Burrows and Hopwood Break Through to Win at Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen, NY (5 July, 2008)

That decision paid immediate dividends on Saturday night, as the two combined to take a thrilling maiden Watkins Glen 200 race win in the in the No. 74 Fischer Skis Acura TSX campaigned by Compass360 Racing.
Burrows started the race from third on the grid, and moved into the lead before turning the car over to Hopwood, who returned in 55th position overall. Hopwood replicated the field-scything skills he showed at Lime Rock Park, moving forward to second position with just over 15 minutes remaining before battling for the lead, taking it, and then never looking back.
“Trevor and I are thrilled to be on the top of the podium,” said Burrows. “We’ve worked really hard this year to adjust to racing a front-wheel drive car and we came to grips with it a little bit more at Mid-Ohio. Obviously Trevor did a great job to get us back to the lead at the end. This Fischer Skis Acura was great all weekend. We had a good run in qualifying, and the race was fantastic. We took a chance with our strategy and Ray Lee made a great call to bring us in when he did. It was a little bit of a gamble but it came back to us perfectly, and I couldn’t be happier to take this win with Trevor and now who knows what lies ahead with this championship.”

“Yesterday was my parent’s anniversary so they weren’t here this weekend, but this is the best gift I could give them,” said Hopwood. “I want to thank Fischer Skis and Compass360 Racing, they gave us a great car again. I also want to thank Karl (Thomson) for giving us this opportunity and Ray Lee made a great call. Winning the championship with a friend and teammate like Adam was a great experience, and now to be on the top step of the podium in KONI is really fantastic. Tom (Long) and I had a great battle-side by side for several corners, several laps, and never touched each other so that was great. It’s great to get this monkey off our backs after what happened at Mid-Ohio so this is a great payback to the team. I’ve had a lot of wins here at Watkins Glen, but this is the best one of them all.”