 302.R finished third.
During Friday’s qualifying and for the third time in four years Joe Foster gave the team a big boost by grabbing the race pole on the hard-to-pass, 17-turn, 2.3-mile Barber Motorsports Park.
Gaining his seventh career pole by cutting a field-best lap of 1:36.906 (85.443 mph average) Foster’s time was barely slower than the 1:36.876 event track record he set here in 2010.
“Honestly, it was the luck of the draw,” Foster said. “Basically, I got one clear lap at the start and only did two laps.”
Early in his stint, having taken the seat from co-driver Dalla Lana, Auberlen drove around the Parnelli Jones orange Mustang, but even Auberlen later admitted he knew his time out front was probably limited.
“I doubted I’d be able to do much if I was behind the [No.] 15 [Mustang] so, I thought, I might as well be in front of them,” Auberlen said. “I was hoping that I’d maybe make Scotty use up his tires by trying to [repeatedly] get around me.”
Others may have gone for it, but the wily veteran Maxwell just bade his time until the proper moment. For the Ford fans in the crowd, Maxwell’s move couldn’t have come at a better time, a roar erupting from the fans bordering the circular Turns 1 through 3 as Maxwell tucked inside and was alongside Auberlen’s BMW before hardly anyone noticed.
“Actually, I knew I had him with about 40 minutes remaining in the race,” Maxwell said.
“Bill [Auberlen] had been doing just about all he could to stay in front of me at that point but, I guess, I was just adding some insurance.”
With barely two laps remaining, Maxwell was pulling away and on his way to victory.
“There was nothing I could do. His [Mustang] was handling better than me and had plenty of tire left at the end,” Auberlen said.