Bentley Team Absolute Tackles Second Straight Street Course

It’s been a month since Bentley Team Absolute has seen any Pirelli World Challenge Championship action, but the team is back at it this weekend with Round Three at the legendary Long Beach street circuit. It is the second-straight temporary street circuit for Bentley Team Absolute, who once again bring two 4.0L twin-turbo V8–powered Bentley Continental GT3s to the fight. A top-10 finish and Hard Charger Award on the streets of St. Petersburg last month have drivers Adderly Fong and Andrew Palmer keen to show what the Bentleys can do in Long Beach. Unlike World Challenge Rounds Two and Three, Long Beach is a single race instead of a double-header. Teams will have a total of only two hours and 20 minutes of track time, including Sunday’s 50-minute race. Drivers will need to be focused and avoid errors to make the most of valuable track time and to avoid Long Beach’s concrete walls. The Grand Prix of Long Beach takes place April 15 – 17. Sunday’s race will air at 2pm ET on CBS Sports Network.

ANDREW PALMER (USA) #87 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT3

“Long breaks from racing are always hard to deal with. It was nice to get back home for a bit, but after a week you feel the need to be behind the wheel. To keep sane I have been training super hard and studying up on last year’s data from Long Beach. I just finished my home simulator so I have been turning laps there making sure when I get in the car on Friday I’m ready to rock and roll. “St. Pete gave us really usefully information. In race one we didn’t quite nail the set up and it made us really think about how to make the car better for street circuits. I think the baseline set up we have developed should put us in a good starting spot. “Long Beach is quite a different style track to St. Pete. They both have concrete walls, buildings all around and a harbor, but Long Beach has higher straight speeds and slower corner speeds. There aren’t a lot of corners that use a lot of downforce, so traction will be key. I don’t think there is anything quite like Long Beach in the world. It’s kind of like our Monaco with the number of fans and great history in all forms of racing. I missed the podium by one spot two years ago, so my head is down to come home with some hardware.”

ADDERLY FONG (HK) #88 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT3

“It's a strange feeling to have so much time in between races. In Hong Kong, I have been attending a lot of racing related events and the usual training and racing simulation to prepare for Long Beach and Barber. “We’ve been working on maximizing the tires in the race and I found a big step in making the package work in the second race of St. Petersburg. I hope to carry this knowledge forward to this weekend at Long Beach and to make even further improvements with the team and to our Bentley Continental GT3. “All of my previous racing experience has been in Europe and Asia, so I am new to Long Beach, but I love street tracks and I’m looking forward to having my first outing here this weekend. “Qualifying has become a big part of the weekend. As we’ve seen, with the level of competition in World Challenge, everyone is driving on the limit and when everyone is driving their cars at that level, it naturally becomes hard to overtake, therefore a good starting position makes a world of difference.”

Contact:

erin@layercakemediagroup.com

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