Ende started 13th in the No. 39 DigiTrust Group/Adam's Polishes/Fox River Coffee/Sherab Khandro.com Porsche 997 and quickly fell six positions at the start due to getting caught behind a slower car. But, as the field began to spread out, Ende began picking up positions and even had the No. 39 machine in the top-10 before handing it over to co-driver Pumpelly.

On lap 51, Ende brought the No. 39 Porsche 997 to pit lane for a green flag pit stop that included a driver change. Now with Pumpelly behind the wheel the team had some work to do because Pumpelly fell from 10th to 22nd before all of the pit stops had cycled through.

"My opening stint went pretty well," Ende said of his start. "I lost several spots at the start. I tucked in behind the wrong guy in turn one and people went around us on the outside in turns one and two and then on the inside in three. But, then it was a pretty steady stint. I was basically behind one of the Turner and one of the Automatic cars the whole time. It was just a waiting game - waiting for one of them to make a mistake. But, it was pretty hard to pass.

"It was a steady stint until one of the Automatic cars decided to out-brake himself. He hit the side of the curb and then hit our car. It did not put us out so we counted ourselves lucky."

Undaunted by his position, Pumpelly managed to knife through traffic setting faster lap times as the race went on. In fact, Pumpelly set the team's fastest race lap with a 0:59.029 on lap 102 of the 140-lap event.

On lap125, Pumpelly was running third when he passed the No. 37 Mustang GT for second. With only 15 laps remaining and with the leader having a nearly 12 second lead over the field, Pumpelly did his best to chase down the leader. But, he simply ran out of time cutting the eventual race-winner's margin of victory down to 2.302-seconds.

Pumpelly then jumped into the cockpit and he and the No. 39 team used essentially the same strategy as the No. 41 team. Pumpelly moved up to second place at one point in the first half of his double stint and pitted under green with one hour and one minute remaining while running in fifth place.

He resumed in 21st position but quickly worked his way forward and when the other leaders pitted on Lap 62, Pumpelly found himself in third place for the Lap 65 restart. When leader Doug Goad had a brief off-course excursion on the first green flag lap, Pumpelly moved into second place. Two laps later, Pumpelly charged past Tom Milner and into the lead with less than 20 minutes remaining.

Just a few seconds later, however, disaster struck the No. 39 team, as the car slowed to a stop on the Daytona Superstretch with the same engine management problems that felled the No. 41 team a day earlier. Pumpelly and Ende wound up 32nd in the GS class and 70th overall.

“We did all that work in the offseason, and the one thing we just can’t get under control is our engine management issues,” Buckler said. “The car was great, even with the extra weight. We did all these other things, and Spencer just drove the wheels off the thing. Duncan did a fantastic job keeping the car up front. What a great team! The guys worked so hard, but no matter what, we just run too hot and we blow up. That’s what happened, right as we took the lead. I’m pretty sure we would have kept it.”

“We were having a great race,” added Ende. “Our strategy was playing absolutely to perfection, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t finish. It’s really frustrating. We’re not really sure what did it. We think it was just running too hot for too long, and that’s been our problem since the program started last year. I thought we were making progress, but each of our cars lost an engine this weekend. Unfortunately for us, ours went right after we took the lead in the race with 20 minutes to go. I don’t know if we would have won, but it would have been close. I think we would have been up there, so it’s a tough pill to swallow.”

The action gets started on Friday afternoon when Duncan Ende and Spencer Pumpelly begin their run at the 2008 Koni Challenge championship. The No. 39 Digitrust Group/Adams Polishes/Fox River Coffee Porsche 997 is set to take on a field approaching 100 cars in the Fresh From Florida 200 along the high banking of the world famous Daytona International Speedway.

The following day, Duncan Ende makes his Rolex Series debut aboard the No. 63 TRG Porsche GT3 Cup car in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Teaming with Ron Yarab Jr., Pierre Bourque, and Hima Maher, Duncan and his codrivers will pilot the 420 horsepower, 175 mph GT car twice around the clock in one of the most historic and prestigious tests of car and driver speed and endurance in the world.

The Rolex 24 will be televised live on Fox on Saturday the 26th, starting with a half hour pre-race show at 1:00 pm Eastern, 10:00 am Pacific, and continuing through the wave of the green flag for 90 minutes of coverage before turning over to Speed Channel, who will bring you another 15.5 hours of coverage up to and past the fall of the checkered flag on Sunday afternoon. Don/'t miss the bright red No. 6 car take on the best field of sportscar racers in the world on the legendary 3.56 mile Daytona track!

Duncan Ende and Spencer Pumpelly return to the airwaves with the Koni Challenge series aboard the No. 39 Porsche. Speed Channel will bring you the Fresh From Florida 200, Saturday February 2nd, at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific. Speed will be airing six Koni Challenge races throughout the year, bringing you some of the most exciting and diverse production based car racing in the world!

