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The 2008 Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series kicked of its season with Test Days at Daytona International Speedway during the first week of January.  Sixty-five cars were in attendance at the three day test event.  Team Euro Motorworks/Cardiosport was very pleased with the results of the three day test and looked forward with anticipation to the first race of the season three weeks later at Daytona.

The fourth weekend of January team Euro Motorworks/Cardiosport arrived back in Daytona ready to test their skills against drivers from all over the world.  Both drivers; Terry Heath of Euro Motorworks and car owner Dr. Gary Grigsby of Lexington, KY managed to keep the car clean and unscathed throughout testing and race weekend practice and qualifying.  Terry qualified the car in a rain hampered qualifying session.  Terry has developed a freakish ability to drive in the rain, so the weather change permitted the #07 Porsche 997 to jump forward nine spots and qualify 20th of 46 entries in their class.

Starting on the outside of row ten, Terry made rampant progress during his time behind the wheel, eventually moving all the way to 4th position.  One of the strategy challenges of this three hour race is to take advantage of yellow flag laps and ideally complete the three hours with one pit stop.  The yellow flag laps the team counted on during the first 90 minutes of the race never materialized.  Over one hour of green flag racing left team Euro Motorworks/Cardiosport with only one choice...to pit under a green flag.  Sadly, the pit Gods were not smiling on the team that day.  Just as the #07 car was about to come in under green on lap 31, the much prayed for caution flag finally appeared.  The timing could not have been worse.  Under new Grand-Am rules the pits are closed during the first lap of yellow.  This forced Terry to stay out on the track one lap longer than was desired.  The poor timing of the yellow proved a bit costly as coming out of NASCAR #3 on his pit-in lap Terry ran out of fuel, requiring him to coast into the pits "dead stick".  The slow entry into the pits cost four positions on the track. 

Terry managed to end his turn at the wheel with only a handful of incidents, an unusually quiet day for him!  Partially due to Terry's aggressive driving, and partially due to the way drivers conduct themselves in this series, contact was made with several cars. Of special note was Terry's schooling of Dr. McDreamy regarding who does and does not have the line on turn #3. 

The pit stop was flawless and the driver change was quick.  Dr. Grigsby took over the reigns with the car in 16th position, did a skilled job of negotiating the track and finished the race on the lead lap, 20th of 46 cars.  A very respectable finish for a team with no corporate sponsorship, a mostly volunteer pit crew and two drivers with actual day jobs!  

Stay tuned for the next installment of this underdog story when team Euro Motorworks/Cardiosport descends on Lime Rock the third weekend in May.