Austin driver Will Hardeman showed last weekend at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala., that he and Moorespeed can be competitive in the Porsche GT3 Cup series. CREDIT: Moorespeed Racing
Local driver Will Hardeman and Austin-based Moorespeed will come into Circuit of the Americas next week with a lot of confidence after a successful showing in Alabama last weekend.
Hardeman matched his career-best IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge result with a career-best, second-place showing Saturday in the first of two races at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.
Next weekend, May 4-6, the IMSA series is in Austin for the Advance Auto Parts Showdown.
Hardeman, driving the No. 19 CAG/Moorespeed car, qualified third for last Saturday’s race but quickly jumped up to second on the first lap. He maintained that position until the checkered flag, matching a runner-up finish at last year’s season-ending Road Atlanta race.
“I was really on it and pushing hard for the most part,” Hardeman said in a news release. “I had a really comfortable pace and placing on the podium, right where I deserved to be and looking toward the top step. This is a rhythm track but has some technical sections that we were able to figure out. We put it up on edge through most of the track.”
Teammate Corey Fergus, in his No. 00 US LED/Byers/Moorespeed car, qualified second and finished fourth. Fergus had a podium finish, third place, at Sebring (Fla.) last month.
“We’re on pace,” Moorespeed president David Moore said. “We feel pretty confident.”
The team didn’t react as well to rainy, damp conditions Sunday, taking a cautious approach.
Hardeman appeared headed for another podium finish, but in a choppy, rain-delayed race he got side-swiped near the finish, falling from third to sixth place.
“Will had a wounded car from some contact, and on the late restart he just couldn’t get traction,” Moore said.
Fergus took fifth place, giving him two top-fives for the weekend.
“After qualifying so well, we were hoping for better finishes,” Fergus said in a news release. “I guess you just have to take some points when you can.”
Hardeman indicated the team will be better the next time in the rain.
“This is a lesson learned on where to find the limits when you are running in the rain,” he said. “There’s too fast and there’s too slow, and we were erring on the side of too slow and too conservative.”
