Defending IZOD IndyCar Series Champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, and Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet were the guests on the Series’ weekly teleconference. Full transcript:
THE MODERATOR: Welcome to today’s INDYCAR conference call. We are pleased to be joined by a pair of IZOD IndyCar Series drivers — defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter‑Reay of Andretti Autosport and perennial championship contender Will Power of Team Penske.
Ryan will drive the No. 1 DHL Chevrolet in 2013, using the No. 1 as the defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion. He has two podium finishes in six starts at St. Petersburg, including a third-place finish last year, and will be looking to give Andretti Autosport its second win on the streets of St. Petersburg.
Ryan, we are just a few days away from the start of the season. After the test at Barber Motorsports Park last week, do you feel like you are prepared to successfully defend your IZOD IndyCar Series title?
RYAN HUNTER‑REAY: We are definitely optimistic. I’m encouraged how well our test went at Barber. That’s a track that we have regularly struggled at. Will (Power) obviously led testing there and we have to close the gap a bit. But I’m very encouraged how everything has been going as a team and we have a good direction heading into St. Pete.
I’m ready for what is now my home race, one of my favorite events of the year. h, I’m happy to be going back to racing and getting on with the job.
THE MODERATOR: Will drives the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. He’s finished second in the IZOD IndyCar Series each of the last three seasons. He was the 2010 winner at St. Pete and has earned the pole position at the track the last three seasons. Will has never finished outside the top 10 in his previous starts on the streets of St. Petersburg.
Will, does your history at St. Pete make you feel like you are the guy to beat this weekend?
WILL POWER: I hope so. Testing went well at Barber. I think Andretti (Autosport) was pretty much as quick as we were. I was fortunate to get out for the last four laps of the day when it was cool and I was on new tires. I used the push‑to‑pass and all the tools and got a pretty mega lap in.
I don’t know about Honda (teams) and I hope Honda was not sandbagging too much, but I could see that the Andretti guys are definitely competitive. It will be a normal year (for the series), really tough, and hopefully, I’ll keep doing my normal thing.
Q. This question is for both of you, can you talk about the importance of getting off to a good start this season? There’s no playoffs in IndyCar racing or anything like that, so how important is it to get off to a good start?
WILL POWER: There’s 19 races this year and they all count. You will have your good ones and bad ones, and I think it’s important to start the season well. Start off on a positive, but it’s not the end of a day if you have a bad one. But it’s racing, just go there and have fun really.
Q. Ryan, talk a little about starting the season off on the right foot.
RYAN HUNTER‑REAY: The first race counts as much as the last one, and you’re always looking for every last point when you come to the season finale so absolutely it’s important.
But like Will said, if you don’t have a good result, you still have a little bit of time to get yourself out of the hole.
You need to get off to a good start to get the team on the right track and get the momentum going and get the energy, the right energy, going to the team. No better race to do it than the first one. We will look to definitely take that first step this weekend.
Q. Ryan, you’ve had a second place back in 2009 with Vision, and other than that St. Pete has been a hit or miss track with you. How are you working this year on building your consistency, continuing that momentum for the season?
RYAN HUNTER‑REAY: Iit’s been hit or miss. In ’08, we had an electrical issue with the shifting mechanism and ’09 we were on the podium. And ’10 we just went down the wrong strategy, kind of like Will did last year; got caught out like Will did last year. And then ’12 I think was a pretty good year for us.
So we are looking to cover that last step and get to the top one. We have been second, third, but really we are just concentrating on qualifying well, being at the front when we need to be challenging at the end and hopefully we can make it happen. But one foot in front the other, one step at a time, and I think we’ll be challenging on Sunday.
Q. Will, you’ve never finished outside of the top 10 at St. Pete, what is it about the St. Pete track that has been so good to you that seems to play to your style?
WILL POWER: I don’t know. It’s a street course and I just enjoy it really. There’s nothing that I would say suits me more than any other track. I go there and I always have fun. That’s the main thing. I couldn’t even tell you why.
Q. Can you talk about what you think it’s going to take that wrestle that title away from Ryan.
WILL POWER: Just a couple little details really; it’s really nothing too big. It’s different every year. I hope I’m in contention in the end and have a chance at it really
.
Q. What kind of race do you expect this weekend at St. Petersburg? The race is 10 laps longer than it was last year. Do you think that will play more into letting you guys race and not save fuel?
WILL POWER: I think the weather might play a bit of a part (this weekend). But if it doesn’t, it will be just your normal St. Pete race. It can be green, very green and then you have a few (full-course) yellows at the end, or a bunch of yellows at the beginning and very green at the end. I think it will be good. It will be good racing for the crowd.
RYAN HUNTER‑REAY: I think it’s going to depend on the right strategy, as well. St. Pete always seems to be a little bit of a crapshoot on strategy and where you end up at the end, what you end up hitting.
And weather can be a big issue with this race, or a big factor, I should say. So it’s going to keep us on our toes. It always does, this race, and it should be an exciting one with that front straight long, big, wide airport runway, big passing zone.
Bottom line is it will be a good show as we have been putting on for the past few seasons, and I think it will come down to the last few laps.
Q. These races and these championships often come down to one moment and the moment last year was when Will tried to pass Ryan in that race at Fontana. Do you remember what you were thinking at that point, Ryan, in terms of, man, I can’t believe the season has come down to this?
RYAN HUNTER‑REAY: I remember thinking that the entire week when we were struggling with our car, we couldn’t get a setup. And then during the race when Will and I were going at it, granted, we were going at it for like 15th or 16th (place). So I was just thinking, man, we’ve got to somehow transform this car if I am going to have any shot at making this interesting over the night.
I lost the car on Friday in practice. It spun, hit the wall, and I don’t even know why it happened. And same thing with Will. The front of the car grabbed the seam and the next thing you know you blink an eye and you’re in the wall.
It’s just kind of the nature of the beast with the low downforce racing with these cars we’ve been doing. It’s made it a lot of fun.
I remember it vividly and I remember thinking, we’ve got to make something happen here quick because we were struggling at the time.
Q. Last year, you kind of found yourself at a new position. You weren’t worrying about a ride for the next season, and really pulled it all together at the end of the year. What did you learn from that experience in how you approach things?
RYAN HUNTER‑REAY: I definitely learned a lot. I learned a lot about consistency and what it takes to put toge
ther a few race wins in a row. It was definitely a season of firsts.
I learned a lot about dealing with the pressure of championship fights and kind of channeling that into positive energy to make it really benefit you when you need it. But it’s something that I’ll use in the future for sure going forward.
I had a lot of fun in the fight with Will and Scott (Dixon), and it was something I hope we can do many times again, because that’s what auto racing is all about and that’s why we are here doing it.
Q. Will, what do you think about the new push‑to‑pass regulations this year with the lockout and delay will be eliminated. What do you think about having no delay or the lockout time?
WILL POWER: I think it’s better. The delay really, really was just hard to predict. I think it will be much easier to use, obviously it’s much easier for the guy to defend from you, anyway, as well.
I think it was just confusing, really, to use. It was really hard to know when to hit the button and then it you lifted off the throttle it would disengage. I think it’s definitely going to be better to use like this.
Q. Ryan, same question to you, what do you think of the new push‑to‑pass regulation with no delay or lockout time?
RYAN HUNTER‑REAY: I’m definitely for no delay. It looked like potentially, maybe at some point a good idea on paper, but when you actually applied the process in the race car it was a mess. It was just not right. The delay involves a certain ‑‑ you have to get to a certain throttle position, and if you lift out of it when you’re coming out of the corner, if you get wheel spin, just because you’re driving aggressively, then it could cancel out the request.
We just had a nightmare with it. So this is going to be good. We are going to have good push‑to‑pass. We are going to have that extra boost when we need it to create great racing.
We already have good racing when we are not push‑to‑pass, so it will be exciting.
THE MODERATOR: We thank our guests for their time this afternoon and wish them the best of luck at St. Petersburg this weekend.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports …Courtesy of the IZOD IndyCar Series
Follow A Dream Reaches Finals in Gainesville
Marstons Mills, MA –March 20, 2013-Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team reached the final round of the NHRA Gatornationals thanks to a heroic effort by the crew, which completed a mad thrash with just minutes to spare. Driver Todd Veney defeated Paul Noakes in the Top Alcohol Funny Car semi’s but the engine blew in a flash of fire a few hundred feet before the finish line, slowing the car to a 5.75 at just 212 mph and creating the very real possibility that Dan Pomponio would get a bye run in the final.
With help from mechanics from many other crews, the Follow A Dream team replaced the engine and got everything buttoned up just in time to race through the lanes and straight to the starting line to race Pomponio. Tuner Tom Howell never had time to develop a tune-up, but the car, equipped with a new ignition, had more power and carried the front end all the way through low gear as it headed toward the centerline.
“I finally had to lift, or I would have gone over the center line,” Veney said. “It’s amazing that we made it up there at all. They strapped me in back in the pits, and I could hear people cheering as we went through the lanes and made it up to the line.”
“It was unbelievable how everybody came together to get the job done,” Blake said. “So many things could have gone wrong, but the engine ran great.”
After the race, Blake and teammate Ed Parker headed from Gainesville to the Florida panhandle, where Blake will speak to airmen at the Eglin Air Force Base near Valparaiso, Fla on Thursday, March 21. “It’s always an honor to be able to speak to our military, and I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. The event will be live streamed beginning at approximately 3 pm ET and can be viewed by logging onto followadream.org.
Brian Deegan Phoenix Update
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 19, 2013 – Phoenix, AZ – This past weekend marked the start of the 2013 LOORS series. It also marked the start of Brian Deegan’s quest for a three-peat in the LOORS Pro 2 series.
Brian “The General” Deegan ended the 2012 season as the Pro 2 Champion. he started off the year taking the pole and continued his momentum by winning the race leading wire to wire for the victory in his #38 Rockstar Energy/Makita Power Tools Ford during round one of the 2013 season.
Saturday’s Pro 2 race didn’t go off as smooth. Brian started off in the third row in his #38 Rockstar/Makita Ford before a collision on the course tore his front tire. After a tire change in the pits Brian was able to come from a lap down to a strong 4th place. Salvaging valuable points in the championship.
The track conditions on Sunday, March 17th, were unforgiving – windy, dry and choppy – Brian started the Pro Lite race that afternoon in the 2nd row and ran 4th for a good part of the race. He was able to battle the track conditions and the rest of the pack to finish 3rd on the podium. Overall, after the first two rounds, Brian currently leads the Pro Lite series in points!
In Pro 2, Brian jumped out into a strong third position before his front tire was ripped after contact with another driver. This tire change sent Brian to the back of the pack again just like he encountered on Saturday, fighting back from the tire change and a transmission problem that had his truck stuck in third gear he battled the rest of the race to a 6th place finish which places him third in the overall standings after 2 races.
