Grant Gets the Win at Road Atlanta
Braselton, GA - After getting the pole position in qualifying, Polestar Racing Group driver Keith Grant took an early lead in Saturdays race as he gained over a second on the competition within just the first five laps. The No. 40 Swift 016/Mazda proved well for Polestar as Grant took the win in the opening Atlantic Championship Series race at Road Atlanta, with Conner Kearby and Richard Zober completing the podium.
“The car has handled perfect ever since we unloaded on Thursday and I can’t thank Polestar enough for the effort they put forth, the car has handled flawlessly all weekend,” said Grant “We had a new tire with Hoosier this weekend and its worked really well and was very consistent throughout the whole race,” he added.
This win made it a successful weekend for the Grant brothers as David Grant also took home the win in race one for the F2000 Championship Series. This marked the first win for both drivers in each series, who also both drive for Polestar.
K-Hill’s Conner Kearby took second place in race one after he did the same in both practice one on Friday, as well as in Saturdays qualifying.
“We tried to fix the setup and we went kind of the wrong way with it so we couldn’t keep anything for Keith today; I tried to keep up at the start but he just took off on cold tires," said Kearby on his chase for Grant.
Comprent’s Zober ran a close third and took several charges on the second spot, but was unable to overtake Kearby. “I worked hard but couldn’t catch him, I was trying but he was too quick,” said Zober. It was the best finish to date for Zober in the Atlantic Championship Series.
After putting on a show for first place in Atlantic Challenge, Comprent driver Bob Corliss retired from the race due to a mechanical issue on lap seventeen after running as high as fourth place; allowing K-Hill driver and father of Conner, Gaston Kearby, to fall into the number one spot for the Atlantic Challenge class, making it a great day for the Kearby family as well.
Behind G. Kearby was Lewis Cooper Jr., who came in second place for the Atlantic Challenge.
The rest of the field was made up of K-Hill driver Bruce Hamilton in sixth, followed by Chris Ash of Comprent racing; behind Ash was Pabst Racing’s J.R Smart, Mike Jacques and then Bruce Crockett who had a spin on lap eleven but was able to continue on with the race and bring up the tail end of the field.
The Atlantic Championship Series continues tomorrow with qualifying scheduled for 1:30 pm EST and race two at 4:40 pm EST.
Full race results are available on www.atlanticchampionshipseries.com under the results tab.