Payne at Barber 200
Las Vegas, NV (04.15.10): Byron Payne and the NGM team pushed through a tough weekend at Barber Motorsports Park. Contact between teammates ended the Barber 200 early for the #34 NGM BMW at the 2010 GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series’ Barber 200.
Payne returned to the seat of the ST-class #34 Next Generation Motorsports BMW 330 with teammate Squeak Kennedy for the second time in 2010. With a new motor installed, after mechanical failure at the last round in Miami, the #34 seemed to suffer a little on power. Kennedy would qualify the car in the 24th starting position (of 30) for Sunday’s Barber 200.
Settling into a workable pace, the duo of Kennedy and Payne ran as high as 15th. With about 10 minutes remaining in the race, there would be contact between Payne in the #34 and the #36 NGM BMW, driven by Chris Brown. Brown was able to continue while the #34 of Payne was not. “It’s very unfortunate what happened out there. It was simply a case of one not seeing the other. We had hoped to be stronger here, but just didn’t have what we needed this weekend…”