After looking back at the weekend Brian stated, “ I feel like the team and I are off to a strong start this season, much stronger then last year. We came out this week, made some changes, learned a lot and will carry that on to the next stop. We are definitely out to win more championships”
Casey Currie Leaves Phoenix 2nd in LOORS Pro Lite Standings
Casey Currie and the Monster Energy/General Tire Nissan team started the season off on a high note this weekend, leaving Phoenix’s Firebird International Raceway second in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Pro Lite standings. Despite having to pass nearly the entire field on both Saturday and Sunday, Currie brought home finishes of third and fifth, respectively.
After dialing in his Monster Energy/General Tire Nissan during Friday’s practice, Currie was excited to get the season started. A small change before qualifying didn’t work as well as he hoped, resulting in the 10th fastest time. Despite the mid-pack start, Currie worked his way to the front of the field and into the top five. Near the halfway point of the race, Currie was t-boned in a corner, cutting down a tire and forcing him into the hot pit during the full-course yellow. After the restart, he methodically carved his way up from 29th all the way to podium where he finished third.
“The race didn’t go exactly how we planned it,’ said Currie. “But we showed everyone out there that the Monster Energy/General Tire Nissan is going to be a fast truck all year long.”
During the second round of competition on Sunday, Currie was able to qualify fifth and patiently waited to get into the lead. As the race wore on, he tried to make a pass for third with an “outside/inside” move and was black-flagged by the race officials. With a limited amount of laps left, Currie raced hard to salvage as many points as possible and by the time the checkered flag flew, he had raced his way into fifth.
“I thought I had a good line going when I tried to make the pass into third,” said Currie. “He moved over on me a little because he knew I was going to be able to get him and the contact spun him out. Having to restart from the back of the field twice during the weekend is frustrating, but our results show we have the right equipment to win races.”
Currie and the team are now getting ready for Rounds 3-4 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on April 26-28. During the upcoming month, Currie will continue to work on his Monster Energy/General Tire Nissan as he looks to hit the jackpot in Vegas.
Chevy Racing — Tuesday Teleconference — Kasey kahne
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS, WAS THE GUEST ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR TELECONFERENCE BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT:
AMANDA ELLIS: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today’s NASCAR teleconference. We are joined by Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. Kahne won last week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway and currently sits seventh in the championship standings. He has one victory at Auto Club Speedway, the site of this weekend’s Auto Club 400. Kasey, last year at this point you were 32nd in the standings and ended up finishing with your career best points finish. Now you have one victory and are seventh in points after four races. What does a strong start to the season mean to your championship hopes for 2013?
KASEY KAHNE: Well, yeah, the championship is still a long ways away, but I think a good start. Just off to a much better start than last year. Feel good about that. We got a little behind at the start of the season and fought back clearly in the last two weeks and got back to a good spot. So I feel good about where we’re at, feel good about the speed of our car and our team, and that’s what it’s all about is just being on the right page, same page with all the guys. Right now we’re really working well together and enjoying it, and we have some momentum and confidence after Bristol and really looking forward to Fontana.
I’ve always enjoyed racing there, and I think this new car is going to create a better race at that track, a more aggressive race. As slippery as Auto Club is, it’s just going to make it even a little better for us.
Q. I wanted to ask you about you and Kenny, and if you could kind of pick a couple of reasons why you feel like you two work so well together. Are you similar personalities? Is it just a comfort level you have now? And the second part of the question is when did you know that you two were going to stick together throughout all of the changes with teams and manufacturers and all of that?
KASEY KAHNE: Yeah, all right. I would say probably our personalities as far as neither one of us like talk a lot if we don’t need to. We kind of just ‑‑ we talk when we feel like we need to and we’re usually on the same page I think because of that.
Between that, work ethic, he’s nonstop trying to figure out how to make his race cars faster, and I try to do everything I can to know about the car and also physically and mentally I’m as prepared as I can be. So I think we’re just ‑‑ we see what each other does and really like it, and the communication is there, which is a big part of what we do, being able to communicate with someone and understand and being on the same page more often than not. So that’s key for us.
And as far as going through all the different teams and different ‑‑ man, we’ve had some things thrown at us over the years, and we’ve just always stuck together. At the end of each year we’ve talked, and sometimes he’d be like, man, do you want me to still be your crew chief or do you want this or what are you thinking, and I mean, we were just always kind of up front with each other, and it was just easy to say that I don’t want anybody different for myself. I feel like he’s given me more opportunities to win in the situations we’ve been in than anybody else ever would have. I just have a lot of respect for Kenny Francis.
Q. How far along do you feel like you understand this new car after a month of racing it?
KASEY KAHNE: I feel like I understand it pretty well, between the testing last year and ‑‑ you know, to me the only thing that threw me off this year was Phoenix, and that was ‑‑ to me it was the tire. I mean, it was such a different tire than what we had raced there before, than what we had raced on before, and so it kind of threw me off, the feel and everything that we were looking for.
We were still decent early in the race but fell apart the last half of the race, and I would say that threw me off. I don’t think the car did. Other than that, I think the cars really reacted just how I expected it to at these other racetracks, and it’s been a good thing, and that’s why I think Fontana is going to be a solid race, better than what it’s been before, because of the grip, entry at the corner that we have now, and I think Fontana you’re usually off the gas for so long just waiting for your car to do something, and I think with the car this year we should be able to be a lot more aggressive and really push harder than what we have before.
Q. A lot of times you’re going to be testing this car obviously throughout the year with the number of tests that you get. Is there any danger to being so good so early in the sense of maybe you won’t try ‑‑ you won’t just be throwing things at it to try and may not learn maybe as much as some other teams might be who are struggling?
KASEY KAHNE: Yeah, I think there’s different ways to look at that. I think our stuff is handling really well early in the season, so that’s a ‑‑ just a huge effort by Hendrick Motorsports. That opens, do we test early in the year, do we wait closer to the Chase and try to learn some things when that time of the season comes along, and I think it just leaves it up to us. It gives us a we can do it when we want, when the crew chiefs think it’s the right time to test and prepare better at these tracks that we’re going to, and so I think by starting off strong it just gives us all a little bit more time to figure all this stuff out, which I think is a good thing.
Q. Although you didn’t get the results you wanted those first couple races, you’ve had really good cars in every race this year. Did you kind of reach a point of frustration there early when you didn’t get the finishes or was that pretty easy to move through?
KASEY KAHNE: The Daytona one was kind of tough on me. I’ve never had a car that fast at Daytona, at any race at Daytona, and especially the Daytona 500. That was tough to figure that out and understand how I ended up crashing when we were running single file around the top just kind of waiting because that’s all you could do with that package is you just kind of wait until later on to race.
So yeah, I was discouraged with that one, and it took me a couple days to get over it.
Phoenix we just missed it a little bit. I missed it probably with some of my feedback on the car, and we just didn’t get it done at Phoenix. So that one wasn’t as bad because we just ‑‑ I think that was ‑‑ we worked hard and just didn’t hit on it, and then in the last two weeks we’ve been fast and have stepped up and finished the deal both weeks and been right there going for the win.
Q. You mentioned a few months ago about the tires at Phoenix and we’re hearing a lot of talk about tires this year and the new car. Is that a situation where once you’re on the track for the first time you can actually sort of feel the difference when the tire is different, or is it just coming in the lap times and that sort of thing?
KASEY KAHNE: No, as soon as you get on the track you can feel the tires. You can tell they’re different coming up through the gears, and by the time you get into the corner and things, you can start kind of figuring out how they handle and what it does. I’ve been on tracks before where ‑‑ I was doing a tire test one time at Indianapolis, which is its own unique racetrack, and Goodyear put on the tire that we raced ‑‑ at that point in time they put on the tire that we raced at California Speedway, and I came in, I ran like probably six or eight laps, and I came in, and I said, this tire makes me feel like I’m at California Speedway. Everything feels the exact same and we’re at Indianapolis, and they said, wow,
that’s the California tire, no wonder. And I had no clue it was the California tire, but I felt like I was at California.
So to me tires are such a huge part of what ‑‑ such a huge part of the race car and how it goes around the corner. There’s so much that goes into the tires, and Goodyear just ‑‑ they have a huge ‑‑ to me a huge responsibility to make sure that we’re racing on the best tires we can, the safest tires, the best tires to create great side‑by‑side racing. I know they work really hard at it, but they have a big responsibility that they take on to have the tire for NASCAR. It’s very meaningful.
Q. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but it seemed like whenever we had a caution, then we got the green flag on a restart, your car did not come out of the hole fast. It seemed like it took a couple of laps before the car was full of racing power. Did you feel that way or was it something that you were doing?
KASEY KAHNE: Yeah, no, I felt that way. I thought my restarts weren’t too bad, getting down the front stretch. I’ve been working really hard on that to get them better. And I felt like the majority of the restarts throughout the race I could come out in second or first if I was leading off of Turn 2. But for the next six to 10 laps I would struggle to go as fast as probably the three to four cars around me and either get past or kind of hold my position but the leader would slowly getaway maybe a half straightaway or so. And then after 10 laps my car would come in and it was like that the entire race, every run it didn’t that except on two tires it didn’t do that.
So I was kind of confused by that, but we’ve done that before. There’s been plenty of tracks over the years that for whatever reason, the way I kind of like the feel of the car or something, it doesn’t necessarily take off as good as some of the other guys the first 5 or 10 laps. Even at Vegas for 10 laps, 5 to 10 laps, I couldn’t really go fast quite as fast as some of the guys, and instantly, whether it was Kyle Busch or Jimmie Johnson or whoever it was, I’d reel them in, drive by them and drive away, and I felt like that was very similar to Bristol. It must just be something that I do or something that I look for in the feel of the car.
Q. Your consistency seems to be on the upswing. Do you believe in momentum, and what do good results do most for your team?
KASEY KAHNE: Yeah, I definitely believe in momentum. I know I’ve tried to work hard over the years to get more consistent because that was definitely my weak spot since I’ve been in the Sprint Cup Series. Yeah, I feel really good about where we’re at right now, and the momentum is huge. Confidence, momentum, from the driver to the pit crew to the crew chief, I mean, every aspect of putting our car on the track, I think when you have momentum and confidence it helps. I’ve been in situations before where I’ve felt like everything was fine, like I wasn’t ‑‑ like I was driving every bit as hard as I usually do and all that, and then I won a race and realized, man, now I’m like rejuvenated and have a boost of energy again to race and things.
So I think it definitely helps, and sometimes you don’t realize it, but when you are on the upswing and things are going well, everybody feels it, and it’s a big part of running well.
Q. Being back on top with the No. 5 in the Hendrick Motorsports must feel rather good. Speak a little bit about getting No. 5, which is kind of a favorite of Rick Hendrick, back in the winner’s circle.
KASEY KAHNE: Yeah, it feels really good. I mean, it feels ‑‑ every day I wake up and know that I’m part of Hendrick Motorsports it feels good, and then to get a win early in the season, such a competitive series and do it in the 5 car, I was ‑‑ I was having a great week. I feel really good about it, and it’s great to get those calls from Mr. H, and when he’s excited and happy that we were able to pull it off and put an entire race together and win, it makes it all pretty exciting and fun. Yeah, the 5 is the car they started with, so that car needs to go to victory lane some of the time. I know the 48 visits victory lane a lot and the 24 and things, but yeah, it’s nice when we can get the 5 over there, also.
