2008 Watkins Glen International - Koni Challenge Series

Last season, the Grand-Am Cup division was renamed the KONI Challenge Series after KONI shock absorbers signed a three-year contract to act as the championship’s title sponsor. The agreement between Grand-Am and KONI called for the company to offer the richest purse in the series history - $100,000 per event. The winning Grand Sport team would earn $5,000, but the prize fund doubled to $10,000 if the car was equipped with KONI shock absorbers. Street Tuner competitors were competing for a similar payout - $3,750 to the winner and $7,500 if the vehicle is fitted with KONIs.

Series cars are not that much different than their road-going counterparts. Modifications are mandated mainly for safety – roll cages, window nets, etc. They also use spec DOT-approved tires produced by Hoosier. Based on performance potential, the cars are divided into one of two groups:

Grand Sport (GS): The quicker of the two classes - the group features the larger displacement engines as well as smaller four-cylinder motors with forced induction systems. The power-plants produce between 350 and 405-horsepower. Minimum weights range between 2,730 – 3,250-pounds, which is dependent on the motor configuration and displacement. This class includes cars such as the BMW M3, Pontiac GTO, Ford Mustang and Porsche 997.
Street Tuner (ST): The smaller displacement cars compete in this group in which engines typically produce between 170 and 240-horsepower. Vehicle’s weights vary from 2,200 – 2,925-pounds. The top speed for a car built to the Street Tuner regulations is approximately 135-mph. Popular makes found in this category are the Acura RSX, Acura TSX, Mazda RX-8, Mazda MX-5, Honda Accord, BMW 330i, Subaru Legacy, Chevrolet Cobalt and Mini Cooper S.

The 2008 Grand-Am KONI Challenge season consisted of eleven race weekends. Except for Daytona International Speedway, Watkins Glen International, Iowa Speedway and Miller Motorsports Park, all venues would have separate races for the Grand Sport and Street Tuner classes. This year’s schedule started in January at Daytona International Speedway. The next event on the calendar wasn’t until April at Virginia International Raceway. A month later, the series visited Lime Rock Park. In June, the teams traveled north of the border to compete at Mosport International Raceway. After Mosport, race weekends took place at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (Street Tuner only), Watkins Glen International and Barber Motorsports Park (Grand Sport only). In early August, the series made a stop at Iowa Speedway. A week later, teams made their second visit to Canada, where the action would take place on the streets of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. The penultimate round was held at Utah’s Miller Motorsports Park, with the finale being conducted at Virginia International Raceway.

As was tradition, the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series made their annual trek to Watkins Glen International in June. Over seventy-teams would compete on the eleven-turn 3.337-mile road course in The Glen 200.

Starting on the pole for round four of the 2008 Grand-Am KONI Challenge Grand Sport season is Don Salama. Salama and his co-driver, Brian Ortiz, would pilot the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M3. Sharing the front row with Salama is the No. 55 Hyper Sport Ford Mustang qualified by Joe Foster. Foster missed capturing the top spot by 0.286-seconds. He would share the Mustang with Canadian Scott Maxwell.

Tim Traver was paired with Craig Stanton in the opening round at Daytona and the pair came away with a win. At Watkins Glen International, Traver co-drove the No. 38 BGB Motorsports Porsche 997 with David Murry. Traver qualified the Porsche and started in the twelfth position. After the driver change, Murry moved into the lead. The team gambled and did not make a second stop for fuel, which paid off with a victory.

Last year’s Street Tuner champions, Adam Burrows and Trevor Hopwood left Turner Motorsport and joined Compass360 Racing in 2008. The pair were looking to redeem themselves at Watkins Glen International after a disastrous outing at Mid-Ohio. Burrows qualified the No. 74 Acura TSX and was third in class. After changing drivers, Hopwood battled Tom Long for the lead and grabbed first place and the win.

Turner Motorsport’s, Don Salama inherited the pole-position when the Porsche 997 of Dan DiLeo failed the post-qualifying technical inspection. Salma led the first sixteen laps of the race before handing the No. 97 BMW M3 over to his co-driver, Brian Ortiz. Ortiz’s time behind the wheel ended on lap-25 when he was involved in a multi-car accident. They were classified with a twenty-ninth-place finish in the Grand Sport class.

For the Street Tuner points leaders, Jamie Holtom and Eric Curran, round five at Watkins Glen International was a disaster. Driving the No. 01 Georgian Bay Motorsports Chevrolet Cobalt SS, Holtom recorded the thirty-ninth fastest time and start eight in class. Unfortunately, the team’s race ended on lap-26 and they finished thirty-seventh in class. More importantly, the duo was no longer first in the title chase.

