Hindman, Foss Take CTSC Titles; Ford Wins Road Atlanta Finale

Trent Hindman (GS) and Eric Foss (ST) have taken the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge driver’s championships following a dramatic season finale to the 2014 season at Road Atlanta.

Hindman came from 17th on the grid up to third in his stint before handing over to John Edwards in the No. 46 Fall-Line Motorsports BMW M3.

“We were able to take advnatege of the half wet, half dry conditions,” Hindman said. “At any opportunity to go on a damp track, we’d be able to take it. Then to watch John hang on against the Camaros, Mustangs and Aston Martin, he was amazing and kept his head on his shoulders.”

Edwards then survived a war in a battle for podium positions in the final stint to end second behind the race-winning No. 158 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang Boss 302R, driven by Ian James and Billy Johnson.

Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell were in position to finish second, needing Edwards and Hindman to end fifth or worse as they were down by five entering the race, heading into the final five minutes.

But contact between Liddell’s No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro Z/28.R and Mark Wilkins, who was hard-charging in the No. 8 Mantella Autosport Aston Martin Vantage GT4, eventually dropped Liddell back to 10th by the flag. Wilkins ended 12th in the car he shared with Anthony Mantella.

“I think that the last 55 minutes of this race were the longest of my life and the last 10 made me hate endurance racing with a passion!” Hindman said. “It was such an incredible race! The championship came down to 2 minutes to go in the season. But a big shout out to Stevenson for giving us an incredible race. The emotions, it was like our whole season was packed into one race.”

Johnson and James provided Ford its first CTSC race victory of the season.

“I don’t know if racing can get too much more exciting or entertaining than that,” Johnson said. “It was clean, and it was definitely memorable. What Ian said, there’s no replacing (the late) Roger Miller, and I feel honored to be representing him. To celebrate this win and his memory is a blessing.”

In ST, Foss and Jeff Mosing put in a comeback drive in the No. 56 Murillo Racing Porsche Cayman to end sixth after starting 11th. Title rival Wayne Nonnamaker ended fourth in the No. 42 Team Sahlen Porsche Cayman he shared with Michael Valiante, which wasn’t enough to overcome the nine-point deficit.

“The Murillo guys knew every spot where we needed to be,” Foss said. “We had a cheat sheet. We made a conservative strategy call into the race to put fuel and tires into the finish. At that point, we only needed to be 12th.”

Winners from pole after a dominant drive, for the second race in a row, were Kyle Gimple and Ryan Eversley in the No. 75 Compass360 Racing Honda Civic Si.

Freedom Autosport’s No. 26 Mazda MX-5 finished second with the No. 88 Rebel Rock Racing Porsche Cayman third.

RESULTS: Round 12