Continental Tire Series - Gleason Brothers Win Thriller At Watkins Glen

WATKINS GLEN, June 5, 2011: The rookies only led one lap, but it was the one that counted.

And to make it even more of a storybook ending, they came from the rear to boot.

The Gleason brothers — Chris Gleason Jr. of Wayne, Pa. and Kevin Gleason of Johnstown, Pa. — won the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Street Tuner race Friday night at one of the most challenging road courses in the world — the long course at Watkins Glen International.

DVRs all over the nation and especially those in Western Pennsylvania will be taping SPEED’s coverage of the thriller for posterity at 5 p.m. Eastern time next Sunday, June 12.

The rookies’ triumph came in only their fifth start ever in this very competitive series.

Chip Herr led late in the race, but he was penalized for jumping the next-to-last restart. He never brought his Mazda into the pits to serve the stop-and-go penalty, so the officials gave him a 45-second penalty after the race for ignoring the back flag and directed Kevin Gleason’s No. 181 APR Motorsport Volkswagen GTI into victory lane. Herr ended up 23rd in the final rundown.

Kevin Gleason had moved into third place behind the leader, Pierre Kleinubing, and Herr, who was running second, when he passed Ryan Eversley on lap 44 of the 59-lap race. The fourth full-course caution in the two-hour-and-30-minute race waved on lap 51 for debris in Turn 8. Herr jumped the restart on lap 55 and passed Kleinubing for the lead.

Gleason passed Kleinubing a little later on that lap too, and then Kleinubing’s Mazda suffered a cut left-rear tire. The flying rubber caused some of his car’s bodywork to fall off so the officials waved a fifth and final caution flag on lap 56 to clean it up, and Kleinubing dropped back through the standings.

Gleason was second behind Herr, who was ignoring the black flag, when the green waved one final time on lap 58 with just three minutes remaining. Gleason kept focused and with Herr’s penalty the Gleasons’ No. 181 crossed the finish line with a 0.503 of a second margin of victory over one of its sister APR Motorsport cars driven by Nathan Norenberg and Josh Hurley. The winners of the recent Lime Rock race, Derek Whitis and Tom Long, finished third.

The road to victory wasn’t easy.

Chris Gleason Jr. put the car on the pole in qualifying on Thursday, but it did not pass the post-qualifying technical inspection and he was forced to start the race in 31st position out of 34 Street Tuner entries.

The APR drivers and crew remained positive despite the setback, and developed what turned out to be a winning strategy when they decided to make two pit stops instead of just one. The first was done under the second full-course caution on lap 14 with 39 minutes gone after Chris Gleason Jr. had already blasted up to 15th place in only 18 minutes of green-flag action. His start was exceptional, as he passed six drivers before he ever made one lap of the 3.4-mile, 11-turn road course.

Kevin Gleason had new Continental tires and fuel to begin his stint when the race went green again on lap 16. The pit stop dropped him to 23rd place, but he was directly behind another one of his sister cars. That one was driven by Ian Baas, and together Baas and Gleason carved their way through the field. The Gleasons’ car moved into the top 10 for the first time on lap 23, shortly before Baas’ car dropped out with mechanical difficulties with 29 laps complete.

Gleason was still in tenth place at the one-hour mark on lap 24, but 10 minutes later due to some fast driving and some pit stops by others he was in fourth place. He moved into second for the first time on lap 28, when he trailed only Adam Burrows. Andrew Carbonell passed him on lap 30 to relegate him to third, but at that point Gleason had only one thing in mind — making a pit stop for a splash of fuel and fresh tires so he could go the distance.

He made that pit stop under the third full-course caution on lap 32, which was caused by a Mini Cooper that had stopped on the course. The pit stop dropped him to eighth place but some of his rivals were making longer pit stops to change drivers, and shortly after the restart on lap 36 Gleason had made his way back into third place, now behind only Justin Piscitell and Eversley.

Eversley passed Piscitell for the lead on lap 36 but Kleinubing assumed command of the event on lap 40 with Gleason still in third place. Gleason was regularly improving his lap times and running the fastest times he had run throughout the race, but Herr passed him for third on lap 41 to make the top five at that point Kleinubing, Eversley, Herr, Gleason and Hurley.

Gleason and Herr passed Eversley on lap 44, which vaulted Gleason back into third. The action was fast and furious at that point, and Gleason posted his fastest lap of the race on lap 49 with a time of 2:09.301 for an average of 94.663 miles per hour. With 51 laps competed and 26 minutes remaining he was only 0.816 of a second behind the second-place driver, Herr, when the fourth full-course caution waved, setting up the dramatic finish.

Kevin Gleason was one of 10 drivers who led the ST class.

Post-race quotes follow:

Chris Gleason Jr.: “I got the pole but it didn’t stand because of a small technical infraction, so we had to start from the rear. Everybody on the APR Motorsport team stayed positive. They said we can still win this race from the back, and they were right!

“I moved up as many places as I could. Our strategy was to stop early and change drivers, and then change tires again and do a splash-and-go on the second stop and see if we could leap-frog back through the field.

“Kevin drove a fantastic race. He consistently ran fast laps, and he kept improving on our fastest time. Chip Herr jumped the restart and got black-flagged. I think Kleinubing had a tire go down, but Kevin had already passed him. It just worked out!

“We really have to thank everybody at APR Motorsport for their excellent race strategy and for giving us such a great car!”

Kevin Gleason: “We’re super-excited! I was right behind Chip; I saw him pop out of line and I knew the officials had to do something about it. He never came in for his penalty but the crew told me over the radio that he was going to be penalized and that I was actually the new leader, so I knew about it before the last lap. At that point I just had to keep my head down and keep it clean the last couple of laps. Chip never came in for the stop-and-go penalty.

“I really had no close calls today. Both Chris and I had to race hard, but we were able to pick off a couple of guys almost every lap there for awhile. The yellows didn’t bother me; it gave us a chance to regroup. At the end I knew I had my teammate behind me and that he wasn’t going to do anything stupid, so I just had to stay focused until the end.

“We really have to thank APR Motorsport. They never gave up. This is really special, especially considering the adversity we faced in qualifying. Chris won the pole initially, but we had to start at the back because of a penalty after post-qualifying tech inspection.

“We also want to thank Continental Tire. They sponsor the series and they sponsored this race. Our tire wear was consistent. I got two fresh sets this race which was nice, but the tires were good and stayed consistent.

“We have a ton of family and friends here. This is absolutely the biggest race we’ve ever won.”

Chris Gleason (the Gleason brothers’ father and a veteran driver): “I never dreamed of this happening today in a million years. It’s just been wonderful. This one was just terrific. Before the race I asked Kevin what he thought about this race when they had to start in the back, and he said, ‘Oh, it will just make the champagne taste that much sweeter.’ A lot of people would have gotten down after the penalty in qualifying but neither of them did. They stayed positive, and then to see them execute it and get the victory, it just took my breath away.

“All these teams have at least one pro driver and Chris Jr. and Kevin are rookies, but they still won. They’re both fast and they’re both doing a good job. But to see them win, it’s just terrific for a father. It’s been an unforgettable day. They showed me that they have what it takes. It’s a wonderful feeling for a father to be so proud of his kids!”