CTSC Titles On the Line at Road Atlanta

The Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge championships will be decided Friday afternoon at Road Atlanta. Here’s a quick primer on where those title battles stand heading into the 12th and final round of the 2014 season.

GS – Trent Hindman, one of the young drivers in the No. 46 Fall-Line Motorsports BMW M3, holds a five-point lead (296-291) over Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis, in the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R in GS.

Heading into the weekend, Liddell and Davis have three wins this year to Hindman and John Edwards’ two.

Liddell and Davis could win with Hindman third or worse, or finish second with Hindman fifth or worse, in order to overtake. There are other scenarios at play but the easiest way for Liddell and Davis to take the championship is to finish on the podium and hope Hindman and Edwards are further enough behind.

Although Davis is a former Rolex Series GT champion, neither he nor Liddell or Hindman have won CTSC titles before.

Hindman looks to deliver Fall-Line Motorsports its first GS title since Charles Espenlaub and Charlie Putman won in 2010. Stevenson Motorsports, which has focused solely on its CTSC program this season, has not yet captured a CTSC title.

Incidentally, Edwards and Matt Bell won the CTSC race at Road Atlanta a year ago, with Edwards driving for Stevenson. A year later, he’s trying to defeat his old team and deliver his 19-year-old co-driver a championship.

Edwards will be mathematically eliminated once Hindman completes the minimum drive time of 45 minutes. Edwards missed out on points at Kansas as he did not hit that required time.

BMW holds a 7-point lead on Chevrolet in the Manufacturer’s Championship (343-336), with Chevrolet needing a win to have a shot.

ST – A driver in a Porsche Cayman will secure the ST class championship, but whether it will be Eric Foss or Wayne Nonnamaker remains to be seen.

Foss holds a 9-point lead over Nonnamaker (291-282). For Nonnamaker to overtake, he and co-driver Will Nonnamaker would need to win and hope Foss and Jeff Mosing finish outside the top five, or end second and hope the Foss/Mosing pair is ninth or worse.

As in GS, there are other scenarios at play but the drivers of the No. 42 Team Sahlen Porsche Cayman likely will need their first win of the year in order to wrest the title away. The Nonnamakers do have four runner-up finishes.

Foss and Mosing have two wins, one apiece in the BMW 328i and the Porsche Cayman. The drivers of the No. 56 Murillo Racing entry switched from the BMW to the Porsche ahead of the Road America round, and the pair enter this weekend on the strength of a Virginia win and an Austin runner-up.

Mosing missed the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca round in May due to back spasms, with those 11 points missed the difference between his being eligible for the title or not.

Defending ST class champions Terry Borcheller and Mike LaMarra, in the No. 23 Burton Racing BMW 128i, will be eliminated if Foss hits the 45-minute minimum drive time.

Porsche leads BMW by 5 (351-346) in the Manufacturer’s Championship.