SCC: VIR II: Fenton Motorsports race notes

2nd Place in Team Championship for Fenton Motorsports Honda Civics

A sixth and a seventh place finish in the season finale of the Grand-Am Koni Challenge series Street Tuner category put the Bill Fenton Motorsports team of Honda Civics into second place in the Team Championship points.

The six-hour season finale was held Oct. 4 at Virginia International Raceway, a 3.27-mile road course near Danville, Va., and site of four race wins by Fenton's team in previous years.

Team owner Bill Fenton of Keene did not debut his new Honda Certified Used Cars/Southern Auto Auction Honda Civics into the series until the Memorial Day race weekend at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.

"We took last year's Acura to the season-opener at Daytona in January, while the Civics were still being built by our crew chief, Steve Wheeler," he said.

"To spot everybody one race and still finish second is such a wonderful tribute to the reliability of Honda products," he added. "Our cars were reliable enough that to finish second in the Team Championship points, we had to pass a team that finished second in our class at Daytona, so we re-started our season more than 30 points behind them."

The Fenton team's Hondas won the September race at New Jersey Motorsports Park with Bob Beede and Matt Plumb spraying the post-race champagne. Earlier in the season the team scored a second place at Watkins Glen, N.Y., and thirds at both Lime Rock and at Mosport Park in Canada.

"The only finish we had with the Hondas that was out of the top 10 at Salt Lake City because of a pit call that turned out to be wrong by one lap," Fenton noted. "It had nothing to do with the Honda reliability."

For the season finale race, the team's #27 Honda was raced by Dave Thillineus, Chad Gilsinger and Bob Endicott, who finished sixth and on the lead lap. Brothers Matt and Hugh Plumb and team regular Bob Beede took the checkered flag right behind them in seventh place of the 37-car field.

"We'll take these cars to Daytona in January with a lot more development work having been done," said Fenton. "After that, we'll look forward to another strong season that highlights the quality of the team and the durability of the car."

-credit: bfm