Austin Cindric is living the life other 16-year-olds dream of. Saturday, he co-drove the No. 158 Multimatic Ford Shelby Mustang GT350R-C to victory in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, breaking a three-win streak by the No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R.
Next week, Cindric will race in the ARCA stock car series at Iowa Speedway. On June 21, he won the Red Bull Global RallyCross race at Daytona International Speedway. He has raced F2000 open-wheel cars, drove a Mercedes in the Bathurst eight-hour race in Australia. And he refuses to pick a favorite.
“Anything with four wheels,” he says.
Cindric’s success is due to two factors: One, he’s very good. And two, his father is Tim Cindric, president of Team Penske – essentially Roger Penske’s right-hand man in racing.
Jade Buford, left, and Austin Cindric celebrate their victory on Saturday.
Cindric’s co-driver, Jade Buford, started the two-hour, 30-minute race and kept the Multimatic Shelby close to the front. For the first half of the race it appeared the Chevrolet Camaro pace car would win – there were multiple caution flags for crashes and mechanical breakdowns, including a hard crash by the pole-sitting Multimatic Shelby driven by Scott Maxwell and Billy Johnson.
But the last half of the race had some of the best competition of the year, with Cindric and Buford battling the Rum Bum Racing Porsche 911 of brothers Hugh and Matt Plumb, which finished second. Third was the No. 6 Stevenson Camaro of Andrew Davis and Robin Liddell, who have largely dominated the Grand Sport class this year.
The racing was even better in the Street Tuner class, where Spencer Pumpelly, in the No. 17 RS1 Porsche Cayman, traded the lead with Andrew Carbonell in the No. 26 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5 right to the end. Pumpelly shares the car with Luis Rodriguez, Jr., and Carbonell’s co-driver in the No. 26 car is Liam Dwyer, a retired Marine who lost a leg in battle, and drives with a prosthesis.
Finishing third behind the Nos. 17 and 26 was the No. 19 RS1 Porsche Cayman, a sister car to the winner.
The race will air on July 19 on Fox Sports 1 at noon ET.
