May 27, 2008 - KEENE,  NH - Bill Fenton Motorsports made an impressive Grand Am debut with their Honda Civic Si at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, with Bob Beede and Matt Plumb finishing third in the Koni Challenge ST race. This weekend marks the second year in a row that Fenton has finished on the podium, and the team’s experience at the track paid off.

Drivers Bob Beede and Matt Plumb ran an impressive race in their Honda Certified Used Cars two-door Honda Civic Si, starting 38th and making the pass for third place on the last corner of the final lap to claim a spot on the podium.  Todd Lamb and Dave Thilenius started 39th in their four-door Southern Auto Auction / Traqmate Honda Civic Si and finished 12th on track but a post-race penalty put them down to 17th in the official results.

“The shortened qualifying session really put us back in the field - we decided to wait to go out after the first five minutes and get clear of traffic for a clean lap, but with just a warm up lap we were last on the grid when the session was cancelled due to an incident on track,” explained Bob Beede.  “We knew that we would need to be cautious starting that far back in the race, and the team did a great job calling the pit strategy to put Matt in the car and continue our race to the front.”

Team owner Bill Fenton: “This truly is a team effort. The guys on the crew do a great job, and the help we receive from Team Honda Research on car setup and programming is invaluable to our success. Koni shocks, H&R Springs,  and SPC Performance suspension pieces really did the job for us in getting these Civics to grip the bumpy Lime Rock surface.”

The race will be televised on Speed Channel Saturday, May 31st at 8pm EDT.

A lap of in-car video is available to view at:
www.toddlamb.com/videos/LimeRockLambCivic.mpg (caution: large download)

The Grand Am Koni Challenge series returns to action at Mosport on June 14th.

Posted by Todd Lamb on 05/27 at 11:00 AM


Bill Fenton Motorsports to Debut New Honda Civics at Lime Rock

May 21, 2008 - KEENE, NH - Bill Fenton Motorsports will debut their brand new Honda Civics for the second round of the Koni Challenge series in the ST class at Lime Rock Park on May 24th.  Known in recent years for their success with the Acura RSX,  Fenton is making the switch to Hondas with confidence that they can continue to be a top running team in Koni Challenge.

The driver lineup for the two-car team is a familiar one; Todd Lamb and Dave Thilenius will co-drive the #27 Southern Auto Auction/Traqmate Civic, looking to better their third place finish at Lime Rock in 2007.  Bob Beede and Matt Plumb will share driving duties in the #29 Honda Certified Used Cars/Southern Auto Auction Civic. “The Civic drove very well in testing according to the Traqmate data, and the Honda guys have had a lot of success running the car in club racing, so we’re pretty confident that the Civic is going to have a strong debut. Rumor has it that Matt has been on fire lately, so we’re expecting big things from him as he returns to help us develop the cars,” commented Todd Lamb. Team owner Bill Fenton noted: “We’ve had a tremendous amount of help from Acura in the past with the RSX,  and Honda has been equally helpful in getting these Civics together.  We appreciate their support and look forward to a successful partnership, and we also appreciate Grand Am allowing us to have a competitive package.” “King Motorsports and Piper Motorsports were instrumental in getting the Civics together in time for the Lime Rock race, and we owe a huge thanks to Honda and Koni for securing parts for us at the last minute,” said crew chief Steve Wheeler.   The race will air on Speed Channel Saturday, May 31st at 8pm EDT.

Posted by Todd Lamb on 05/02 at 10:52 AM