BRASELTON, Ga. - Mitch Pagerey, of Deerfield Beach, Fla., made the most of his first-ever run at Road Atlanta with a fourth place and third place finish, respectively, in Rounds 11 and 12 of the Patrón GT3 Challenge by Yokohama, part of the 12th annual Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda 6 weekend.
In Round 11, Pagerey started third (in class) in the No. 23 Alex Job Racing Porsche GT3 Cup and got shuffled back few spots at the start. Fortunately for Pagerey, he was able to recover from this early race set back and finished fourth.
"At the start, we were pushed off and one of the Platinum Cup guys got by me," Pagerey said. "Then, I was behind Melanie [Snow] and we got the yellow. [When the race went green] I got by her. Unfortunately, the car did not come in until two thirds of the way through the race - then we had something. But, we just didn't have time to make it work."
"He [Pagerey] got run off at the start," Team Owner Alex Job said. "He had two wheels off in the grass on the exit of [Turn] 12. He fell back a couple positions. He was able to get one of those positions back. But, unfortunately, he couldn't get the last one back in time to get a podium finish. Mitch was just two-tenths of a second short of being on the podium. He did real well."
Pagerery started the Round 12 race third thanks to his fast race lap of 127.659 (104.313 mph) in Round 11. Unlike the first race, Pagerey held his ground in the early going despite early-race caution. On the restart, Pagerey got a good jump and held onto his third place spot. Nineteen laps later, he brought it home in the same spot recording his fifth podium finish of the season.
"You know what I was thinking in there [the car]? I was thinking, 'This is a day at the office,'" Pagerey said. "Actually, it was a good race. We were happy to be here. We could have used a little more track time, but I am happy with the third place finish. I didn't seem to have too much for the guys in front of me and it didn't seem like anyone had anything behind me. It was a good way to end the weekend - safe. Now we go to Laguna and we are going to kick some butt there."
"The yellow did not help us," Job said. "We had the car setup for getting better as the race ran longer. The car would have been better without the yellow. But, we'll take the podium. I am proud of Mitch and the guys."
This season, Pagerey has one win, five podiums, nine top-five, 10 top-10 finishes and two poles. He is currently fourth in the Championship point standings. Bob Faieta leads with 228 points, followed by Martin Snow (206), Galen Bieker (160), Pagerey (147), and Darrell Carlisle (145).
The Patrón GT3 Challenge by Yokohama Series next heads west to the beautiful Monterey Peninsula and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Oct. 9-11 for the Monterey Sports Car Championship weekend