The round five Street Tuner grid for the KONI Challenge Series at Watkins Glen International. On the pole is APR Motorsport Volkswagen GTI, qualified by Aaron Povoledo. Next to Pololedo is Derek Whitis, who was sharing the No. 145 Freedom Autosports Mazda MX-5 with Jim Daniels. Whitis was 0.690-seconds slower than Povoledo. In the second row is the defending champion, Adam Burrows and Mark White.

Bill Fenton Motorsports was in the habit of rotating their driver line-up. At Watkins Glen, the No. 29 Honda Civic Si was raced by Bob Endicott and Bob Beede. This was Endicott’s first event of the season with the team and Beede’s fourth. In qualifying, Beede was the tenth fastest in Street Tuner. During the race, he made progress before giving the car to Endicott. Endicott chased down the leaders and finished second in class.

As second Turner Motorsport BMW M3 was driven by Matthew Alhadeff and sports car racing veteran, Bill Auberlen. Alhadeff started The Glen 200 from the seventeenth grid position. Auberlen was in the car for the final stint and moved up the race order as teams made their second stop for fuel. The Turner Motorsport team decided against another stop. The strategy to conserve fuel paid off and they finished second.

At Watkins Glen International, APR Motorsport entered three Volkswagen GTI. The cars were fast but plagued with reliability issues – the team’s best result to date was a ninth-place at Mosport. Their fastest car in qualifying was the No. 171 of Aaron Povoledo, who captured the Street Tuner pole. But Povoledo and his co-driver, Ian Baas were the first APR Volkswagen to retire from the race – completing twenty-five-laps.

The No. 146 Freedom Autosports Mazda MX-5 was not as fast as their teammates but delivered the results in the race. Co-driving the MX-5 was Rhett O’Doski and Tom Long. O’Doski started twenty-eight in the Street Tuner category. Progress during the race saw the car leading late in the event. Unfortunately, Long could not hold off challenges from Trevor Hopwood and Bob Endicott and finished third.

The defending KONI Challenge Series Grand Sport champions, Jeff Segal and Jep Thornton, returned for another season with Automatic Racing. They led the point standings heading into Watkins Glen International. Thornton, who start the race qualified the No. 09 BMW M3 third fastest. After a good stint, he passed the car over to Segal. He would finish in the third spot and extend their championship lead.

To give their drivers additional track time, the C-Max / Unitech Racing team entered two Porsche 997 for the practice session. During qualifying and the race, they chose to use the No. 25 Porsche. Sharing the car were David Riddle and Kris Wilson. Based on his qualifying time, Riddle was gridded fifteenth for the start of The Glen 200. Wilson brought the Porsche home and received the checkered flag in the twentieth place.

