May madness in mid-Ohio
May 14, 2018

LEXINGTON, OHIO — Unpredictable traffic on an unfamiliar track made for a wild ride at the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race on May 5th.

With five years since the last series race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, some of the drivers had never raced on the highly technical 2.258-mile track – and many others were feeling the pressure of getting reacquainted with the quirks of the course after such a long hiatus. Intermittent rain over the weekend meant that conditions were changeable, adding another level of uncertainty to the mix.

Despite the challenges, the BimmerWorld #81 BMW 328i sponsored by Legistics, Veristor and Racing to End Alzheimer’s (r2endalz.org), had an impressive run. Driver Nick Galante was blazing fast all weekend, setting a new ST track record with a time of 1:34.309 to earn the class pole.

On race day, Galante led for the first 15 laps before pitting for fuel on lap 17. In fifth place after the pit stop, he battled back to third by lap 30 – and reclaimed the lead on lap 36. Five laps later, Galante pitted to turn the wheel over to co-driver Devin Jones.

Starting his stint in fourth place, Jones soon found himself in heavy traffic, with some cars violating yellow flag procedures, causing confusion and congestion on the track. Even though he was a novice on the tricky Mid-Ohio course and dealing with adverse conditions, Jones set a solid pace and kept the car out of trouble, earning the BimmerWorld team another trip to the podium with a third place finish – and more points in the hard-fought battle for the ST season championship.

The next race for the Legistics/Veristor/r2endalz.org team will be over the June 28–July 1 weekend in Watkins Glen, New York.

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