The Heart of Racing Going to Petit Le Mans with a Chance
- plugged2racing
- Oct 1, 2015
- 3 min read
The Heart of Racing drivers Ian James (Phoenix), Mario Farnbacher (Germany) and Alex Riberas (Spain) are ready for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season finale Petit Le Mans to run at Road Atlanta on Oct. 3.
The trio are headed to the 2.5-mile, 12-turn Road Atlanta circuit, with one goal, to win. The No. 23 Heart of Racing Porsche team is just 14 points out of the overall GTD points lead. Anything can happen at the 10-hour race and usually does. The team that posted wins at Sebring and Detroit is poised to get back to the top step of the podium. The Alex Job run team is known for their strength in the longer races, having won Petit Le Mans four times.
"We will need a good race set-up on the Heart of Racing Porsche," Farnbacher said. "We are still very close in the points. This team of drivers almost won the race last year and we are very hungry for a win at Petit. We will give 110% from the first minute to checked flag. We will not give up until the race is over, just like when we won Sebring. I learned a lot from that race!"
James knows it takes a total team effort at a 10-hour race.
"Petit Le Mans is a long race, so we will definitely leave a little on the table at the beginning to try to stay in the hunt and then go for it in the last third of the race," James said. "We will need to focus our practice efforts on getting traction out of the slow right-hander on to the back straight and make the car good under braking. It is also important to be strong down through the Esses to keep pace with the very quick FIA GT3 cars. In addition, the race is a total team commitment. We will have to execute perfect pit stops, no mistakes from the drivers and a bit of Lady Luck to come out on top Saturday night."
Riberas took the race to the wire last year battling Christopher Haase's Audi for the win.
"Our approach is to go for the win and nothing less," Riberas said. "We have a championship to fight for and we can't control the others. We will focus on our job and after the race we'll see where we stand. It's not an easy circuit set-up wise. We have a good amount of fast corners, but also a very long back straight. You need to find a balance between top speed and downforce. Last year we had a great car and I'm sure we will have it again this weekend. Ten hours can be very long, especially at Road Atlanta. For sure it will be a tough battle. To run trouble free all race long and be the quickest in the night gives us the best chance to win. Road Atlanta is one of my favorite tracks, this is the race I've been waiting for all year long. Motivation can't be any higher."
Team owner Alex Job has one goal this weekend.
"This is a must win for us this weekend," Job said. "We have a mathematical chance to win the championship, so we are going to win the race. The last time Ian, Mario and Alex raced together was Sebring where we won the GTD class. The guys are motivated and everyone shares the motivation that we are going to Road Atlanta to run as hard as we can for 10-hours and see what happens. There is no tomorrow."
The TUDOR Championship Petit Le Mans from Road Atlanta will be televised on Fox Sports 2 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET, on IMSA.com from 12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and back to Fox Sports 2 from 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Back to IMSA.com for an hour then back to Fox Sports 2 for the finish from 8:20 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Qualifying on Friday can be viewed at IMSA.com starting at 2:30 p.m. on Friday.
Team Seattle is accepting donations and pledges for Seattle Children's Hospital at teamseattle.com.
Contact:
kyle@kcapr.com
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