Q. Coming up there’s California, Fontana. What do you look forward to going to that race this coming weekend?
KASEY KAHNE: I look forward to just the really wide racetrack, the speeds will be up, you can move around usually from the white line all the way to the wall, just about run right against the wall on a big, two‑mile racetrack, and just trying to ‑‑ it’s pretty technical because of the seams there where the track is paved and then it stops and then it starts another paving section, and the seams are pretty thick, they’re pretty wide I guess you would say. So getting on top of those seams can be rough, just figuring out how to get the car go around all that stuff and make good laps. To me I’m really excited because I think we’ll be able to drive harder than we’ve ever been able to drive at Fontana in a Sprint Cup car, and I’m really looking forward to that. I think it’s going to be pretty exciting.
Q. I’m curious about one of your initial comments about explain the better race scenario for the fans. What do you anticipate the cars to do, packs of cars, two by two? If you would explain that for us.
KASEY KAHNE: Well, to me I feel like a lot of times at that track you go down the straightaway, and when you go to get in the corner you’re so loose behind other cars and the back is slippery, or the back is tight behind ‑‑ or the front is tight behind other cars so you’re kind of pushing the nose, and you have to pick a lane and really ease into the corners pretty gently, I guess.
I feel like with this car, so far this year at Bristol and in Las Vegas we’ve been able to really charge the corner and push a lot harder every lap of the race run, and I think it’ll be the same way at Auto Club.
I just think that you’re going to be able to drive it in the corner harder, make more aggressive moves getting into the corner and through the middle of the corner, and that’s something that we haven’t had there before. So to me it’s going to create a much better race to where you’ll be able to pass and make those moves a little bit easier is what I’m hoping for.
Q. You have your short track and your long track cars. Is there any kind of a lucky charm in taking the Bristol car and retrofitting it to California to just take that momentum with you to another race?
KASEY KAHNE: Well, I kind of beat that car up a little bit late in the race, made contact with a couple guys, and it won’t be available this weekend.
But we raced that same car at Phoenix, and it’s a really good car. The car we raced at Las Vegas was a great car, and that’s what we’re taking to California ‑‑ no, I don’t think that’s the car we’re taking to California, never mind. But it’s in good shape for Texas or whatever the next track will be. I think California will be a new car, which will be I’d imagine just as good as the other ones, and they’ve been really fast.
Q. Taking you off the track for a quick second, are you glad the race season is underway and you’re not asked to do Dancing With the Stars?
KASEY KAHNE: Absolutely. I race. That’s all I really want to do is race cars. I’ve been able to my whole life, and I enjoy it. I love every bit of it. To be able to think about racing each week, whether we’re doing appearances or testing or whatever it may be during the week and then you get to go and race a Sprint Cup car on Saturday or Sunday from here until the end of November, I’m loving what’s going on.
Q. No Dancing With the Stars in your future?
KASEY KAHNE: Well, I don’t know how to
dance, so I don’t think I’ll ever go on that show. It wouldn’t be a good one for me.
AMANDA ELLIS: Kasey, thank you for joining us today and best of luck this weekend in California, and thank you to all the media for joining us, as well.
BRESSO STRIVES TO BE AUSSIE BEST
ADAM BRESSINGTON’s switch from an American GM muscle car to an Aussie counterpart has been a
rewarding one with him debuting a Holden Monaro for an eight, third and seventh in the three races of the first round of the Auto Barn Touring Car Masters at Sydney Motorsport Park last weekend.
The deal to run the car was a last minute negotiation and the preparation the car was completed a day before the round which was the headline support act to the Top Gear Festival. In front of big crowds over two days, Bressington and the Bandit Racing Holden Monaro were star performers along with several of the historic tourers, particularly in the second race where the combination were the race leaders for a couple of laps.
“Considering it was our first time out in the car and I haven’t raced for five months, I thought we put in an accomplished effort. John “Barrell” Pachos and his Hi-Tech Motorsport team did wonders getting the car ready . . . and it didn’t miss a beat all weekend,” said Bressington.
“I couldn’t have asked for more from these guys,” the 46-year-old added. “We were actually quicker than some of the cars that finished ahead of us, but it was mainly in places where we could do little about it, let alone get past.
“Not saying we could have matched it with Bowie (race winner John Bowe) but once we get really sorted and utilise our entire tyre allotment, I think we will be in line for a podium at the end of one of the rounds in the very near future,” he concluded. In race one he was third home of the Australian-sourced muscle cars, second in race two in local stakes before another third.
Honda Ready as 2013 IndyCar Season Opens
Seven teams and a dozen full-time entries will lead the Honda effort as the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series opens Sunday with the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The manufacturer and its Honda Performance Development racing arm are seekingtheir seventh competitive manufacturers’ championship and 10th consecutive Indianapolis 500 victory.
Honda’s expanded 2013 IndyCar lineup has combined for four Indianapolis 500 victories, six IndyCar drivers’ championships and 68 – over one third – of Honda’s 196 IndyCar race victories, as the manufacturer closes in on its milestone 200th win since entering open-wheel competition in 1994.
The Chip Ganassi Racing organization serves as Honda’s anchor team, and is led by four-time series and defending Indianapolis 500 champion Dario Franchitti, Honda’s most successful driver in IndyCar competition with 31 race wins. All of Franchitti’s IndyCar successes have come with Honda power, making him the manufacturer’s most decorated driver in North Americanopen-wheel racing.
Franchitti is partnered at Target Chip Ganassi by two-time series champion Scott Dixon, who also includes an Indianapolis 500 victory (2008) among in his 29 race wins, all but five of them scored with Honda power. Dixon’s series championships came in 2003 and ’08. He and Franchitti are the only active drivers with multiple IndyCar titles to their names.
The three-car Ganassi lineup is rounded out by the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing Honda of Charlie Kimball, who returns for his third season with the team and Honda power after a career-high second-place finish at the Honda Indy Toronto in 2012.
Simon Pagenaud, the 2012 IndyCar Rookie of the Year, returns to lead an expanded two-car effort from Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Pagenaud will be partnered by fellow French driver Tristan Vautier, who graduates to IndyCar competition after claiming the Indy Lights championship last year with the Schmidt organization.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing also expands to field a full-time two-car effort led by Graham Rahal, son of team principal Bobby Rahal and the youngest race winner in IndyCar history. The younger Rahal was just 19 when he won his IndyCar series debut at the 2008 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. James Jakes will undertake his third year of IndyCar competition driving the second RLLR entry. Mike Conway, the 2011 Grand Prix of Long Beach winner, will join the team in a third entry at Long Beach and selected other events.
With seven career IndyCar victories to his name – including the 2012 race at Texas Motor Speedway – veteran Justin Wilson returns to Dale Coyne Racing. The second Coyne entry will be shared by both Brazilian veteran Ana Beatriz, who will start the season at St. Petersburg, and by Justin’s younger brother, Indy Lights graduate Stefan Wilson, who will launch his IndyCar rookie season at select road-course and street-circuit events.
Takuma Sato, who battled Franchitti in a thrilling finish to the 2012 Indianapolis 500, continues with Honda for a fifth season of IndyCar racing, but moves to the A.J. Foyt team, as the two-time pole winner seeks his first IndyCar race win.
After an impressive rookie season in 2012, promising young American racer Josef Newgarden returns with Honda power to Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. Returning to Barracuda Racing/Bryan Herta Autosport with Honda power is Canadian veteran and previous race winner Alex Tagliani.
All will utilize the all-new Honda Indy V6 engine, which is designed, manufactured, developed and maintained by HPD. Designated the HI13RT, the turbocharged, direct-injected engine is adevelopment of the power plant that made its racing debut in 2012.
“We’ve been encouraged by the performance of the new Honda Indy V-6 and the improvements we’ve made during the off-season,” said Roger Griffiths, HPD Technical Director. “We believe we have a great lineup of teams and drivers, including a good balance of both proven champions, race winners, and promising new stars. We’re looking forward to the start of the 2013 season on the streets of St. Petersburg, and taking on the challenge presented byChevrolet in the battle for the Manufacturers’ Championship.”
An extensive fleet of Honda pace cars, safety cars and support vehicles are used in the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series, led by a new 2013 Honda Accord Coupe, which will lead the field to the green flag at St. Petersburg and throughout the season, driven by three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Johnny Rutherford. The 278-horsepower, 3.5-liter Honda Accord Coupe was transformed by HPD into an official IZOD IndyCar Series Safety Car to join and complement the existing IndyCar series fleet.
Modifications to the already high-performance standard Accord include Sparco seats and four-point racing harnesses; an HPD high-performance brake system, with four-piston calipers, competition rotors, racing pads, and stainless brake lines; a Honda Genuine Accessory aerodynamic body kit, consisting of front, side and rear under-spoilers; and Firestone Firehawk high-performance tires, mounted on Enkei alloy wheels. An exclusive graphics theme completed the conversion from a showroom Accord Coupe to an IZOD IndyCar Series Safety Car.
“The high-performance new Honda Accord Coupe is the perfect match for the IndyCar Safety Car fleet,” said Mike Accavitti, Senior Vice President of Auto Operations for American Honda. “With its larger and more powerful 3.5-liter engine, featuring enhancements provided by HPD, it is perfectly suited to lead the IZOD IndyCar Series field.”
Honda has been a fixture in North American open-wheel racing since 1994, and has played an active role in the growth of the IZOD IndyCar Series – as both a Manufacturers’ Championship competitor and single engine supplier – since joining the series in 2003.
The company scored its first Indianapolis 500 victory in 2004 with Buddy Rice; Manufacturers’ Championships in 2004 and ’05; and became engine supplier to the entire IZOD IndyCar Series in 2006. Honda supplied racing engines to the full, 33-car Indianapolis 500 field every year from 2006-2011, and for a record-six consecutive years — and the only six times in event history –the ‘500’ ran without a single engine failure.
The 2012 Indianapolis 500, won by Dario Franchitti, was Honda’s ninth consecutive “500” triumph – both against competition from other manufacturers and as sole engine supplier.Honda has a total of 196 race victories in open-wheel racing, 65 in Championship Auto Racing Team (CART) competition and 131 in IndyCar.
Founded in 1993, HPD is the technical operations center for high-performance Honda racing cars and engines and competes at race circuits around the world from its headquarters in Santa Clarita, California.
In addition to its efforts in Indy car racing, HPD spearheaded championship-winning efforts in the 2009-2012 American Le Mans Series, and in the LMP2 category at the 24 Hours of Le Mansin both 2010 and 2012. HPD offers a line of race engines for track applications from prototype sports cars to karting; for professional, amateur and entry-level efforts.
