LAKEVILLE, Connecticut – The No. 56 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 team and co-drivers Jeff Mosing and Eric Foss broke through for their first career IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport (GS) class race win on Saturday, in a hot and hard-fought two-hour race at Lime Rock Park. The victory was also the first of the 2021 season for the Mercedes-AMG GT4 in Pilot Challenge competition and came after Mosing and Foss withstood high humidity, temperatures nearing 90 degrees and intense challenges from the competition.
Racing together for more than 10 years, Mosing, Foss and Murillo previously won both races and championships in lower-level Pilot Challenge classes, but Saturday’s victory was their first in the top-tier GS division after entering the class in 2018 with Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing. The No. 56 team and drivers finished fifth at Lime Rock in 2018 and secured a third-place podium finish in 2019 before rising to secure Saturday’s victory. The 2020 IMSA race weekend at Lime Rock Park was not held in support of the fight against COVID-19.
Starting fifth after a season-best qualifying effort in Friday qualifying, Mosing moved up to fourth for the majority of his stint before pitting to hand the No. 56 over to Foss at the race’s 40-minute mark.
Foss continued the fight up front and soon moved into the top three as the race entered the final 30 minutes. He was third in a string of four Mercedes-AMG GT4 competitors for a race restart with 25 minutes remaining and made his move to the front as soon as the green flag waved.
Foss quickly moved up to second and then made what proved to be the winning pass on race leader Michael Hurczyn in the No. 11 FCP Euro Mercedes-AM GT4 in Turn 6 with just over 21 minutes remaining.
Foss led the race’s final 24 laps and crossed the finish line 9.925 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
Hurczyn led 20 laps in the FCP Euro No. 11, but he and co-driver Nate Vincent came up just short in a gamble to make it to the end on just one pit stop. Hurczyn was running sixth in GS on the final lap of the race when the No. 11 ran out of fuel two turns from the finish and coasted to a ninth-place finish.
After taking over from starting driver Bryce Ward, Alec Udell was running third with 10 minutes to go in the race in No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4. Udell moved alongside Hurczyn entering the narrow “No Name Straight” section of the track but slight and unintentional contact with the No. 11 knocked the No. 57 into the tire wall.
Udell managed to return to the race after a less than a minute delay but didn’t have enough time left to improve positions after dropping to 13th at the finish.
Ward and Udell finished one spot ahead of Winward’s sister No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT4 co-driven by Ward’s son Russell Ward and Mikael Grenier in 14th.
Grenier was fourth in line behind the No. 11, No. 57 and No. 56 Mercedes-AMG GT4 entries for the final restart only to be hit by more than one competitor in the fight to the finish. One of the blows knocked Grenier off course and out of contention although the No. 4 was credited with leading one lap during the final pit stop cycle.
In total, the No. 56, No. 11 and No. 4 Mercedes-AMG GT4 entries combined to lead the race’s final 45 laps.
Next up for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams in IMSA competition is the IMSA Sports Car Weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 5 – 8.
Jeff Mosing, Driver – No. 56 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: “To be honest, we’re the drivers and we get in the car, and we do what we can do. But at the end of the day, when you say it’s a team effort, it really is, underscore and bold face. Once you taste that victory or championship, you keep wanting it and Murillo Racing has done everything they can do to get us here. Lime Rock has always been a good track for us, both on strategy and for our cars. The Mercedes-AMG GT4 was working really well today and so were the Michelin tires. In this kind of heat, I was waiting for the tires to fall off in my stint and they never really did. This is always a fun place to come to and race. It was disappointing last year when we couldn’t make it out, so it’s nice to come back with a bang.”
Eric Foss, Driver – No. 56 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4:
“Motorsports always takes a little bit of luck and preparation. Jeff did an awesome job in qualifying yesterday. I just knew he was going to be somewhere in the top five in qualifying, so I was really stoked about that. He did an awesome job in the race, and we were hounding him the whole time on the radio to just keep his pace up and keep up with the leaders. We got him out of the car right at the 40-minute mark, and knew it was going to be a two-stop race at that point. When we came in to do our final pit stop, the Murillo Racing guys were phenomenal. The Mercedes-AMG GT4 is such a great car, it’s super consistent, it’s very drivable and inspires a lot of confidence. We got lucky. We took the gamble on a two-tire stop and it paid off for us. It came down to the cars ahead of us not taking tires. We were the first of the cars that took tires and we got through the others kind of quickly.”
Michael Hurczyn, Driver – No. 11 FCP Euro Mercedes-AMG GT4: “It was a great team effort. We had a strong strategy. I went into the car just after 40 minutes when the yellow came out. We tried to go to the end on the same tires and with a fuel-saving strategy. I almost got creamed at the crest of the uphill on the last lap because we ran out of fuel just that close to the finish. I can’t thank the team enough for the great strategy, the great car and it’s just awesome to put on a great show in front of all of our families and employees. The Mercedes-AMG GT4 didn’t miss a beat for two hours and was fast. We’re learning something every single race. The Mercedes-AMG GT4 is getting better, and the team is getting better. We’re still only four races in with this car. We’ll figure it out. Road America is going to be a strong track for us so hopefully we can get at top five there.”
Nate Vincent, Driver – No. 11 FCP Euro Mercedes-AMG GT4: “The end of the race was a pure nail biter. We didn’t think we could make it on fuel. We kept going back and forth on strategy and finally decided to just send it and try to make it on fuel. It was absolutely fuel conserve mode. We’re talking sixth gear, just pedalling around the track and not touching the brakes under yellow, but we were a half a lap short. But all credit to Michael for keeping a lot of fast guys behind him on old tires in a car that was showing the wear, but even when the Mercedes-AMG GT4 was falling off, it wasn’t falling off as much as the other cars out there. That allowed Michael to run a car longer than anyone else out there on the same tires and keep up the needed pace. We’re really happy with the Mercedes-AMG right now, looking forward to the future, pushing the boundaries and hopefully reaching the podium soon.”
Alec Udell, Driver – No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: “We had a really good strategy. We came out and pitted pretty early and tried to get our fuel strategy set so we were good to the end. The Winward Racing team did awesome on that, and I’m a bit frustrated to not take it all the way to the end. I think we had a really Mercedes-AMG GT4, even without not taking tires. Bryce drove a great stint early on and we had an opportunity to be up at the front. I went for it, but it just didn’t quite pan out. We lost a lot of time on track. It’s frustrating personally because you always want to take the opportunities that you can, and there’s a whole lot of risk and reward that goes through your mind out on track. Today it maybe wasn’t the right moment. It’s frustrating because I don’t like making errors, especially when there’s a podium on the line.”
