ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. – World Speed Motorsports driver Bobby Eberle finished eighth in Round 5 and a career-high sixth in Round 6 of the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires at the Grand Prix of Road America Presented By Allied Building Products in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
The 49-year-old who is sponsored by TITLE Boxing Club and DynaPro Athletics, qualified 11th and seventh for the third doubleheader weekend of 2017.
The No. 13 TITLE Boxing Club World Speed Motorsports car, starting on the inside of row six, advanced early-on in the first race to sit comfortably inside the Top-10. The Texas driver had fierce battles throughout the 30-minute contest and would eventually finish the race in eighth place.
Starting the second race of the weekend from seventh position, Eberle and his team would take what they had learned from the first race and put a strategy to work in the second leg. Eberle utilized restarts to battle for position through three caution periods totaling over 15-minutes of the 30-minute race. Under the second restart, a pass around his teammate moved Eberle up to sixth position on the four-mile, 14-turn road course. As Eberle began to close the gap for fifth place, an on-track spin in turn 12 caused damage to the No. 13 TITLE Boxing Club car, affecting left-front wheel alignment.
With the results in Rounds 5 and 6, Eberle holds seventh in the Pro Mazda Championship Series point standings with a great shot at reaching the top-five.
Up next, World Speed Motorsports will compete in Rounds 7, 8 and 9 of the 2017 Pro Mazda Championship season with the only triple-header weekend of the year at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course from Lexington, Ohio on Saturday, July 28 and Sunday, July 29 (LIVE on RoadToIndy.Tv).
“After Race 1, we still had a lot to do with the car so a big thank you to the No. 13 TITLE Boxing Club World Speed Motorsports team for putting together such a great car for Race 2,” said Eberle. “We had a good set-up. We made all the right changes quickly, and we were faster. I think we had a great chance at a top-five. But, we unfortunately had some damage to the car on the left front after the car ahead spun in front of me, and we made contact in turn 12. This affected the right turns, and this track is mostly right turns. I started 7th and it was enough to keep us out of the top 5 to finish 6th. Otherwise, we really had the car to move forward even more.”
“The restarts were exciting, had we not had that last one I think we were in the gold, Eberle added. “The second restart didn’t feel as good as the first one, because the car was pretty out of whack after the contact. The left-front wheel had some damage. The pass to get into sixth was exciting in turn 1 after the second restart. I caught the fifth-place car right when we went to the third yellow, but on the restart, we only had one lap, and it just didn’t feel as good. A big thank you to the No. 13 TITLE Boxing Club World Speed Motorsports team for putting together such a great car.”