Race Report Week Ending 3/17/13
AMA-Daytona 200- Cameron Beaubier
F1-Australian Grand Prix- Kimi Raikkonen
ALMS/Rolex
GT Tommy Milner
LMP1 MArcel Fassler, Oliver Jarvis, Benoit Treluyer
LMP2 Ryan Briscoe, Marino Franchitti, Scott Tucker
World of Outlaws- Craig Dollansky
KN East- Bristol Drive4COPD 125 Dylan Kwasniewski
Whelan- Jason Myers
NASCAR
Nationwide- Jeff Foxworth Grit Chips 300- Kyle Busch
Sprint Cup- Food City 500- Kasey Kahne
NHRA
Top Fuel — Antron Browns
Funny Car — Johnny Gray
Pro Stock — Allen Johnson
Pro Stock Motorcycle — Hector Arana Jr
Top Alcohol Dragster — Rich McPhillips
Top Alcohol Funny Car — Dan Pomponio
Competition Eliminator — Frank Aragona
Super Stock — Anthony Bertozzi
Stock Eliminator — Bo Butner
Super Comp — Greg Kamplain
Super Gas — Troy Coughlin
Mopar Earns Two Notable Title Wins at NHRA Gatornationals;
Mopar Earns Two Notable Title Wins at NHRA Gatornationals;
Johnson Back in Pro Stock Winner’s Circle While Gray Helps Don Schumacher Racing Reach 200-Win Milestone
· Johnson wins Mopar versus Mopar showdown against Coughlin in Pro Stock final elimination at Gatornationals
· Gray earns victory for Mopar in Funny Car and helps Don Schumacher Racing reach prestigious 200- win milestone
· Mopar has total of four wins, two Pro Stock and two Funny Car, after three National events in 2013
· Two DSR Dodge Chargers tied for lead in Funny Car points standings
· Mopar teammates 2nd, 3rd and 4th in Pro Stock championship battle
Gainesville, Fla. (Sunday, March 17) –Mopar drove its way to the winners circle for a third consecutive NHRA national event, this time posting notable wins in both Pro Stock and Funny Car classes at the 44th Annual Gatornationals. Allen Johnson earned his first victory since the Mopar team’s Pro Stock Championship and title win in the 2012 season finale, and he did it on a holeshot over his teammate Jeg Coughlin Jr. in an all Mopar final. Meanwhile, Funny Car driver Johnny Gray helped Don Schumacher Racing reach the 200-win milestone by posting his fourth career title in his Dodge Charger. Both wins were firsts for each driver at the historic Gainesville Raceway.
“All of us at Mopar are very proud of Allen Johnson and Johnny Gray on doubling up today with wins at the NHRA Gatornationals to continue the strong start to the season,” said Pietro Gorlier, President and CEO of Mopar, Chrysler Group LLC’s service, parts and customer-care brand. “After winning both Pro Stock and Funny Car Championships in 2012, these two wins send a clear message that Mopar HEMI®-powered teams and drivers are once again going to be a force to reckon with in both classes as they work to earn more wins and defend the world titles.”
After both Johnson and Coughlin put up career numbers in their Dodge Avengers with their qualifying runs, improving each of their marks for both quickest elapsed time and top speeds, they battled their way through eliminations only to set up a Mopar versus Mopar final showdown. Johnson’s quicker reaction time helped defeat his teammate with a 6.535-second elapsed time (212.59 mph) ahead of the Coughlin’s quicker 6.514 E.T. (212.25 mph). It was Johnson’s first Gatornationals title win and the 17th of his career after 37 final round appearances, and Coughlin’s second runner-up finish of the year.
“I think we’re one of the premier teams in Pro Stock now, and I think anyone would tell you that,” said Johnson after earning Mopar’s second Pro Stock title in three races this year after fellow teammate Vincent Nobile’s season-opening win over Coughlin. “We’ve got a crew that makes great decisions based on scientific methods and data, and we keep improving those decision-making tools. We’ll be right there again (for the championship).”
The three HEMI®-powered teammates are now second (Coughlin), third (Johnson) and fourth (Nobile) in the championship points standing behind Mike Edwards who took the lead on the merits of bonus points earned during the weekend as No.1 qualifier, setting the national event low E.T. and a new top speed track record.
“I’ve said all along, everybody asks me why I hired my two assassins, two of the best drivers in the class,” said Johnson about battling his own teammates. “I said that they make me better. Last year in the last six races, I ran Vincent (Nobile) every race, and beat him in all six. I beat him because he challenges me and makes me better. That makes me better as a driver overall. Same thing with Jeggy (Coughlin)as I knew that I would have to do my ultimate best to beat him. I hope we can go head-to-head a bunch.”
In Funny Car action, after qualifying second, Gray helped garner the 199th win for his team in his Dodge Charger by beating Del Worsham at the finish with a 4.053 second (315.49 mph) elapsed time run to his competitor’s 4.100 sec (303.50 mph) pass. Teammate Antron Brown added the 200th win for Don Schumacher moments later in the Top Fuel class final.
“It’s incredible,” Don Schumacher said. “It started in 1970 in Indianapolis when I won the U.S. Nationals. I am not someone who ever counts things like that. I never thought it would happen or even considered it. Thanks to all of my drivers. They do an incredible job day in and day out.”
Gorlier conveyed Mopar’s pride at having being part of that journey. “On behalf of everyone at Mopar, I would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to Don Schumacher and his team for reaching the 200 win milestone with victories by Johnny Gray in Funny Car and in Top Fuel with Antron Brown. Don has been a long-time loyal supporter and friend of the Mopar brand, as both a team owner and driver, making his first of many trips to the winner’s circle in 1970 Plymouth Barracuda Funny Car at the U.S. Nationals. We applaud his drive and determination that led him to this remarkable milestone and wish him many more wins in the years to come.”
Mopar driver Matt Hagan, a contributor to 200-win milestone with five titles of his own, qualified third for the Gatornationals and looked strong in his new blue and gold “Magneti Marelli Quality Auto Parts Offered by Mopar” Dodge Charger but was ultimately defeated in the second round by his other DSR teammate, and defending 2012 champ, Jack Beckman. Hagan is fourth in the Funny Car championship standings behind teammates Ron Capps and Gray who are tied with the lead with a win each.
John Force Racing–Gainesville Wrap Up
HIGHT RACES TO SEMI-FINAL FINISH AT GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE, FL —- Robert Hight may not have won the race but he won the battle to turn around his Auto Club Ford Mustang racing to the semi-finals today at the 44th annual Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals. Hight entered the race No. 10 in the Mello Yello points standings with only one round win in the first two races. His semi-final effort today moved him up to the No. 7 position in the points.
Hight, the No. 8 qualifier, took out Tony Pedregon in the first round to start his bid to win a second consecutive Gatornationals and third in a row for John Force Racing. In 2011 Mike Neff tuned and drove his way to the winner’s circle behind the wheel of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang.
“This race was huge. It was night and day difference from the first two races. We definitely don’t need to be hanging our heads. We need to build from this weekend. It was a step in the right direction, the first and second rounds today that was a good race car. We are still learning. There are some little things in there that tip this Auto Club Mustang over and make it shake,” said Hight.
“We don’t have a handle on that yet. It is a minute deal. We have to have a bigger window for that. With all of us putting our heads together and working together we will. At least I can go back when I am talking to sponsors telling them this Funny Car is going to turn around; it did. We are showing progress. We are a better team right now. I am looking forward to making that call to the Auto Club and telling them when they come to Las Vegas we are not going to embarrass them.”
In the second round the defending Gatornationals event winner had to race the No. 1 qualifier Cruz Pedregon. In one of the strangest races of the day Hight beat Pedregon to the finish line but the scoreboard flashed an impossible time of 2.76 seconds for Hight. NHRA official reviewed the film footage and confirmed that Hight had indeed reached the finish line first running quicker than Pedregon’s 4.07 second lap and he advanced to the semi-finals against his friendly rival Del Worsham.
“Second round was one of the most confusing runs I have ever had. I am down the track, racing one of the best cars out here the No. 1 qualifier Cruz Pedregon. You notice the win light comes on right away when there is a red light,” said Hight.
“On this run I am going down the track and I am not quite to the 1/8 mile and ‘blink’ my win light comes on. Trust me I am not looking at the scoreboard when I am racing. I am looking down the middle of the lane. It does catch the corner of your eye. Your mind just goes ‘Oh crap!” Did he red-light? I don’t think I heard that. Then you get out and no one knows who won. Thank God the camera guy wasn’t sleeping on that run.”
In the semi-finals a mechanical decision in the staging lanes may have contributed to Hight’s unsuccessful bid to repeat as the Gatornationals champion. The Auto Club team looked at the improving conditions and decided to change rear tires before their run against Worsham. At the time of the change they were informed that the track was not going to be prepped with adhesive traction spray. At the last minute NHRA officials applied a short spray and there was no time for Hight’s Auto Club team to adjust to the change. Hight did not lay blame with anyone other than just bad timing.
“It is kind of like a chess game. We are trying to use tires to not have to make adjustments to the clutch. It makes the car run more consistent if you can use the tires instead of putting weight on or taking it off the clutch. It is a balancing act,” said Hight, a former clutch specialist. “When we changed the tires they told us they weren’t going to spray the track and then at the last minute there was a change of plans and the first 150 feet was sprayed. Had we known that was going to happen we probably would not have changed tires. I am not sure if that made a huge difference.”
The 2012 NHRA Rookie sensation, Courtney Force, made a quarterfinal appearance today after dispatching her father and legendary Funny Car driver John Force in the opening round of eliminations at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals.
Force ran a 4.092 ET at 314.83 mph to her father’s tire-smoking effort of a 6.917 second run. Today was the fourth time they have met in eliminations. The 24-year-old is now 3-1 against the 15-time champion.
“It’s always bittersweet when I have to run against my dad. We always play around and have fun with it and have a good time. We knew that one of us was going on to the second round, so there wasn’t much to be nervous about. Dad was messing with me a little bit before the run, telling me that we were the last pair when we were really the fifth pair, and pretending that he didn’t know we were running each other.”
“We ended up going up there and we both sat on each other for a little bit on the lights. We both finally pulled in at about the same time. We both had good lights and I was able to get a good run down the race track. I was excited,” said the 2013 Winternationals winner. “I was proud of my Traxxas team. We struggled a little bit the first day of qualifying so to go out there first round and make a pass like a 4.09, it was pretty unbelievable to do that especially without lane choice. I was very proud of my guys to get that win.”
In the second round of eliminations, Force faced off with No. 5 qualifier Del Worsham. Force and Worsham have never met in eliminations being that this is the first year they have competed at the same time in the Funny Car category.
Force had a 4.135 at 310 mph to Worsham’s 4.122 at 306 mph, sending the Kalitta Racing team driver on to the semis to compete against Hight.
“Second round didn’t go in our favor. We slowed it down a little bit and they were able to drive around us for the win so we’ll have to get back out there and do our best in Vegas.”
