Trying weekend for Heinricher Racing at Lime Rock Park

2019 IMSA Weathertech Sports Car Series

Lakeville, Conn. (20 July 2019) – It was a trying weekend for the No. 57 Caterpillar Acura NSX GT3 of Heinricher Racing with Meyer Shank Racing. A packed two-day Lime Rock Park event resulted in a 12th place finish for Katherine Legge and Christina Nielsen.

Managing the heat was the topic of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship weekend for both drivers and crew. Despite the short distance of the 1.5-mile, seven-turn Lime Rock Park course, tire degradation became an issue during the Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon.

Starting from the fifth row, Nielsen took the controls at the drop of the green flag. Battling through the all-GT field, she moved forward into eighth place before pitting on lap 55.

With over an hour and a half of green flag running, Legge was holding a consistent race pace until an unfortunate incident with the Lexus sent the two cars off at Turn 2. Legge pitted for a quick inspection and a refill on fuel. She returned to the race with no immediate damage. However, in the sprint to the finish, it became clear Legge had sustained damage to the suspension, which ended her race early on Lap 173 to finish 12th.

The next IMSA round for Heinricher Racing with Meyer Shank Racing will be at Road America on August 2-4.

Team Quotes:

Jackie Heinricher:
“This was a hard weekend for Heinricher Racing as we finished in pit lane with a broken suspension. It’s disappointing, especially after seeing the tremendous effort by the drivers and crew as we chased a setup on a brutally hot track. We expect more and are looking to get back on track at Road America.”

Katherine Legge:
“Today’s race didn’t go as planned or hoped. It was a tough day because we didn’t have the pace of the front two or three cars and there were a lot of messy incidents that put us out of contention. On the plus side, we did learn a lot about what our car needs for the next round at Road America. I know the guys will work hard to get us back in contention at the next event.”

Christina Nielsen:
“I have been so impressed with Heinricher Racing and Meyer Shank Racing on how the team sets up the car almost to perfection and, as drivers, we just have to come in and fine tune it. However, this weekend, we struggled overall to match the level of race pace needed to compete.  Everyone has these types of races and this is our first one of the year. It was a huge effort by the team. The guys are always on top of receiving the feedback that we give and giving us a great strategy to stay competitive. It was an unfortunate finish for the amount of work we put in. I can’t wait to be back with this team.”