Aggressive Strategy at Road America Leads to Second Consecutive Peregrine Podium
Elkhart Lake, Wis. (Aug. 8, 2022) — Peregrine Racing’s Carbahn Motorsports prepped No. 39 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO achieved its second consecutive podium and third of the year in the IMSA Fastlane Sports Car Weekend at Road America. Thanks to a daring fuel strategy, the team tied their season-best finish with second place in the GTD Class.
After starting third, Robert Megennis moved up to second place on lap one and was in pursuit of first place throughout the opening laps of Sunday’s contest. In the early stages, Peregrine was the fastest GTD team on track with the top two building a gap of 5 seconds to third place. An early yellow called for the No. 39 Lamborghini to make a pit stop, putting on new slick tires as rain sprinkles began to fall.
After Megennis restarted in fourth, the rain began to intensify, causing issues for the 22-year-old American who was trying to weather the tricky conditions on cold tires. Megennis pulled back into the pits around the 1-hour and 40-minute mark. Jeff Westphal hopped in to take the car to the end, now on rain tires.
Early into Westphal’s run on the wets, another yellow flag flew for debris. The entire field returned to pit lane, where the Peregrine team put dry tires back on the No. 39 Lamborghini with the circuit now drying at a rapid rate. Further yellows flew, and the strategy call was made to leave Westphal out under the penultimate caution. The American driver proved that decision correct, managing the fuel precisely and bringing home another piece of hardware for Peregrine Racing heading to the season finale in eight weeks.
Peregrine’s Carbahn Motorsports prepped No. 93 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport, piloted by Mark Siegel, Tom Dyer and Tyler McQuarrie, rolled off in 20th for Saturday’s Michelin Pilot Challenge Road America 240. Contact with a competitor on lap one caused damage to the No. 93 Porsche, negatively affecting the car’s performance throughout the day. However, the Peregrine drivers were able to make up ground in the GS field and ran as high as third position for 13 laps while Dyer operated the green and gray machine in the middle stint.
In the end, the damage accumulated at the start proved to be too severe for a consistent run at the front, with tire wear and overall pace of the car suffering as the endurance race wore on. McQuarrie battled admirably through the adversity, bringing the No. 93 Porsche home to finish in 13th position.
“I’m thrilled we were able to secure another podium with No. 39 Lamborghini through a mixed conditions race, which is a true testament to the team’s performance and perseverance," said team owner Sameer Gandhi. "This result is a huge boost of momentum for our team as we head to the VIR and then the final race. For the IMPC team, it was a tricky day with the early damage to our car, but the team fought tremendously to achieve a solid result. We’ll press on to VIR.”
The 2022 season continues for Peregrine Racing later this month with the Michelin Pilot Challenge series’ Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway on August 26-28. Green flag for the last sprint and penultimate race of the year waves at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 28. Full coverage can be found live on USA Network as well as streaming on Peacock.
INSIGHT FROM THE GTD COCKPIT:
Robert Megennis:
“Awesome race! We were so fast at the beginning and I was fighting for first place with the No. 96 car throughout the first stint. Unfortunately, we chose slicks when the weather became difficult towards the end of the run. Jeff came in and had a massive final stint to bring it home and save a ton of fuel. It was unreal. I’m so happy that Peregrine Racing is back on the podium. The No. 39 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO has been so fast and we’re excited to keep it going! Thank you to the crew for all their hard work, week-in and week-out. I’m grateful for the support of Optimizely, DataRobot, Palantir, Gigamon and SailPoint—it’s so great to have an amazing group of partners behind us.”
Jeff Westphal:
“Rob had a killer first stint, keeping the car clean and running up front. We made a risky call on tires early on, which played out the wrong way. We switched to wets and back to slicks with the mixed conditions, putting us at the back of the field. As the yellows fell and the strategy played out, we tried something risky to get us to the front. I had to save massive amounts of fuel while trying to keep a gap and be competitive up front and luckily was able to do so. The handling of my No. 39 Lamborghini allowed me to save so much, which was the key to this great finish ”
INSIGHT FROM THE IMPC COCKPIT:
Mark Siegel:
“The race didn’t start the way we wanted as I was hit and spun around. The car was damaged and didn’t perform to its full capabilities, but we were able to move our way up through the field, thanks in part to a timely yellow. It wasn’t our day, but I’m very proud of how the Peregrine Racing with Carbahn team pulled it together and we kept fighting until the end.”
Tom Dyer:
“It was a tough day, but the Peregrine Racing team really persevered given the cards that ended up playing out. Mark got through the first stint as best he could with a bent-up car due to someone being too aggressive at the start. It’s unfortunate as I think we had a really fast Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport going in the race today, but we lost pace due to misalignment because it forced us to drive harder and work the tires harder. We’ll make our way to VIR to finish the year strong!”
Tyler McQuarrie:
“We started off really strong, Mark had a good car under him and he drove well. The little bit of damage we received at the beginning of the race really affected the balance throughout the whole day. When I jumped in at the final stint, the car was awesome with fresh tires, but the pace fell off at the end which is super unfortunate. The team worked their butts off this weekend and we really dialed the car in. We didn’t get the result we wanted, but the car is still intact and we’ll head off to VIR ready to go.”