The first round loss by John Force was a tough pill to swallow for the seven-time Gatornationals champion. He was pleased his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang qualified well grabbing the No. 4 starting spot and picking up some valuable qualifying bonus points. The veteran driver stayed the Mello Yello top ten and will look to make a strong showing in Las Vegas.
“We have made a lot of changes in the last two weeks. Not a bad weekend for John Force Racing. All four cars got qualified. Brittany (Force) and the Castrol EDGE dragster is only three rounds out of the top ten. Courtney is right up there with the points leaders. I am not where I want to be but I am not worried about that right now,” said the winningest driver in NHRA history. “I am worrying about my other cars and when it is time (crew chief) Mike Neff will shine. This was a big race for our sponsors like Castrol, Ford, Traxxas, Mac Tools and Auto Club because this was the first race on the east coast and we did pretty well. We are all headed in the right direction going into Las Vegas.”
The Castrol EDGE Top Fuel dragster continued to make progress and its young driver Brittany Force continued to learn the ropes of professional racing. At the Gatornationals the 26 year-old driver had to handle the stress of racing into the show on Saturday. After the third qualifying session Force was the No. 16 qualifier, a precarious position with 23 solid Top Fuel teams vying for 16 spots.
Her Dean Antonelli/Eric Lane tuned dragster moved up to the No. 13 spot and a first round match-up with veteran and eventual Gatornationals finalist Clay Millican.
“It was stressful being number sixteen going into the last qualifying run. I had a feeling that time would get bumped out. Each run we have made improvements. We are moving in the right direction. To go up against Clay Millican was good because he is an awesome guy. Even though we went out in the first round we are getting our car together and we will be ready for Las Vegas,” said the contender for the Automobile Road to the Future Award.<
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“For me to race against a guy like Clay Millican, who is probably one of the nicest guys I have ever met, makes it easier. He came over and talked to me before the run and after the run. He was really nice and to be able to know that someone like that is in the lane beside me is really helpful.”
There were three rookie qualified for the Gatornationals in Top Fuel. In addition to Force, Brazilian Sidnei Frigo and former Junior Dragster champion Leah Pruett are all trying to learn the Top Fuel class. All three lost in the first round against tough competitors.
“I haven’t been thinking about the Auto Club Road to the Future Rookie of the Year award as all. I just want to get experience. I am focusing on doing my job and getting my Castrol EDGE down the track. I think it is nice having Leah Pruett out here,” said Force. “I met here for the first time in Pomona. It is nice to have another rookie who is also a girl. It was nice to be at the end of the track on Saturday and to watch with her to see if she was going to make it into the show.”
Chevy Racing–Bristol Winner– Kasey Kahne
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 17, 2013
Team Chevy Kasey Kahne Scores First Career Win at Bristol Motor Speedway
Total of Six Chevrolet Drivers Score Top-Ten Finishes in Food City 500
BRISTOL, Tenn. – (March 17, 2013) – Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet SS, won the 53rd annual Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway today in a hard fought battle at the series’ first short track event of 2013. The win was Kasey’s first ever victory at Bristol and his 15th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win. It was also his first victory of 2013 and second top-ten finish. The finish helped Kasey move up seven positions to 7th in the point standings after four races.
Kurt Busch, No. 78 Furniture Row/Beautyrest Chevrolet SS, captured his first top-five finish of 2013 by coming home in fourth place after starting today’s race in 19th position. The finish helped Busch make a huge jump in the points, moving up 13 spots to 16th. Kasey Kahne’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS, continued his consistent pace as he came home with a respectable sixth-place finish in today’s event. He moves to second in the overall point standings, just nine points behind first.
Stewart Haas Racing driver Ryan Newman, No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, started 31st but made a valiant run to the front as he came home with a seventh place finish in today’s race. Richard Childress Racing driver Paul Menard scored his second straight top-ten finish of 2013 in the Menards/Sylvania Chevrolet SS today with an eighth place finish. Menard moves up three point positions to 9th after Bristol.
Kyle Busch (Toyota) finished second, Brad Keselowski (Ford) finished third, Clint Bowyer (Toyota) rounded out the top-five with a fifth-place finish.
The series heads west to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California next week for the Auto Club 400 on Sunday, March 24th.
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
KASEY KAHNE AND KENNY FRANCIS, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER:
KERRY THARP: We have our race winner for today’s 53rd annual Food City 500 here at Bristol Motor Speedway. What a great showing he put on here today. That’s Kasey Kahne. He’s joined by his crew chief, Kenny Francis.
This is Kasey’s 15th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win, your first here at Bristol. Congratulations on winning here at Bristol Motor Speedway. You jumped seven spots in the points standings today. You’re up to seventh. Quite a day. Certainly coming off last week’s performance, you could have won out there at Las Vegas, too.
KASEY KAHNE: Feels really good to win at this place. Such a tough track over the years. My first time here in 2002 was just something I couldn’t believe the way that you drove, as hard as you drove here, the way things happen so quickly. To win a Sprint Cup race here feels really good.
We had an awesome Great Clips Chevy SS throughout the race. The pit calls were perfect. The pit crew did a really good job with pit stops. Was able to race hard the whole race. It worked out for us.
Feels really good to get in Victory Lane and get our first Sprint Cup win early in the season.
KERRY THARP: Kenny Francis, talk about how this team performed this weekend. Certainly off to a good start in 2013.
KENNY FRANCIS: Yeah, seems like we’ve had good cars every week. Almost pulled one off last week at Las Vegas. To get the win here at Bristol is pretty cool.
We had a pretty good car all weekend. We started off Friday a little bit off the pace, missed it just a little bit, but we ended up rebounding for qualifying. That set the tone for today. Had good track position all day. Key to that was qualifying, having good pit stops all day.
I felt like from where we were sitting the pit calls were fairly obvious what to do. We maintained our track position, so that was good. The car handled pretty good all weekend, handled really good in the race. So fortunately we came out on top when it counted.
KERRY THARP: Questions for Kenny or Kasey.
Q. Kasey, four races so far. 36th, 19th, 2nd and 1st. After the first two, were you concerned you were having a similar start to last season?
KASEY KAHNE: Yeah, it actually seemed really similar to the start of last year, those first two. Had two great cars at Daytona and Phoenix. Phoenix we kind of fell off a little bit. Definitely had a good car at Daytona and we lost some points the first two.
Since Las Vegas, the test day went really well. I thought we learned some things there, were able to put a really good weekend together, and again this weekend.
We’ve gained a lot of spots here in the last two weeks and feel really good about where we’re at, where our team’s at. There was a lot that went on during the off‑season to get a little bit better. I felt like each one of us needed to get a touch better. So far it’s all paying off. The guys are doing an awesome job.
Q. Do you think the last two weeks is more representative of the team?
KASEY KAHNE: I would say so. Just from each practice session, the preparation of the car prior to getting to the track, then qualifying. We’ve been qualifying up front each week. I think it’s all definitely going in the right direction.
The pit stops have been really good. The guys are just nailing it on pit road. It’s fun to come to pit road and break even or gain spots.
Q. Kasey, all this talk the last couple years of good Bristol, bad Bristol. That sequence with you and Keselowski was crazy. Walk me through that. It seems like lap traffic was as much a part of that.
KASEY KAHNE: Yeah, Brad got out to the lead there and it took my car a few laps to get going. I reeled him in. Just trying to make the pass. He was driving into the corner so hard I couldn’t really do anything on the bottom or try any type of somewhat of a slide job or anything like that. It was just trying to get momentum off the corner and make something happen on exit.
It took a while to do it. I bumped him a few times. He was sideways trying to hold us back. I got the lead, then gave it right back in lap traffic two laps later.
Definitely I was mad at mysel
f at that point in time. About spun out off of two a few laps after that. Had to calm down, get things going again. Felt like we got a good restart that final restart, got to the lead. From there it was just momentum and try to drive away.
Q. Nerve‑wracking?
KASEY KAHNE: It wasn’t too nerve‑wracking then with Brad. It was how can I figure out how to get by. The two of us were out front a little bit. I was just trying to run a lot of scenarios through my head and make it work. Finally it worked, got by. But it took a while. It was tough. I mean, we were running as hard as we could.
Q. How angry were you after last week and are you over it? Listening to you on the radio after the race, you seemed really frustrated, the fact you had the best car and didn’t win.
KASEY KAHNE: I was frustrated for like five seconds, then I went right from the angry moment to telling the guys how good they did, you know, that day, how well our weekend went, all of that.
I wasn’t too angry at all really. I was mad that we gave a race away. But there was really nothing we could do the way it all turned out and the damage that I had to the car from the restart. It was nobody’s fault. It was just racing. We had a great car all day.
I wasn’t mad at all. I felt good Monday and all week. I’m going to feel better tomorrow (smiling).
Q. On the restart, Keselowski got shoved there. He said his wheels were actually off the ground. Looked like the 11 and the 22 got into each other. Were you aware of what was going on? Were you aware of the skirmish they had in the garage afterwards?
KASEY KAHNE: I could hear the crowd. I had no clue what happened on that restart other than Brad took off a little bit and I had a good start, then he dropped. I knew he spun his tires. I don’t know how it all happened. That’s all I can really say. From there it was just trying to stay in front of him, get up high, get my momentum going.
Then I did hear the crowd, so I knew something was going on. I saw Denny the last four laps going slow with some type of a problem so I thought he might be involved with what the crowd was yelling at after the race. I haven’t seen anything else. I’ll watch tonight for sure. I’ll go back and check the highlights.
Q. The 48 team started this year pretty much as well as they ended last year. The finishes weren’t there for you the first couple weeks. Is this now where you felt like you left off last year? The first two races weren’t indicative.
KENNY FRANCIS: I feel like we were fairly strong last year. At Daytona we had a really good car, just got wiped out. Nobody’s fault. Just had a wreck.
Phoenix, we started off really good. Had a really fast car. We just got too loose and we didn’t really adjust hard enough fast enough, got back in traffic, couldn’t go anywhere. We were just too loose.
I think if we had to do Phoenix over again, we would be a lot better off. I think we know where we missed it, what we should do differently. The tire was different. Threw me for a loop. It didn’t do what I thought it was supposed to do based on the last couple years. Didn’t have enough built into the car to fix being loose. I got a pretty good idea what we would do differently going back.
That was the same car we brought here. It was a good car, we just missed it a little bit.
Vegas, we had a great run. Probably the best run we’ve ever had at Vegas. We’ve had a lot of good runs here. We finally finished one off, so we’re proud of that.
I feel like it’s a great start to the year. Hopefully we can keep building on the momentum we’ve established.
Q. Do you feel like you could have won three of the first four races?
KASEY KAHNE: Yeah, I thought we were really good at Daytona. Car had a ton of speed. We could have been in that mix, but we didn’t get to that point in the race.
The last two weeks, we could have won definitely last week and had a great car again today.
Q. Kasey, Charlie Daniels said earlier today his first race here at Bristol is going to let him scratch something off his bucket list. Is this the kind of win for you that’s a bucket list win, means a lot to you?