“The Porsche was definitely a different beast from what I’d been driving in the past, but the opportunities with Grand-Am and TRG were just too tempting to pass up” stated Ende.

However, after dueling it out with a number of very experienced competitors during the 12-race season, Duncan can proudly look back on a very accomplished debut year, which would result in three top-10 finishes, including leading several races & a season best 4th in Lime Rock, Connecticut.

“Duncan’s progression throughout the season was exceptional” noted TRG team owner Kevin Buckler. “We had a young man who came in to our development program as one of open wheel racing’s more promising talents, and through his focus, determination, and open minded attitude with our engineers and driving coaches, I can proudly say that Duncan is becoming one of sports-car racing’s fastest-rising stars.”

One of the reasons Duncan decided to take the plunge with TRG was because of their highly-rated driver development program. Utilizing the best available on-board data acquisition software and video, and coupling Duncan with such standout coaches as Daytona 24 Hour winners Andy Lally, Spencer Pumpelly, and Grant Maiman the ability for Duncan to quickly get on the pace was greatly helped by TRG’s resources.

“I have to thank guys like Andy and Spencer, and of course my 2007 co-driver Grant Maiman. These guys were constantly feeding me with positive re-enforcement as well as constructive critiques, and I think that all combined to such a fun year,” stated Ende.

“Duncan’s progress throughout 2007 was impressive. He really kept me honest at the end of the year, and my best memory was watching him run in the top three in Utah,” stated TRG coach, and Duncan’s 2007 teammate, Grant Maiman.

Spencer Pumpelly will be Duncan’s team mate for the 2008 Koni Challenge season.

I think with Spencer’s talent and TRG’s teamwork, there’s no reason we can’t seriously run for the championship next year.” said Duncan.

With 2007 now fresh in everyone’s minds, and Duncan and Spencer preparing for their first test together at the upcoming November test days, the team shows nothing but promise.

“I think all of our cars have a great shot at the Koni title next year,” exclaimed Kevin Buckler, “but without doubt Duncan and Spencer are going to be really tough for everyone to beat. We have two top-line drivers in that car and a year of experience under all of our belts and I think everyone in the paddock is going to take notice.”

Duncan Ende will continue with his sponsorship from a number of different organizations in 2008, including the DigiTrust Group, Adam’s Premium Car Care Products, KnowledgeNews.net, and even his own “Racer’s Roast” brand from the Fox River Coffee Company.

TRG is a manufacturer and distributor of high-performance automotive parts, an engine and chassis building and tuning facility, a full-service race-car preparation shop and multiple professional race teams. The company also provides electrical and mechanical engineering services, driver development and arrive-and-drive services. TRG is based in Petaluma, Calif., near its home track of Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Ende has made steady progress through the amateur racing ranks, winning multiple times in Skip Barber Formula Dodge in 2005-06, and in IMSA Lites and Formula Atlantic in 2006. Now, he will have to adapt his driving style to pilot sports cars - quite the change from light, nimble formula cars.

"I think the hardest thing I'll have to learn is how to manage an endurance race - even the shortest sports car races are at least twice as long as a standard sprint race," Duncan said. "There's a whole new dimension of racing strategy as the races stretch past 30-45 minutes also. It'll be a challenge to learn to manage the car, manage tires, and listen closely to what the engineers and strategists tell me over the radio."

"I'm excited to drive with Grant as well - he's got a lot to teach, so I'm going to just act like a sponge and try to apply as much knowledge as I can. Same thing goes for the whole TRG team - they're one of the top GT teams in North America, and I'm looking forward to working with them to develop my skills as a professional racer."

Ende will also have to deal with increased competition on the track, both in terms of quantity and quality. Most KONI Challenge races feature in excess of 60 cars, split among two classes, and many top Grand-Am Rolex Series Daytona Prototype and GT drivers run in the series as well.

"We're ecstatic to have Duncan on board with us for our inaugural KONI Challenge season," said TRG owner Kevin Buckler. "He's demonstrated a great deal of raw speed and poise in the Barber Dodge and IMSA Lites Series, and I think he'll make a great sports car driver. We're going to be focusing much of our KONI Challenge program on developing Duncan's skills, and so far, he's soaking up everything we're throwing at him. We're all focused on getting to the first race in Daytona, and we expect great things."

The 2007 KONI Challenge consists of 12 races, spread far and wide across the United State and Canada. The full schedule can be viewed at http://www.theracersgroup.com/racing/koni. The 2007 KONI Challenge opens for practice at Daytona International Speedway on January 4-7. The first race of the season will be held at Daytona on January 26, 2007.

