There’s a first time for everything, and for Toyota GR Cup North America, this past weekend was the first time the series has ever competed at Barber Motorsports Park. That meant it was also the first time RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate has raced at the gorgeous road course in Alabama.
We went to Barber a couple weeks before the race weekend for a test, which was a valuable opportunity for Luke Rumburg to get his first laps around the track and for Speed Syndicate’s Chris Vallee to find out what it would take to get our cars up to speed there. Of the five GR Cup cars participating in the test, Will “Bones” Robusto posted the fastest lap times, so we knew we had a good car heading into the race event. It was Will’s first time in a race car since the spring, but he jumped in and drove like no time had passed.
When we arrived for the GR Cup weekend, we were pleased to see that both of our cars were in the top ten for lap times during Friday’s practice sessions. That meant we were going in the right direction with everything we had learned. We had a bit of rain that afternoon, which made it challenging for everyone, but the cars performed well, and we were able to identify additional areas where we could make improvements and find even more speed.
Saturday was the first qualifying and race. Will qualified fifth, and Luke was 17th after encountering some traffic during the session. Nonetheless, we knew Luke had a good pace that he could really show off in the race.
Will got a great start and ran third for a while, then settled into fifth. He fought a hard battle to keep that spot for more than 30 minutes as challengers tried to take it away from him, but he was able to hang onto it to the finish line.
Luke drove from 17th to 11th, showing off that pace of his as he not only moved up the field but also outstripped the cars on his heels. His efforts were rewarded when he received the Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars in the race.
Prior to race two, we made some dramatic changes to Will’s car since it had been loose during the race. The result was a much better-balanced car. The nonstop work to keep getting every ounce of speed out of the cars that we could was a real testament to the crew, who put in so many hours during the weekend to give us the best setup and speed we could have.
Race two wasn’t quite as satisfying as race one, but we still came away with a top-ten finish. Will had grabbed an 8thplace qualifying spot, while Luke was 20th. That put both of them in challenging positions when the green flag dropped, but Will maintained a solid pace and brought home 9th. Unfortunately, Luke had some bad luck and had to retire early with a mechanical issue.
Still, the weekend as a whole was a big success. Not only did we get our best single-race finish of the season thanks to Will and Luke’s performance in race one, but as a team, we advanced in the championship standings.
We know the cars well by this point, and the weekend confirmed that Chris is giving us fast cars each time we go out. Next up for us is Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the season finale, and we’re looking forward to returning to a track where we have some prior racing experience. We’ll take last year’s data from Indy as well as the momentum in our championship run to close our season on a high note.
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