KASEY KAHNE: This is a big race for me. I just feel like when you’re racing in the Sprint Cup Series, Bristol’s one of those tracks that as a driver you really feel like you need to win at, you want to win at. There’s so many things that are thrown at you when you come to this place.
We’ve been trying a long time. So to pull it off, I felt like it was a big accomplishment for our guys and myself. Just feel really good about it. Like Kenny said, we’ve been fast here other times and just not been able to finish the deal. It’s a big confidence builder. It feels really good to win at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Q. Kenny, we saw a couple of drivers having problems with tires. Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon. Were you concerned a similar thing could happen to Kasey’s car?
KENNY FRANCIS: Yeah, Tony, I think somebody got into him and cut his left rear. He didn’t have much control over that.
There were a few right front failures, which is not uncommon here. We’ve had our share over the years. I tend to call the tire changes pretty conservatively. I was pretty worried about the guys that took left side tires. Most of those cases they had a problem.
I don’t mean to second guess anyone for the way they call their race, but I consciously didn’t do that because I have been through that before.
My philosophy on this place is the tires will make a fuel run and anything beyond a fuel run you’re taking your chances. When the 24 had his problems, it was beyond the normal laps of a normal fuel run.
The other problem that compounds that, over the years
what I’ve learned, the more restarts you have on a right side tire on a track like this, high‑bank, here, Dover is another one it used to happen at, the more potential you have to have a problem because when you restart on it it’s at low pressure, it’s not as durable at low pressure as it is after the pressure builds up. If you have multiple starts on a right side tire, you have to watch out.
I hate it that guys have problems, but we consciously called the race to avoid that type of problem.
Q. Kasey, after a lot of pretty tight racing most of the day, once you got the lead on the restart, you sprinted away from everybody. Was your car that good or…
KASEY KAHNE: I think our car was just that good. There were points in the race when we were able to do that earlier on also. I felt like we just had a really good car. I just needed to get to the front, get some clean air, try to get away from the guys.
Once I got to probably 10 laps to go, I could see where Kyle was and Brad, see the lap cars I was catching, just try to keep that gap for the final 10 laps, take care of my stuff just in case we had a green‑white‑checkered. I wanted to have the best tires we had at that point.
I think it was just the car. It was fast. I was able to get away and kind of control the race from there.
Q. Y’all have now been to four dramatically different types of racetracks with the new car. Did you learn anything today that will carry forward or had you learned everything you were going to learn the first three weekends and today maybe not quite so much?
KENNY FRANCIS: I don’t know. For me I’ll have to reflect on it some. But really this track is very unique. I don’t know that much you do here applies elsewhere. It’s a short track that’s got high banks, so the aerodynamics don’t really play into it because the majority of your load on the tires is from the banking.
It’s all about turn the middle, forward drive. It’s a unique track just the way it’s set up. So I don’t know if there’s a lot that applies. The setup we run here is radically different than anything we run at any other track.
I don’t know. I’m not sure if there’s a whole lot. There might be one or two small things that would apply.
What do you think?
KASEY KAHNE: I think just driving‑wise, you know, Bristol is Bristol. This place races similar, drives similar. Like Kenny was saying, there’s a couple things you work on with your car to make it right. Last week in Las Vegas, that was a good chance for us to see how the Gen‑6 car will race on a mile‑and‑a‑half with the same tire we ran last year. I was real happy with it, being able to move around on the racetrack, as hard as you could drive. Phoenix had a different tire and a different car. That was tough to say exactly. But you race that track different as well. Daytona, too.
Each track so far you definitely have to drive differently, set the cars up differently. I’ve been pretty pleased. I think the last two weeks our cars have really driven really well, the engines. Everybody at HMS is preparing and giving us great racecars.
Q. Kenny, the same problem of melted beads as far as the tires, same problem as Phoenix. What will teams do to correct that? Do you have to change tires more often, less camber?
KENNY FRANCIS: I didn’t see any of the tires today. I don’t think they were melted beads. I’ve personally done it a number of times here, had right front sidewall failures. They wouldn’t be necessarily what I would call a melted bead.
But the problem here is it’s just so much load, it’s such an aggressive turn. Like I said earlier, I feel like the tire will run a full fuel run. When you try to push it beyond that, it’s questionable. There’s only so much that Goodyear can do. I think you’ve got to consider that.
In working with Goodyear over the years, with Rick Campbell in particular, he’s very open about helping you, helping you understand what’s going on with the tire, how to manage it. These cars weigh a lot, they go really fast, there’s a lot of load. It’s all about managing the setup around the tire.
At Phoenix, I think you’re right, I think they were melted beads. I think that’s self‑induced. I think there’s things you can do to prevent that. I believe the teams that had that happen are actively fixing it right now because there’s a lot of teams that ran Phoenix that didn’t have a single problem.
It’s definitely something that you’ve got to consider at particular tracks. Martinsville is another one, completely different application that you have to be thinking about what you’re doing, make sure you don’t have a problem.
KERRY THARP: Kasey and Kenny, congratulations on a very big win today for the No. 5 team. Continued best of luck this week as we head out to California.
KASEY KAHNE: Thank you.
KENNY FRANCIS: Thanks.
Chevy Racing– Bristol Post Race
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE NOTES & QUOTES
MARCH 17, 2013
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN AN ON-TRACK INCIDENT ON LAP 391
YOU HAD 154 LAPS ON THOSE RIGHT SIDE TIRES, BUT YOU HAD A TIGHT RACE CAR. YOU MADE THE STRATEGY TO GET THE CLEAN AIR WAS THAT THE RIGHT CALL?
“Well we also wanted left sides (tires) because we heard left sides were helping the cars turn. We saw some of the guys do that. It definitely did that. The car was really good out front there on the restarts and got clean air. We were setting sail. The right fronts (tires) never blow out when you are up against the wall. I dove down to the bottom to pass the No. 32 car. As soon as I got into the banking I felt the right front (tire) go. I really hate that we collected Matt Kenseth in that; he had a great car. He was coming it was just a matter of time before it got us. It was a great, great effort today up until then for this Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet, proud of that. We needed points. This is definitely not going to get us many.
“I was fine. Was just riding along there, in fifth, sixth spot. We had a good race car. We were a little bit too tight in traffic, so Alan Gustafson (crew chief) made a great call there to take left sides there, and it really helped. The car was turning really good. But, maybe we were just a little bit too hard on that right front. Not really sure there. Right fronts never blow out when you are up against the wall. I was up against the wall the entire run, and as soon as I went to go under a lapped car – boom – it popped down at the bottom of the race track and went all the way to the top, and we got the wall. Really hate that we collected Matt Kenseth in that. He had a great race car, and a great day going. We were really trying to get by with a top-five, top-10 and get some points. This is a bad way to end it.”
PAGE 2
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – WINNER
I KNOW HOW BADLY YOU WANTED TO WIN THAT RACE LAST WEEK DOES THIS MAKE UP FOR IT?
“Absolutely, this is a big win. I love racing for Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Hendrick the opportunity he gives us, this whole team was flawless again today. Last week, today, this whole season so far. It has been a lot of fun. Great Clips, I’ve been with them for a long time. We have won a few races together it was great to win a (NASCAR Sprint) Cup race with Great Clips. They were out cutting hair a couple of days ago. It’s been a good weekend, Farmers Insurance, Chevrolet SS, Pepsi Max, but everybody has done a great job. Just racing Brad (Keselowski), Denny (Hamlin) was tough and Jeff (Gordon) and Matt Kenseth was really good there. I don’t know what happened to those guys. It looked like Jeff (Gordon) might have had a tire problem. It was a big win I’m really happy.”
ON THE COOL DOWN LAP YOU SAID IT WAS A BIG ACCOMPLISHMENT WHY IS THAT?
“I just feel like for myself it’s a really big accomplishment to win here. This is a tough place. It’s been a tough track for me at times, just for this whole team to step up and do it together we have prepared pretty hard this year and it feels good to win. Trucker, our truck driver, he lost his dad last night so this is for him. I have a great friend in Washington, JJ Arnett. He lost his dad about three weeks ago. So, this is in memory of him, Jerry Arnett. We had a lot of fun with him; he took care of us, got us out of a lot of trouble. I just want to thank all those guys and everybody that supports this team. This engine was unbelievable again.”
ON HIS FIRST WIN AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “This is a tough track to win at, and we pulled it off today. This whole team stepped-up, and did an unbelievable job. The pit stops were flawless; the adjustments to the car; the preparation Friday-Saturday, and prior to that. The engine in the car is unbelievable. I had a great day. This is a lot of fun. I have always wanted to win a Cup race here. To finally do it feels really good.”
ON HIS BATTLE WITH BRAD KESELOWSKI: “Yes, Brad was battling hard. He definitely didn’t want to lose the lead. I got by him, and then I followed a lap car; one that was going really slow, and I gave it back to him. So I was pretty discouraged at that point in time. Got a good restart. I think Brad must have spun his tired a bit. I had Kyle (Busch) right on me. We were able to clear him there, and get going from there. I felt really good. Thanks to Great Clips. Everybody that is part of this; this Chevrolet SS team, these guys have done a really nice job this week.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE AN EARLY WIN IN TERMS OF POINTS?
“We’ve already fought back a little bit. We were strong at Daytona. Strong at Phoenix. Had a shot last week in Vegas. We pulled it off this week. We got a little behind. Hopefully these points will get us up there again, and we can stay up there all season long. We just keep learning and getting better together because we have a great team here.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS– FINISHED 6TH:
ON TODAY’S RACE: “I have to give all the credit to Steve Letarte (crew chief). He made a couple, two, three great pit calls there at the end, and gave us the opportunity to get some guys on some old tires, and beat a few guys that we probably weren’t going to beat. Great call by him. We drove a pretty good race. He made a great couple of adjustments at the end. We were really getting behind on the race track; we were getting really, really tight and falling back. Made a couple of good calls on taking some wedge out and stuff like that to help the car. Give him and the team a lot of credit. They did a great job today.”
NICE TOP TEN RUN TODAY, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE RACE?
“The track was really tightening up fast and caught us off guard and we weren’t really ready for it but we made some great changes at the end and Steve (crew chief, Letarte) had some great strategy on the tires and we were able to salvage a good finish. We got the car running better and I have to give the car a lot of credit, but Steve deserves the most credit because the strategy that he ran there in the last 150 laps really got us our track position.”
COULD YOU HAVE DONE ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY?
“Well, we knew that the track was green when the race started and we didn’t loosen the car up enough as the race went on and just…. I don’t know if I, or Steve (Letarte) could have done a better job there. Steve saw what was happening there and the last couple of adjustments really helped me. I was able to take a little better tires and made some ground, and got around some guys and salvaged a good finish. Lot of credit to Steve because that was a great call on his part and all the last 150 laps he made a lot of good pit calls.
“There were two or three that really allowed us to get in position to get a decent finish and we had a lot of attrition today too as a lot of guys wrecked out and that certainly makes your day easier when you aren’t racing the whole field out there. So we have to do a little bit better and I am not real satisfied with the overall performance but what Steve does on pit road is magic every week. He is pretty sharp.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 SYLVANIA/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
THIS IS YOUR SECOND CONSECUTIVE TOP-10 FINISH SO FAR. HOW WAS THE RACE FOR YOU?
