TUDOR Championship Classes Combined At Mazda Raceway
All four TUDOR United SportsCar Championship classes will race together at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for this weekend’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda.
Unlike last year’s event, which had a pair of two-hour races for the two prototype and GT classes, the two-hour, 40-minute race on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET combines the four classes – Prototype (P), Prototype Challenge (PC), GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD).
This will be the TUDOR Championship’s second visit to California over a three-weekend span. The recent Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach highlighted the P and GTLM classes in a 100-minute race.
Sacramento’s Pruett, Hand To Co-Drive In Home Race
Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates features a pair of Sacramento-area drivers, Scott Pruett and Joey Hand, in the No. 01 Ford EcoBoost/Riley.
Pruett, who hails from Auburn, California and recently turned 55, is a 10-time champion and leads all drivers with 59 major sports car victories. He also is an award-winning wine maker; Wine Spectator recently scored his Syrah at 96 – the highest-rated Syrah in the nation. Pruett personally operates and oversees the winery, Pruett Vineyards in Auburn. Pruett finished third in last year’s race at Mazda Raceway, co-driving with Memo Rojas.
Hand, who makes his home in the California capital city, joined Pruett in winning the 2011 Rolex 24 At Daytona (one of Pruett’s five overall victories in the event). Hand comes to the team after being the lone American driver to compete in the German DTM championship. Pruett and Hand are coming off their best finish of the season, taking second at Long Beach, and are third in the Prototype point standings.
Hometown Hero: Jonathan Bomarito, a native of Monterey, joins Tristan Nunez in the No. 70 Mazda Prototype, powered by a SKYACTIV Diesel engine. The team’s No. 07 entry features Joel Miller of Hesperia, California, co-driving with Tom Long. Bomarito had his best finish of the season – eighth – at Long Beach.
Brotherly Love: Ricky and Jordan Taylor dominated the race at Long Beach in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP owned by their father, Wayne Taylor. Ricky won the TOTAL Pole Award and joined his brother in leading all but two laps in the 100-minute event.
Cameron’s Firsts at Home Track: Dane Cameron, a native of Glen Ellen, California, has recorded two major career firsts at Mazda Raceway. He won his first TUDOR Championship race at the circuit in 2014, winning the GTD class for Turner Motorsport en route to capturing the GTD championship.
He also scored his first GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series victory there in 2012, winning the GT class for Team Sahlen. Cameron will be looking for his first Prototype triumph this weekend, joining Eric Curran in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP.
Threes Are Wild: The No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP team comes to Mazda Raceway with three consecutive third-place finishes forMichael Valiante and Richard Westbrook at Daytona, Sebring and Long Beach.
Risi Competizione Ferrari Back-To-Back Winner Of DEKRA Green Challenge
The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia of Giancarlo Fisichella and Pierre Kaffer take a pair of streaks into the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda. The team finished second in the GTLM class at both Sebring and Long Beach, while winning the DEKRA Green Challenge Award at both races.
The DEKRA Green Challenge Award is presented to the most environmentally clean, fast and efficient GTLM competitor at each TUDOR Championship race. The DEKRA Green Challenge award is determined through Green Racing protocols established by the United States Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International as part of an overarching strategic alliance with IMSA.
The Green Challenge scores are calculated each lap of the race from “clean, fast and efficient” data provided by the timing and scoring system plus the observed energy consumption – or fuel used – of each car’s pit refueling tank sensors.
“The DEKRA Green Challenge Award is all about efficiency with the pit stops, fuel consumption and the amount of time you’re in the pits,” said Risi team manager David Sims. Basically, if you spend a lot of time in the pits, you’re never ever going to win the award. Your stops have to be fast and quick, so the less time you spend with every pit stop, the better it is. It’s down to the crew and the engineering on the fuel consumption, as well. They have a meter on the fuel tanks and it registers how much you put in and how much fuel you use during the event.”
After 14 Different Pole Winners, Is It Time For The First Repeat In GTLM?
Bill Auberlen captured the pole for the recent Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach, keeping alive a streak of 14 different pole winners since the class debuted at the 2014 Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Auberlen won the pole in the No. 25 IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 GTLM, and then joined Dirk Werner in giving BMW Team RLL its first TUDOR Championship victory, ending a winless streak for the team dating back to mid-2013 when it raced in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón.
GTLM drivers entered in Sunday’s race yet to win a pole are Corvette Racing’s Tommy Milner; Team Falken Tire’s Bryan Sellers and Wolf Henzler; BMW Team RLL’s Lucas Luhr; and Porsche North America’s Patrick Pilet and Joerg Bergmeister.
Defending Winners Have Points Lead: Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen opened up the season with back-to-back victories in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R. A year ago, the pair won at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca as part of a four-race winning streak. Garcia and Magnussen maintained a 10-point lead in the GTLM standings following a third-place finish at Long Beach. Class winners Auberlen and Werner are second in the points (103-93), while Ferrari drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Pierre Kaffer are third with 89 points
Contact:
Nate Siebens
nsiebens@imsa.com
