DETROIT, Mich., – May 31, 2014 – The Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) team had high – yet realistic – expectations heading into this weekend’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic presented by the Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers, the fifth race of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race. Those expectations were confirmed Saturday afternoon when both Tequila Patrón-sponsored machines earned top-10 finishes.
Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel finished fifth in the No. 1 Tequila Patrón Honda Performance Development ARX-03b (HPD) while Ed Brown and Johannes van Overbeek finished seventh in the No. 2 Tequila Patrón Honda Performance Development ARX-03b (HPD).
Due to the tight nature of the track, ESM battled its competition and tires throughout the 100-minute sprint race. During the two practice sessions and qualifying on Friday, the team struggled in generating enough heat in the Continental Tires in comparison to the Daytona Prototypes (DP). Since the DPs are 200 pounds heavier than the ESM prototypes, the DPs are able to reach ideal tire temperature faster and are able to run quicker times.
Knowing the variable in the tire capabilities, ESM sought to have a clean race and gain as many points as possible. That task was completed since both cars finished the race and earned valuable points in the driver and team championship points standings.
Sharp started the race for the No. 1 team and dropped from the outside pole to fifth place. He kept his top-five run while battling the prototype and GT Daytona race traffic. Sharp turned the race car over to Dalziel after a 39-minute stint.
Dalziel ran the balance of the race trying to chase down the competition and battled tire temperatures similar to Sharp. In the end, Dalziel crossed the finish line in fifth position.
Brown started the race for the No. 2 Tequila Patrón HPD team and attempted a different pit stop and fuel strategy. Brown went a lap down and remained on track during the first caution period of the race at the 32-minute mark. Brown then pitted with 47 minutes complete and van Overbeek started his stint.
Van Overbeek challenged the competition but struggled with the tires in a similar fashion to Sharp and Dalziel. At the end of the 100-minute race, van Overbeek finished in seventh position.