Peregrine Racing Finish Fourth in Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio
Lexington, Ohio. (May 15, 2022) — Peregrine Racing’s Carbahn Motorsports prepped No. 39 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO team finished fourth in the Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio, four places up from their qualifying position of eighth. Co-drivers Jeff Westphal and Robert Megennis made the most of their package to move the team into fourth place in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship standings with their second top-five finish in the past two races.
Robert Megennis navigated a tricky, weather-delayed qualifying session on Saturday, but started the race under sunny skies on Sunday afternoon. He immediately made ground at the start, taking sixth place by the end of the first lap, and fifth place by the end of the fourth.
Jeff Westphal took the wheel during the first pit stop, 45 minutes into the race. He drove cleanly, pitting once more under yellow, emerging in ninth position for the run to the finish. By the end of the race, he made up four spots to cross the line in fifth. Westphal used his depth of experience to save more fuel than initially expected, stretching his stints. After post-race technical inspection, the winning car was disqualified, promoting Peregrine to fourth place.
“I'm proud of the effort from everyone on the team this weekend," said team owner Sameer Gandhi. "We didn't have the pace we were aiming for through practice and qualifying, but the crew rose to the challenge and kept pushing. We topped the timing sheet in the morning warm-up on race day, and immediately advanced from our grid position at the start of the race. Our engineers implemented a strategy that allowed us to keep moving up and the drivers were flawless. We come away from Mid-Ohio with the maximum result possible, and it was only one position away from a second podium. We'll take this momentum and try to go a few positions higher in Detroit! The incident in the MPC race was unfortunate, but these things happen in racing. We'll be back stronger on that front at Watkins Glen!”
The Carbahn Motorsports prepped No. 93 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS suffered a collision under braking in the early minutes of Round 4 of the 2022 Michelin Pilot Challenge, needing to be towed back for repairs.
The 2022 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season continues for Peregrine Racing in two week’s time with another sprint race, the Detroit Grand Prix. Green flag for the 100-minute sprint waves at 3:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 4. Full coverage, starting at 3:00 p.m. ET, can be streamed on Peacock or viewed on USA Network. Peregrine’s GT4 effort will resume with the Tioga Downs Casino Resort 120 on Saturday, June 25.
INSIGHT FROM THE GTD COCKPIT:
Robert Megennis
“We came home fourth at Mid-Ohio! I honestly feel like we maximized everything we had today. The track heated up quite a bit before the race and the car wasn’t optimal in those conditions, but the team did a great job keeping us in it. I executed what was probably my best start of the season moving up two positions on Lap 1, and Jeff had an incredibly long stint where he had to save a ton of fuel. He did a great job to get us to the end. I feel great about this result. We have momentum rolling now after our podium at Laguna Seca and a second solid result in a row. I want to thank everyone on the team for a great race. Thank you also to Optimizely, DataRobot, Palantir, Gigamon and SailPoint for their partnership and support. I’m looking forward to Detroit!”
Jeff Westphal
“It was a tough race for us bringing home fourth place, but I feel like we walked away with the most optimal finish for what we had. We ended up needing to save more fuel than expected while also preserving tires in really hot conditions. Trying to go fast, staying close to the cars ahead of us and saving enough gas made for a challenging stint, but I’m happy about the fourth place finish!”
