Continental Tire Series - Kinetic BMW Team Working To Produce Another Top 10

Burford, June 2, 2011: After suffering an impact on the first lap of the race at Lime Rock Park last weekend, the #33 BMW M3 E92 of Jade Buford and Bryan Sellers was unable to continue racing, having not even completed one lap. Although the team was disappointed in the result, they are optimistic for a good finish at the Continental Tire 150 at Watkins Glen International on Friday, June 3rd. Their previous best result so far this season was at the Bosch Engineering 200 at Virginia International Raceway when Buford and Sellers drove to a sixth-place finish.

The Kinetic crew has been hard at work repairing the car for the upcoming race at the historic New York track in the Finger Lakes region of the state for the past few days since Lime Rock. Sellers and Buford are hoping for another top ten finish, even with the new restrictions that the sanctioning body has placed on the car.

Grand-Am has added a rule, effective in Watkins Glen, which makes each of the BMWs in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Grand Sport (GS) class use a smaller air restrictor. This new mandatory regulation is in effect in an effort to level out the playing field.

“Watkins Glen should be a good track for the BMW drivers, and we’re obviously hoping for better results than we had at Lime Rock,” said Russell Smith, team owner for Kinetic Motorsports. “Jade has made big strides in feeling more comfortable in the car and I think he will do a great job at the Glen and hand the car off to Bryan to finish with good results. We can only move forward from Lime Rock, and I think Watkins Glen is the perfect opportunity to show what we can do.”

“Obviously we did not expect the result that we had at Lime Rock of not even being able to finish a lap,” said Jade Buford, who had contact with another car at Lime Rock, causing his hood pins to break and the hood of the car to fly back and crack the windshield, taking them out of the race on the first lap. “I think we had a good car and were making progress at Lime Rock leading up to the race, so hopefully we can pick up where we left off when we go to Watkins Glen. Since I didn’t get the chance to have a little longer stint in the car at Lime Rock, I’m going to try for it at the Glen, and hopefully we will have a good finish at a track that is usually favorable for the BMW, even with the new rules.”

“Watkins Glen has been really good for BMWs,” said Bryan Sellers, who lives in Braselton, Georgia. “However, Grand-Am has put some pretty big rule changes in that will take effect at Watkins Glen, and I think they will be really detrimental to the BMWs. To be honest, I think we’re going to go there and really struggle because of the new rules they added. That just means that we have to work extra hard and be extremely prepared. We have to sit down and review our set ups and our pit stops to make sure that we’re as good as possible to move forward as if we haven’t had something taken away from us. It’s a good thing to have extra pressure on you because it makes you work a little harder and try a little harder and we’re going to have to be on our A-game there. I love the track and I love going there and I’m really looking forward to it.”