The Heart of Racing Headed to The Glen for Six

The Heart of Racing drivers Ian James and Mario Farnbacher are ready for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International Raceway, June 26-28.

Coming off of a win at the Detroit Grand Prix last month, James (Phoenix) and Farnbacher (Germany) are anxious to keep the momentum going. The No. 23 Heart of Racing Porsche team had a rough start to the season when they did not finish the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. Since then they have won the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, finished third at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and won the Detroit Grand Prix. To say they are on a roll is an understatement. The duo currently sits fifth in the TUDOR GTD points chase and are looking forward to six hours at The Glen on Sunday.

"The Glen is not as long as the Nordschleife, but it shares some characteristics with the Nürburgring, like a lot of fast turns where you need a lot of downforce," said Farnbacher. "The Glen has long straights so too much downforce is not the goal. We have to find a compromise to be fast everywhere. I really like the run from Turn Two up through the Esses because it is right on the limit with our GTD cars. The goal for this weekend is to collect as many possible points for the championship. At the moment we are P5 in the championship, so the goal is to be further toward the front after this weekend."

James likes The Glen and the flow of the historic track.

"No change in our approach for a six hour race," James said. "We need to be finishing at the front and taking points off our competitors. We have fought back from a bad start at Daytona to be back in the championship mix and we will continue to fight to move up. To run well at The Glen we will need the Heart of Racing Porsche to work in the Boot section and under braking. With a lot less downforce they are the weakest areas for our Porsche, so we need to optimize our mechanical set-up. My favorite section is going downhill into what is known as the Laces. You never know how hard you can attack this corner, but when you get it right the flow is great."

Team owner, Alex Job, likes the run the team is having heading into The Glen.

"The Heart of Racing team has really had a good string of races since Daytona," Job said. "We won at Sebring and Detroit and we were not that good at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, but we managed to get up on the podium. Mario and Ian are ready to take on six hours with just of the two of them. We are looking forward to another strong weekend."

The Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International Raceway will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET on June 28. Qualifying on Friday can be viewed at IMSA.com at 3:40 p.m. ET.

Contact:

kyle@kcapr.com

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