Despite the strong pace and execution, Archangel Motorsports drivers Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman fought through adversity to take the No. 7 VOLT Lighting Porsche Cayman 718 GT4 Clubsport to a sixth place finish in Round 3 of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season at Road America.
St. Louis-based team saw early optimism at the Road America event after Hindman turned the quickest lap of two practice sessions and Brynjolfsson secured a personal best eighth place qualifying slot. That bled right in into Sunday’s race start as Brynjolfsson took to some battles throughout the course of his stint and advanced to a comfortable sixth place before handing the controls to Hindman.
Swift pit work by the Archangel Motorsports crew allowed the No. 7 to stick that position, and Hindman to begin combatting his way up the field. The team was in fourth when they were plagued with an unknown issue- later to be diagnosed as a cv joint failure. This forced the Porsche into the pits two laps prior to the second pit window, putting Hindman into fuel conservation mode.
With minimal loss of time or motivation, the 24-year old propelled himself back up to fourth before enduring contact with a competitor from behind, sending himself back to seventh. Despite Hindman’s impressive pace that saw him gain three seconds on the the field in front of him, that was only enough to salvage sixth place as the checkered flag dropped.
Eager to convert the impressive potential of the VOLT Lighting Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport into more podium results, Archangel Motorsports will retake the track for Round 4 of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season August 20-22 at VIRginia International Raceway.
Mike Johnson | Principal, Archangel Motorsports — “We felt we had a lot of potential coming into this weekend with a great start in practice and qualifying. When Trent got in the car he felt the car moving around and we weren’t sure what was going on so we made second pitstop two laps before the intended window. Then once we got going again the contact with Johnson set us back. With the luck aside, the pitstops were great and both Trent and Alan did a great job on track. We’re walking out of Road America with our heads held high. Now we have what will be the longest break of our newly established season with two weeks to take the car back to the shop, reevaluate and come back stronger at VIR.”
Alan Brynjolfsson | Driver, No. 7 VOLT Lighting Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport — “I’m happy with the results as the best pace our car had was fourth overall and we finished close to that with a sixth place finish. Even if we were perfect I think the best we could have gotten with our car’s speed was a fourth so overall as a team we performed very solidly. It was one my best stints in IMSA, we had a solid pit stop and Trent drove great. We got the most out of the car and that is all you can ask for.”
Trent Hindman | Driver, No. 7 VOLT Lighting Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport — “We dodged quite a few bullets today, so to come home in sixth after such an eventful race is more of a relief than anything. Still a little disappointing since the car was so quick in practice, and Alan took advantage of that pace during his first stint, which was a flawless performance by him. The Archangel Motorsports team executed wonderfully on pit lane as always. I’m proud to be a part of this team and I believe we’re more than prepared to take advantage of the opportunities to win when they finally present themselves.”