Chase Purdy earned a career-best road course finish on Saturday afternoon at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in unique fashion. The driver of the No. 61 BAMA Buggies Toyota Tundra TRD Pro rebounded from a crash and gained nine positions in the final three laps to secure a 13th-place finish for his fifth top-15 result in the last six races.
The Meridian, Miss. native started from 22nd position after qualifying was contested in rainy conditions on Saturday afternoon. Purdy began the 67-lap event under sunny skies and immediately combated a tight handling condition on both left and right-hand corners in the opening stage. A caution on lap eight allowed Purdy to take advantage of a restart on lap 10 and climbed to 18th by the end of Stage 1 on lap 20.
Crew chief Matt Lucas and the HRE squad gave Purdy four tires, fuel, along with service to cool the brakes and engine temperatures. He lined up 18th for the restart on lap 22 and maintained position inside the top-20 throughout the entirety of Stage 2 which ran completely under green flag conditions. Purdy was again scored in 18th at the end of the second segment on lap 40.
Lucas and the BAMA Buggies team gave Purdy another set of tires, fuel, and a track bar adjustment to help his rotation in all 13 corners under the second controlled caution. He restarted 18th on lap 43 and ran as high as 17th by lap 54. A chaotic restart on lap 60 resulted in Purdy being spun hard into the Turn 12 tire barrier which caused significant damage to his Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. He rejoined the field in 22nd with the aid of a caution for a restart with three laps to go. Purdy navigated his way through the frenzied action in the final three circuits to advance nine positions and collect a 13th-place finish and earn his career best road course result.
Chase Purdy Quote:
“It’s great to come out of another road course with a top-15 today. After getting turned into the tire barrier with less than 10 to go, I wouldn’t have thought we’d wind up to come back to 13th. Our BAMA Buggies team made some good adjustments on both stops today to get a little better pace in our Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. I don’t call myself a road racer, but we kept knocking down better finishes in each road course race we had this year, so I think that says a lot about our team. I’m really excited to get to Pocono in a couple weeks and some tracks we’re more familiar with, and hopefully we can keep this streak of strong finishes going.”
HRE PR