“It was a wild one. It was all about track position again. We had it at the start and our biggest problem all day was that we couldn’t go on restarts. It took us 20 laps to get going on new tires. So, when we got to the point where we could stay out on fuel, we just stayed out. We stayed on old tires that were pumped-up and so we could actually
half-way get going.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH:
ON THE RACE:
“We had to battle back from a couple of loose wheels and luckily when we came back out, we were two laps down. And when you’re two laps down, it’s almost like your day is over. But luckily, the leader was right in front of us and we got one of our laps back and then did the wave-around and then just started over (as) the last car on the lead lap and battled back from the mid-20’s, and we made good changes. We had a very fast car today and to come home with a top five is exactly what we needed. The poor No. 78 car, she’s used up.
“We had damage with (Joey) Logano with 50 (laps) to go and that put us in the pits for four tires. And that was a call we never would have done unless we had the damage. So we fixed the damage and got the four tires on and raced our way to a top five finish.”
YOU WERE FLYING THERE AT THE END; NICE FINISH:
“Yes, we really poured it on at the end. We just had some damage from getting into Joey Logano. But, all-in-all, I’m just real proud of the effort today. We had some loose wheels. We fought through that; got back on the lead lap with some lucky breaks. You just have to keep fighting. So, thanks Furniture Row and Barney Visser (team owner). This whole team. This No. 78 Beauty Rest Chevy was fast at the end. Had a little bit of damage. I knew I was going to be racing Kyle (Busch) and racing (Brad) Keselowski; I was just hoping it was for the win. (Kasey) Kahne was checked out. Congratulations to him. But a good run for us.”
WHAT A RUN FOR YOU. A LOT OF PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT STRUGGLING WITH THE TEAM OR A NEW TEAM, THAT WASN’T THE CASE TODAY:
“No, we did have our struggles though. We had some loose wheels and off on some of the sequences. Luckily enough we had a fast enough car. Thanks to all of our guys for just digging in. I told everybody slap some high-five’s because we have areas that we can still polish up on, but a top-five at Bristol and to be the fastest car on the track with less than 10 to go.
“When I caught Kyle (Busch) and when I caught (Brad) Keselowski if it was for the lead it would have been a lot different, but (Kasey) Kahne was checked out. Congratulations to him, but I’m really happy with our Furniture Row Chevrolet today. Barney Visser and the guys we all can do a little bit better here and there and I can do better. The poor No. 78 car is used up today and it’s just good that we got everything rolling this weekend like we needed it.”
MATT BORLAND, CREW CHIEF, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET CC – FINISHED 7th
“It was a good day for the Haas/Quicken Loans Chevrolet. Ryan (Newman) did an awesome job driving the car. The guys did a great job of making some changes to the car overnight. And we had great stops today in the pits. I can’t say enough about the team. They did an awesome job, and hopefully we can keep that rolling.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 28TH:
“We’ve been really loose the last couple of races so we wanted to make sure we were tight. So we decided that was our accomplishment today was to aim to be tight, and we were. So, we probably didn’t need to and in fact, we probably kind of knew we were over-compensating. But we just never really got it completely freed up like we needed to. It was better later in the race but by then the damage is done.”
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO FIX GOING INTO THE NEXT RACE?
“A whole bunch of things. I mean, I’ve never been there in a Cup car at Fontana, so just get up to speed, be smart and there are a lot of things that I have to work on at this point in time. So for us, the most important thing is to find a decent balance to start off the race so that we don’t drop back.”
HPD Opens 2013 with LMP2 Victory at Sebring
Honda Performance Development and its partner teams began their defense of multiple American Le Mans Series championships Saturday at the 12 Hours of Sebring, scoring a commanding 1-2 finish in the LMP2 class for Level 5 Motorsports, a fight-from-behind effort from Muscle Milk Pickett Racing in LMP1 and a promising debut in LMP2 from Extreme Speed Motorsports.
The Level 5 trio of Ryan Briscoe, Marino Franchitti and Scott Tucker brought their HPD ARX-03b Honda home first in LMP2, and sixth overall, after besting challenges from their own teammates, in an HPD ARX-03b co-driven by IndyCar Series Champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, Simon Pagenaud and Tucker (who drove both Level 5 entries); the Zytek Nissan of Greaves Motorsport; and an HPD ARX-03b, fielded by class newcomer Extreme Speed Motorsports.
After 12 hours of racing around the historic Sebring airport circuit, the Briscoe/Franchitti/Tucker HPD took the checkers one lap ahead of teammates Hunter-Reay/Pagenaud/Tucker, with the Greaves entry of Tom Kimber-Smith, Eric Lux and Christian Zugel another three laps further back, in third.
In LMP1, Muscle Milk Pickett Racing drivers Klaus Graf, Lucas Luhr and Romain Dumas had to fight back after a series of setbacks, including a lost front wheel after an early-race pit stop, and two penalties for “avoidable contact”,to finish fourth overall.
Although the factory-entered Audi coupes were alone at the front of the field, the Muscle Milk HPD ARX-03c battled the Lola Toyotas of expected season-long rivals Rebellion Racing throughout the 12 hours, catching and passing one of the Rebellion entries for the final time as the race entered its ninth hour, and ending up less than one lap short of catching the lead Rebellion car for the final step on the podium.
Extreme Speed Motorsports has made the switch from the GT category to LMP2 for 2013, and briefly led the class in the HPD ARX-03b of David Brabham, Guy Cosmo and Scott Sharp. However, a broken input shaft just after the six-hour mark sent the ESM car behind the wall for nearly two hours for repairs. The trio returned for the final four and a half hours to finishe fifth in LMP2, behind fourth-place LMP2 teammates Ed Brown/Anthony Lazzaro/Johannes van Overbeek is the second ESM entry.
Today’s 61st running of the 12 Hours of Sebring opened the 2013 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron season. Honda Performance Development and its partner teams will return to defend their 2012 LMP1 and LMP2 titles at the April 20 Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Marino Franchitti(driver, #551 Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b) 1st in LMP2 with co-driversRyan Briscoe and Scott Tucker: “This has been a huge week for us. My darling wife Holly presented us with baby Luca last weekend, and now my first Sebring victory. Both cars were fantastic, and hats off to Scott [Tucker], the entire Level 5 team, HPD and Honda for the incredible effort it took today. I’ve finished second here three times, and to finally get a win is delightful!”
Art St. Cyr(President, Honda Performance Development) on Saturday’s season-opening 12 Hours of Sebring: “It was a successful start to the defense of our 2012 LMP1 and LMP2 chassis and engine manufacturers’ championships. It is great to see the improvements that have been made to our engines and chassis during the off-season come to life on the race track. Congratulations to Scott Tucker and the entire Level 5 organization for a very impressive 1-2 finish here tonight as they seek a repeat of the team and drivers’ titles. Greg Pickett and his Muscle Milk team have a never-say-die attitude, which is what won the LMP1 championship for them last year. There is more competition in LMP1 this season with Rebellion Racing, but the Muscle Milk Pickett team is up to the challenge. Finally, it was a most impressive debut for Scott Sharp and his Extreme Speed Motorsports team, leading the 12 Hours of Sebring in their first attempt in LMP2. We expect to see more good things from them as the season continues
Chevy Racing–CORVETTE RACING OPENS 2013 WITH WIN AT SEBRING
No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R Brings 8th 12-Hour Victory to Corvette Racing
SEBRING, Fla., (March 16, 2013) – Tommy Milner made a late pass for the lead and then held on for the final 15 minutes as the No. 4 GT Compuware Corvette C6.R won the American Le Mans Series GT class 61st Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway on Saturday.
The No. 4 Corvette C6.R – driven by 2012 Drivers’ champions Milner and Oliver Gavin, and Richard Westbrook – overcame an early electrical issue and two key penalties to win the 2013 ALMS opener. It is Gavin’s fifth victory at Sebring; Milner and Westbrook each recorded his first.
“What an incredible effort by Corvette Racing; these guys never gave up,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice-President for Performance Vehicles & Motorsports. “They came from behind multiple times. It was a focused team effort, with great driving and great calls in the pits, and great pits stops, and they delivered a big win. I’m proud of them.”
The No. 3 GT Compuware Corvette C6.R – driven by Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor – retired with just over three hours remaining due to an overheated gearbox. The team, which also experienced an electrical issue early in the race, finished in 11th place in class, 120 laps off the pace in class.
Milner took over for Gavin with two hours to go and the No. 4 Corvette C6.R the No. 62 Ferrari F458 Italia by about one minute; when he pitted with an hour remaining, he was about a half minute behind.
“Those guys had an unreal pit stop at the end,” Milner said. “We were about a minute back and then 35 seconds at the next pit stop, and then we were 14 seconds back. And once I got to see him, I thought, ‘Here we go. I’ve got a chance here.’ Once I got close to him, he went wide in one and I knew he was pushing hard and he kept making mistakes, and that was it, that was the moment.”
“Really, it came down to when Tommy got on the back bumper of the leader, and that’s when I thought this is when we can really make this happen,” Gavin said. “Tommy was relentless – chasing him down, chasing him down, putting the pressure on. It was a spectacular victory for everybody at Corvette Racing. I’m really delighted.”
Gavin qualified second in the No. 4 Corvette C6.R, and on the very first lap gained the lead. The team was still out front in its class when, nearing the race’s third hour, Westbrook reported that smoke was coming from the dashboard.
“It was clear that we had a good car from the beginning, and then when I had that problem with the dashboard, which put us two laps down – it took a few yellows and some great stints by these two to get us back into position on the lead lap,” Westbrook said. “The pit stops and Tommy’s stint was just amazing at the end, and on balance I thought we deserved it, and we did it the hard way.”
Corvette Racing, which last year won the ALMS Manufacturers’ and Team championships, earned its ALMS-leading 78th all-time victory.
“You can’t start a better way,” Gavin said. “We had a very good year last year in the championship. We didn’t have a great Sebring last year, but this win just puts us up there straightaway, leading the championship off the bat. Tommy and I just sort of picked up where we left off last year, which is exactly what we wanted to do. Proud of all the guys at Corvette Racing today. They nailed every single stop. It was spectacular to watch.”
The No. 3 Corvette C6.R started fifth but experienced a couple of problems early. Garcia accidently ran into the back of a slower car which was in the middle of the track, and incurred a 60-second penalty, then he reported problems with downshifting. Starting on lap 20, the car three times came in for repairs – which included changing the gearbox, steering wheel and electronics.
The car is very, very good, it’s just a shame that we’re so far back,” Taylor said after his first stint. “We have a very competitive car.” The team used its remaining time on track as a test session before its night ended early.