POS.	CLASS	DRIVERS	CAR	ENTRANT	LAPS
1	GS	Traver / Murry	Porsche 997	BGB Motorsports	55
2	GS	Auberlen / Alhadeff	BMW M3	Turner Motorsport	55
3	GS	Thornton / Segal	BMW M3	Automatic Racing	55
4	GS	Canney / Plumb	Ford Mustang GT	Rehagen Racing	55
5	GS	Mason / Lally	Ford Mustang GT	Rehagen Racing	55
6	GS	Hauck / Zacharias	Porsche 997	Wright Motorsports	55
7	GS	Pumpelly / Ende	Porsche 997	The Racer's Group	55
8	GS	Cameron / Finlay	BMW M3	Automatic Racing	55
9	GS	Seafuse / Gue	Ford Mustang GT	JBS Motorsports	55
10	GS	Jonsson / Lamb	BMW M3	Kinetic Motorsports	55
11	GS	Foster / Maxwell	Ford Mustang GT	Hyper Sport	55
12	GS	Roush / Martin	Ford Mustang GT	Rehagen Racing	55
13	GS	Miller / Stanton	Porsche 997	BGB Motorsports	55
14	GS	Snyder / Ackley	Ford Mustang GT	CMA Motorsports	55
15	GS	Johnson / Milner	BMW Z4	Motorsport Technology Group	55
16	ST	Walker / Smith	BMW M3	Kinetic Motorsports	55
17	GS	Davis / Law	Porsche 997	Motorsport Technology Group	55
18	GS	Constantine / Borkowski	BMW M3	Playboy Racing	55
19	GS	Grigsby / Heath	Porsche 997	Cardisport Racing	55
20	GS	Riddle / Wilson	Porsche 997	BGB Motorsports	55
21	GS	Auriemma / Mayes	Porsche 997	Motorsport Technology Group	55
22	GS	Rossi / Abello	Porsche 997	Ranger Sports Racing	55
23	ST	Burrows / Hopwood	Acura TSX	Compass360 Racing	55
24	ST	Beede / Endicott	Honda Civic Si	Bill Fenton Motorsports	55
25	ST	Long / O'Doski	Mazda MX-5	Freedom Autosports	55
26	ST	Grahovec / Kleinubing	BMW Z4	Classic BMW	55
27	GS	Skavnes / Hemmingston	Subaru Legacy	ICY/Phoenix Racing	55
28	ST	Rivera / Ott	Mazda RX-8	Brass Mitchell Racing	55
29	ST	Lamb / Maia	BMW Z4	Classic BMW	55
30	ST	McCalmont / Spencer	Chevrolet Cobalt	Georgian Bay Motorsports	55
31	ST	Bell / Mirzayan	BMW 330i	Turner Motorsport	55
32	ST	Rosenblum / Aquilante	Subaru Legacy	ICY/Phoenix Racing	55
33	ST	Wittmer / Cunningham	Acura TSX	i-MOTO Racing	55
34	ST	Fenton / Thilenius	Honda Civic Si	Bill Fenton Motorsports	55
35	ST	Payne / Muytjens	BMW 330i	Fountain Motorsports	55
36	ST	Fonte / Stoddard	BMW 330i	Fountain Motorsports	55
37	ST	York / Radisic	Acura TSX	Compass360 Racing	55
38	ST	Davis / Smith	BMW 330i	Kinetic Motorsports	55
39	ST	Schmidt / Danyliw	Chevrolet Cobalt	GS Motorsports	55
40	ST	Smalley / Trinkler	Mini Cooper S	RSR Motorsports	55
41	ST	Cabrera / Martin	Acura RSX-S	Kiton Racing	55
42	ST	Congleton / Johnson	Mini Cooper S	RSR Motorsports	55
43	ST	McHaffie / Leverone	Mazda MX-5	Flat Out Racing	55
44	ST	Riley / Riley	Mazda RX-8	Riley Racing	55
45	ST	Miller / Buisson	Acura RSX-S	Compass360 Racing	55
46	ST	Arnold / Schultz	BMW 330i	V-Pack Motorsport	55
47	GS	Jenkins / Boden	BMW M3	Playboy Racing	54
48	GS	Schroeder / Ludwig	Porsche 997	The Racer's Group	54
49	GS	Carroll / Eversley	Porsche 997	Marcus Motorsports	54
50	ST	Schmitt / Lewis	Honda Accord	HART	54
51	ST	Rivera / Robinson	Mazda RX-8	Brass Mitchell Racing	54
52	ST	Metzger / Bosch	BMW 330i	Fountain Motorsports	54
53	GS	Maher / Biscevic	Nissan 350Z	No Hot Wire Racing	54
54	ST	Pritiko / Boyer	Chevrolet Cobalt	Predator Auto Sport	54
55	GS	Wellon / Ellis	Porsche 997	Ranger Sports Racing	53
56	ST	Wittmer / Bocchino	Acura TSX	i-MOTO Racing	49
57	GS	Nastasi / Empringham	BMW M3	Blackforest Motorsport	46
58	ST	Giovanis / Moorcones	BMW 330i	T Giovanis Motorsport	46
59	ST	Leroux / Leroux	Acura TSX	LRT Racing	39
60	ST	Wilden / Willard	Acura TSX	Compass360 Racing	36
61	ST	Hunt / Sweeney	Volkswagen GTI	APR Motorsport	35
62	ST	Pobst / White	Volkswagen GTI	APR Motorsport	34
63	ST	Metzger / Reade	Dodge SRT-4	SDS Performance Racing	29
64	ST	Traver / Gardner	Scion tC	BGB Motorsports	26
65	ST	Holtom / Curran	Chevrolet Cobalt	Georgian Bay Motorsports	26
66	ST	Baas / Povoledo	Volkswagen GTI	APR Motorsport	25
67	ST	Smalley / Trinkler / Zacharias	Mini Cooper S	RSR Motorsports	25
68	GS	Salama / Ortiz	BMW M3	Turner Motorsport	25
69	GS	Espenlaub / Putman	BMW M3	Automatic Racing	12
70	GS	Sellers / DiLeo	Porsche 997	Maxwell Paper Racing	11
71	ST	Jonathan Rashleigh	Chevrolet Cobalt	GS Motorsports	8
72	ST	Whitis / Daniels	Mazda MX-5	Freedom Autosports	5
73	ST	Sahlen / Nonnamaker	Mazda RX-8	Team Sahlen	1

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