Cayman Interseries - The Gleasons Take PBIR By Storm

WEST PALM BEACH Feb. 21, 2012: The Gleason boys gave the Pirelli Cayman Interseries Endurance Cup Championship a whirl last weekend and definitely made a statement. Even though they’d never competed in the series before they were the only drivers to earn podium finishes in each of the weekend’s four races at Palm Beach International Raceway (PBIR).

The premier race on the card for the season opener was a two-hour enduro Sunday morning in which Chris Gleason of Johnstown, Pa. and his sons — Chris Gleason Jr. of Wayne, Pa. and Kevin Gleason, also of Johnstown — finished second. They shared a yellow No. 55 Porsche Cayman S wrapped in the paint scheme of a David Piper Racing/Sandeman Porsche 917K at the event, which is part of a series of races for identical Porsche Caymans sanctioned by Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR).

Chris Gleason started the enduro and drove for about an hour before he handed the car over to Gleason Jr. Kevin Gleason drove the final stint.

The elder Gleason didn’t compete in many races last year and he loved being back in action. “I decided I was going to stay in there for a while, and I did, for about an hour,” he said. “It was wonderful, just trying to get back in your rhythm.”

Before the race started Gleason asked his crew to turn off his two-way radio so he could concentrate fully on what he was doing. He was having so much fun that he lost track of the time, and the crew frantically waved at him from the pits to signal him to come in and let Chris Jr. take over.

“I finally noticed them,” Gleason said with a smile.

His sons’ stints went just as well and they went on to finish second to the team of Lee Davis, Mark Sandridge and Ryan Eversley. Third place overall went to Ed Napleton and his coach and co-driver, Jack Baldwin.

“It’s wonderful to be on the podium with your sons,” Chris Gleason said. “It’s all about them, and it is just great to be able to share the experience and share the success with them.”

Two eight-lap sprint races were also held on Saturday and Sunday. Chris Gleason Jr. finished third in Saturday’s sprint race.

“It was a blast,” Gleason Jr. said. “I actually started off in the wrong gear — I was in third and I needed second — so I lost a position there at the start. Those guys ahead of me drove a great race. No one really made any major mistakes, so it ended up just being kind of a tail-and-follow, but it was a lot of fun. The cars are great to drive and I realized there are really a lot of great drivers in this series.”

One of them was his father, who led until about the halfway point in Sunday afternoon’s sprint race and went on to finish second.

Kevin Gleason started the weekend off with a bang by winning a 45-minute, non-points enduro Friday night in the rain. He passed Ron Rashinski for the lead about 19 minutes into the race and went on to win his very first race in this series ever.

“I knew the series existed but I had no idea what it was like,” Kevin Gleason said. “I really had no expectations coming into the weekend. I just wanted to come out, hang out with my brother, hang out with my dad and have a great weekend, and Porsche Napleton has provided a great platform for us to come out here and do that. The cars are a ton of fun to drive, and the whole crew at Napleton has done a tremendous job of preparing them.”

Napleton Porsche of Westmont, Ill., supplies and prepares each car in the series, which are 2009 to 2012 Porsche Cayman S models that are raced in near-stock configuration. Each car’s livery honors a famous Porsche race car from the past, and they all use Pirelli tires.

As part of their winnings the Gleasons earned the JRZ Suspension Engineering “Fine Tuning Award” for showing the most improvement to their set-up throughout the weekend.

The series consists of eight events from February to November. The next one is the 36th Annual Walter Mitty Race presented by Classic Motorsports Magazine and sponsored by Mazda, which is slated for April 26-29 at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga.