Billy Johnson & Jack Roush Jr. Capture Grand-Am victory at VIR
The No. 61 Roush Performance Ford Mustang Boss 302R gave Ford its second victory of the year in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge by taking the checkered flag at the Bosch Engineering 200 at Virginia International Raceway this past weekend. The Roush team qualified fifth, and Johnson took the lead from defending Grand Sport champ Charles Espenlaub with 15 minutes remaining in the two-hour, 30-minute event. Bill Auberlen driving the Turner Motorsports BMW M3 passed Johnson entering Turn 1 with five minutes remaining, but went wide in the Oak Tree Turn, allowing Johnson to slip by on the inside and hold on for the win.
“It really seems like we’re paralleling last year – not getting any points at Daytona and then having some pretty strong results,” said Johnson after the race. “That’s a testimony for everyone at Roush putting together a strong car and for Ford giving us such a great platform to compete with. I hope to keep up this head of steam and dig ourselves back out of the hole we dug for ourselves at Daytona and get back in the hunt for the championship.”
After opening the season with a 32nd-place finish at Daytona International Speedway, Johnson and co-driver Jack Roush Jr. now have three consecutive podium finishes in the No. 61 Roush Performance Ford Mustang Boss 302R. It was their first victory of the season after finishing second at Homestead-Miami Speedway and third at Barber Motorsports Park.
Johnson and Roush moved up to sixth in the championship, 35 points behind the No. 96 Turner Motorsports BMW M3. Scott Maxwell and Joe Foster of the Multimatic Motorsports team finished 15th in their Mustang Boss 302 and remain in second place overall.
