Alex Job Racing Captures Victory In Motor City
All cylinders were firing for Alex Job Racing in the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic presented by Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers, both on and off the track. Shortly after the green flag, Porsche and Alex Job Racing announced that the first two new Porsche 911 GT3 R racecars have been ordered for TUDOR United SportsCar Championship competition on behalf of WeatherTech Racing and Team Seattle. Both teams will compete in the GTD class and are the first to announce their intentions to compete in the TUDOR Championship full-time in 2016.
Running in the sixth position, Ian James pitted under green early in the race. The first full-course caution came out one lap following his stop. While the GTD leaders pitted for the lone pit stop of the race, co-driver Mario Farnbacher found himself in the lead. He never looked back, leading the remainder of the race. The quickest lap of 1:33.086 for the team came on lap 45 of 57 circuits.
Coming in second place were Christina Nielsen and James Davison in the No. 007 Royal Purple/Orion Energy/LaSalle Solutions/PassTime USA Aston Martin Vantage. Davison closed the race out for the pair, finishing 2.679 seconds behind Farnbacher.
Dion von Moltke started the No. 48 Castrol EDGE Audi LMS on the pole for Paul Miller Racing. Co-driver Christopher Haase finished third, he set the quickest GTD lap of the race on lap 53 at 1:32.628.
The No. 33 ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R of Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen was competitive for much of the race but was forced to retire after encountering a mechanical issue on lap 22, resulting in the first of three caution periods..
· Christina Nielsen had an impressive opening stint in the No. 007 Aston Martin Vantage for TRG-AMR. Starting from the second position, Nielsen maintained the position until the round of pit stops under the first caution of the race. Co-driver James Davison finished the race in the second position, matching the team’s best finish in TUDOR Championship GTD competition.
· Running in the third position with 16 minutes remaining, the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia of Townsend Bell and co-driver Bill Sweedler was hit from behind by Prototype contender Jordan Taylor. Taylor was black flagged and served a drive-through penalty for the contact.
· The next event for the TUDOR Championship will be the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on Sunday, June 28. All four classes will be in action in the race, which serves as the third round of the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup.
Ian James, Driver - No. 23 Heart of Racing Porsche 911 GT America
"My stint was pretty uneventful. We had a strategy to be the first to pit at the 30 minute mark, so we were just about saving fuel. We had some electric glitches but things started to go well. The caution flags came out in lucky times, right after we made the driver change. This is such a great team to be a part of and fun to get the win. Plus now being part of a Porsche GT Le Mans program for next year is going to be very exciting."
Mario Farnbacher, Driver - No. 23 Heart of Racing Porsche 911 GT America
"When I took the car from Ian, I tried to keep my pace up. Then the yellow came out, and it was actually a very long yellow. There was oil in the track and it was the right decision to clean the track. After a few laps I had a bit of the lead and could concentrate on the lead and my driving style so that was good. The second yellow came out and I thought the lead was over, but the Aston was not catching up, so I was driving my style until the second to last yellow when it started to rain. I was actually pretty slow in the wet, I’m still working on getting up and running, I was going so slow."
Contact:
Nate Siebens
nsiebens@imsa.com
