A TACTICAL decision to delay pitting worked a treat for Bathurst driver Brad Schumacher on Sunday as it led him to claiming class round honours in the New South Wales Production Sport Cars Championship round at Sydney Motorsport Park.
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Schumacher headed into the latest round of the series with his new Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Car sitting just two points off the championship lead.
It was a lead he planned to take with a strong performance in his Kelso Electrical Racing Team entry across the two 25-minute sprint races on Saturday and Sunday's 50-minute enduro.
His bid for success began with honing in his set up on old tyres during Friday practice and while ultimately that cost the team some pace in the sprint races when running on new rubber, Schumacher was planning ahead.
"The endurance race is double points compared to the sprint races. We knew if we were able to finish the sprint races in an honourable position then fight through for an outright on the podium in the endurance race, we could still be in a good position on points for the weekend," he said.
Schumacher was third in class in qualifying then placed third behind Geoff Morgan (Porsche 991) and Simon Hogg (Lotus Elise) in the sprint races.
While naturally he would have liked to have more speed and challenge for the wins - and had a nervous moment in race one - Schumacher knew he was still in a good position for Sunday.
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"We just didn't find the pace in the Saturday sprint races. On new tyres we just struggled for pace to catch Hogg and Morgan," he said.
"We had an unfortunate unavoidable incident in race one where Sergio Pires spun in front of us at the hairpin and we were nose to tail heading into that corner, so were unable to avoid the collision.
"Thankfully it didn't do any geometrical damage to the car, only cosmetic. So we were able to finish that race and a big ups to our pit crew who were able to repair the car."
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On Sunday Schumacher started well and was running fifth outright and second in class when the pit window opened.
Morgan pitted on lap 19 to see Schumacher as the leading car in class, but the Bathurst driver stayed out.
He left his stop as late as possible, crossing his fingers for a safety car. When Schumacher did pit on lap 21, not only was he third outright, but the yellow flag he had hoped for appeared.
It helped him to clinch third outright and those points helped him to round class honours and the championship lead.
"We left our pit stop to the very last laps of the pit window, just with the hopes there would be a safety car and if there was a safety car, we'd get the advantage over the others cars who would pit prior to that," he said.
"Believe it or not, luck came on our side. Garry Higgon hit the wall heavy in his Audi at turn 16 which presented a safety car.
"Basically by the time the safety car came in it was only a one-lap sprint to the end of the race."