"As a high profile platform for B2B networking, motorsports will provide The DigiTrust Group with access to new, key markets" states founder and principal Jason Lidow. "I have watched Duncan's exciting performance and growth as a competitive racecar driver, and believe we have a great opportunity to leverage each other's synergies."

Duncan Ende comments: "It's a great pleasure to include The DigiTrust Group among our corporate sponsors for 2007. We're going to have an awesome year, and I look forward to soon making an announcement on the car, team, series and dates for my 2007 racing season!"

Practicing almost 2 seconds a lap faster than his competitors, Duncan put his West Racing IMSA Lites L2 car safely at the front of the grid for Thursday's race one, and executed a daring turn one pass on one of the only two L1 cars ahead of him. Reeling off consistent laps that steadily increased the gap between himself and the pack, race one would have an unfortunate ending, as gremlins caused the high tech paddle shift mechanism to malfunction near the halfway point of the race, rendering the car undrivable. Duncan could only watch from the pits as the pack made it's way past.

Race two on Friday started from exactly the same place, and this time the gremlins were kept at bay, as Duncan easily outdistanced the field for yet another victory in the IMSA Lites L2 racing series, and the final event of the 2006 racing season.

Duncan and his team would like to thank his many fans and sponsors for all their support during an exciting and eventful 2006, and invite you to stay tuned for an exciting announcement on plans for the 2007 season!

"We had a problem on Thursday and Friday, where the shifting system was just not working right" explained Ende. "We replaced a solenoid and the shifter mechanism on Friday night and that took care of that."

After qualifying in a troubled 12th place, 3.2 seconds slower than the fastest car on Friday, Saturday saw Duncan light up his West Racing WR1000 sports racer to over one and half seconds faster than his best competitor during the actual race, overcoming an early spin to avoid a stalled competitor, and then passing everyone to take the lead with 2 laps remaining in the 12 laps opening event. In doing so, he set a track record for the West Race Car WR1000.

Sunday's second race saw Ende start his WR1000 machine from the front row and never look back as he drove away from the field to an easy victory. "It couldn't have been a better weekend!" enthused Duncan.

"I'd like to thank the Bite Racing crew for their efforts here in Toronto. It's a shame that circumstances beyond all of our control took us out of this race" said Ende. "This is a particularly challenging track, but we were right on pace for our best showing yet. That is a testament to the quality of set up the team was giving me, and our ability to gather speed in the few races we've been together. I'm pretty sure we would have had an excellent result."

Duncan now turns his racecar driving skills to the IMSA Lites Series. He will be on track August 17-20 at Road America in Wisconsin, with two races on the 19 and 20. His last outing saw him finish a spectacular first in class in both events and winning overall in the second race in Atlanta, Georgia for the West Racing Team. A one day test is scheduled at the team's home track of Portland, Oregon on July 17.

Details can be found at http://www.westracecars.com and http:www.imsaracing.net

Please let Duncan or anyone from his team know if you intend to be at this event.

Saturday's first race began very well from an exciting "Formula One style standing start" until the temporary airport venue racetrack applied mud and grass to Ende's tires, making the car evil-handling for laps at a time. In spite of this challenge he perservered, finishing 21st of 24 racers.

Sunday's second race featured yet another thrilling F1 style standing start, with Duncan taking advantage of several competitors running afoul of the same Cleveland airport mud, finishing an outstanding 17th of 24 racers. Duncan lost only one spot during the race, with an unexpected front straight spin which he corrected with confidence and plenty of tire smoke, to roars of delight from the 175,000 race fans in attendance.

"Apart from some weather on Friday, we got a lot of quality racing mileage in this weekend" commented Ende. "We set the car up with a bit more understeer for Sunday's race, which was a great setup for this hot, slippery track. I was able to get into a good rhythm in today's race, and had a great time sparring with the drivers near me, and I'm looking forward to more of the same at our next race in two weeks."

At the green flag start Ende jumped up two places and was in the thick of one of the best battles on the track. Suddenly a visible oil leak from the back of the car ended his day after just seven of the scheduled forty race laps.

"It's just one of those things in racing" philosophized Ende after the race. "It's my second Formula Atlantic race weekend, and I feel we made some great progress with both the car and my adapting to it. It would have been nice to get the other 33 laps under my belt too!"

Duncan and the Bite Racing Team now head to Cleveland, Ohio for this weekend's double race thriller. Duncan and the team would like to thank 7K, Gluekos Performance Beverages and all the friends and supporters who made the Portland event such a great weekend. We hope to see you all again soon!

"I was worried about learning the track coming into this race having never raced here before. I know the history of Road Atlanta and it's been a dream come true to compete here in IMSA Lites. My crew from West and the West WR1000 performed brilliantly for me today and I look forward to adding to my points in the championship," said Ende.