GT Class, 61st Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring
Strong Qualifying Effort and Career Numbers for Mopar at Gatornationals
Strong Qualifying Effort and Career Numbers for Mopar at Gatornationals
Career best elapsed time and top speed numbers for Mopar Pro Stock drivers Johnson and Coughlin in qualifying at Gatornationals
Johnson qualifies second for final eliminations; Coughlin fourth
DSR Mopars of Gray and Hagan qualify second and third in Funny Car action
Fresh new look for DSR driver Hagan and his Dodge Charger with new primary sponsorship from “Magneti Marelli Quality Auto Parts Offered by Mopar”
Mopar launches ‘Tom Hoover Sportsman Challenge’ and enhances contingency program to support NHRA Sportsman Class racing
Mopar still leads the NHRA points standings in both Funny Car and Pro Stock classes with Capps and Nobile
Gainesville, Fla. (Saturday, March 16) – It’s been a solid start to the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing season for Mopar who is looking strong after posting career numbers in qualifying at the 44th Annual Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. to follow-up on two title wins in the first two events of the year.
Good clean air helped the Pro Stock class put up some record numbers at the season’s traditional east coast opening event, but it proved difficult to dislodge no.1 qualifier Mike Edwards from the top spot after he set national record time of 6.473-seconds and a track record speed 214.31 mph in the first qualifying session of the weekend.
Defending Pro Stock World Champ Allen Johnson qualified second in his Team Mopar Dodge Avenger, posting the quickest elapsed time of his 17 year career with a 6.481-second pass in the first session on Friday. He then improved his fastest career pass for a second time this weekend with a 213.70 mph top speed, setting the fifth fastest pass in the history of Pro Stock. Johnson was no.1 qualifier last year at Gainesville where he set the previous mark for his career-best E.T.
“It’s good, but we can do better,” said Johnson even after posting the fastest passes of his career. “It’s our best start of the season thus far, but we always want to be No. 1 in our Mopar Dodge Avenger. We gained a few bonus qualifying points, maybe four or five, and that’s always important. All three of the Johnson & Johnson Racing team cars made solid runs with a good chance to win it all, and that’s what we want to do every Sunday.”
“The Gatornationals is one of the most prestigious events on our schedule, and every driver wants to take home the trophy from this race,” added Johnson whose best finish at this national event was runner-up in 2009. “It would be huge to get a win tomorrow, not only to check it off my career to-do list but also to gain some early momentum as we work to defend our Pro Stock title.”
Jeg Coughlin Jr. also improved steadily throughout qualifying, posting his own career numbers in three of four passes, ending up fourth with a career best 6.487-second E.T and 213.40 mph top speed.
“It would be nice to get another win here,” said Coughlin who has two Pro Stock title wins in Gainesville (2001, 2008) and finished runner-up three times (2002, 2003, 2004). “It’s what every team yearns for and I know the guys in this pit have earned it. We’ll get up on the wheel tomorrow, take them one at a time, try to limit our mistakes and we’ll see how it turns out. Hopefully one of our three Dodges ends up in the winner’s circle.”
The third member of the J&J HEMI®-powered team and title winner at the season opening event in Pomona, Vincent Nobile, qualified eighth with a 6.513 sec / 212.86 mph effort. Fellow Dodge Avenger entry Vieri Gaines was sixth with a pass of 6.504 sec (213.47 mph).
With the addition of qualifying bonus points, Nobile still leads the Pro Stock Standings with 204 points, while Coughlin (187 points) is fourth, Gaines (178 points) is fifth and Johnson (151) is in seventh place.
In Funny Car action, the Don Schumacher Racing Dodge Charger entry of Johnny Gray qualified second with a 4.071-sec. E.T. (313.22 mph) and Matt Hagan was third with a quick pass of 4.084-sec (308.99 mph) in his new blue and gold “Magneti Marelli Quality Auto Parts Offered by Mopar”.
“To have partners like Magneti Marelli step up and run multiple races as primary sponsor with us and just be a part of DSR is huge,” said Hagan, who is hoping to take his Mopar to his first final elimination round at the Gatornationals. “I think it speaks volumes for DSR and the program that we’re putting together. We just have a great program and I think we can continue to show success and keep Magneti Marelli, Mopar and Rocky Boots up front.”
“Just to be able to carry the banner for that brand is phenomenal,” added Hagan. “Mopar is one of the top brands out here and my fan base has grown just from being associated with Mopar. The brand speaks for itself and hopefully we can represent it well enough to put it and their partners Magneti Marelli in the Winner’s Circle.”
Coming off a title win at the previous NHRA event in Phoenix, DSR teammate Ron Capps earned a sixth place seeding with a 4.115-second, 304.94 mph best qualifying run. Mopar’s 2012 World Champion Jeff Beckman is eleventh on the scoring sheets with an E.T. of 4.122-sec (302.55 mph).
In addition to the sponsorship announcement this week by Mopar and its Magneti Marelli partnership on the DSR entry, the brand also enhanced its continued support of Sportsman racing within the NHRA with the establishment of the ‘Tom Hoover Sportsman Challenge’ beginning this season, along with enhancements to its contingency program. The winner of Mopar’s Tom Hoover Sportsman Challenge will be determined by selecting the Sportsman Class racer that amasses the most points earned in a season during NHRA sanctioned races at the wheel of a Chrysler Group vehicle, competing in either Stock or Super Stock classes nationwide. A special commemorative Mopar trophy will be presented to the winner along with a $4,260 purse, as a nod to the 426 race HEMI® which celebrates the 50th anniversary of its introduction next year.
Day Time Finish for Dyson Racing at Sebring
Dyson Racing was not able to duplicate their ALMS P1 points victory here from last year, retiring five hours into the 61st Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring. A drivetrain component failure sidelined the #16 Thetford/RACER Lola Mazda in the season-opening race for the ten-race American Le Mans Series.
“Approaching Cunningham Corner, there was a slight vibration,” recounted Guy Smith. “It did not get any better by the time I got onto the back straight, so I came into the pits and we took the car back to the garage to identify the problem. It is frustrating as the car felt the best it has all week. I took over from Chris and joined right behind the #13 Rebellion car and was able to catch him and was all over him for all of the stint. It does give us the confidence that the changes we made to the car this week were positive. A result like this makes us more determined to knuckle down and come back stronger.”
Guy’s co-driver Chris Dyson commented, “We had gone back and forth on our set up this weekend and the final spec we picked was pretty competitive. During the race, in the heat of the day, we were just trying to match up the tire pressures for the conditions. The team had done a great job to give us a good car. On my second stint, we were able to match the Rebellion cars and then we made a couple more adjustments when Guy got in, and we were even quicker. So a frustrating start to the season, no question about it. We will be doing some testing before Long Beach and we will regroup for our west coast swing.”
Joining Chris and Guy this weekend was long-term Dyson veteran, Butch Leitzinger.
“It was good to be back. It was like old times. This is such a good cohesive group where everyone pitches in. A true racing family. There really is no better group than Dyson Racing. It is just like I remember it.
2013 marks Dyson Racing’s thirtieth year in professional racing. Rob Dyson started racing in the SCCA in 1974 and moved up to the professional ranks in 1983 in IMSA’s GTO class. He started racing a Porsche 962 in IMSA’s GTP class in 1985 and has been a main stay of top-line prototype racing ever since.
The American Le Mans Series goes from the longest race of the year to the shortest in five weeks’ time when it races on the streets of Long Beach on April 20th. Last year, Guy Smith started from pole and Guy and Chris Dyson finished second. The race will be broadcast on ABC on April 21st at 1:00 PM ET.
JOHN FORCE CAPS STRONG FINAL QUAL EFFORT AT GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE, FL (March 16, 2013) – To use a PGA TOUR analogy John Force used today’s qualifying session as “moving day” as he moved up from 17th to 12th to 4th in the hyper-competitive Funny Car qualifying order. As qualifying concluded at the 44th annual Amalie NHRA Gatornationals Force’s final qualifying effort, 4.089 seconds, garnered him three valuable qualifying bonus points and landed him in the No. 4 qualifying position unfortunately this will set him up for a first round match-up with daughter Courtney Force, the No. 13 qualifier.
“I don’t look at just myself I look at the whole team. I’m positive because a lot of the changes that are going on here are working. Brittany and the Top Fuel car made the show. That’s for Castrol EDGE. That’s excellent. I jumped up to 4th. Courtney was in early with Robert and if you look at the last races, next to Courtney’s win, we’ve all just been kind of just getting in the show and you can’t win like that. You’ll get picked off first round,” said John Force.
“We came back, me and Courtney, we were excited and we were high-fiving. ESPN ran over and grabbed us and said, ‘Are you ready?’ We said, ‘Yeah, we’re in!” and they said, ‘Yeah. You race each other tomorrow,” so that bummed us out.”
“I look at the big picture; somebody will go on. She wants to win at all costs, but that’s the attitude I want her to have. It should be a good match-up,” concluded Force.
With Force’s qualifying effort today he extends his current qualifying streak to 100 consecutive races and he is now the active qualifying streak leader for Funny Car. In 2007 at the Las Vegas spring event Force’s unprecedented streak of 395 consecutive qualifying efforts came to an end. The Las Vegas race was Force’s first race following the loss of teammate Eric Medlen after a testing accident at the 2007 Gatornationals.
The youngest Force struggled for the first time in 2013 making one representative run her first session, 4.132 seconds, today and then smoking the tires in the final session. The 2012 Automobile Club Road to the Future Award winner had a chance to move off of the first round match-up with her father and seven-time Gatornationals winner but her Traxxas Ford Mustang smoked the tires in the left lane. She wound up “lucky” No. 13 qualifier.
“The most important thing is we made a good pass down there and got qualified. We pushed the car harder on that last run and couldn’t get it done, but I have full confidence in my team tomorrow. I know that we’ll have our car back that we’re used to,” said Force the Winternationals winner.
“We have my dad first round tomorrow which is a little bit of a bummer being that we are on the same team. He’s excited right now because he’s shown that he has the better car throughout qualifying. I have full confidence in my team that we’ll be able to get around him. We’re still trying to stay up there in the points and we’re going to do the best we can. It’s going to be a little bittersweet, but I’m ready to go kick his butt.”
Courtney Force holds a 2-1 record against her father and is 1-1 versus the 15-time Funny Car champion in first round races.
While spirits were high in the Auto Club Ford Mustang pits yesterday following Robert Hight’s qualifying run of 4.117 seconds today he was unable to navigate the track today during his two qualifying attempts. He slipped to the No. 8 qualifying position going into Sunday. He will have lane choice over former John Force Racing teammate Tony Pedregon in the opening round. Hight is 8-15 against the two-time Mello Yello Funny Car champion.
“We made some progress yesterday but today we just struggled getting a handle on the track. I am not sure that lane choice will matter tomorrow. We just need to string together four good runs and I feel that Jimmy Prock can do that,” said Hight, the defending Gatornationals champion. “All the crew chiefs are talking after every run and you are seeing improvement from all the teams. A lot of time you just miss the mark and I feel we are right around the corner from getting this Auto Club Ford Mustang thundering again.”
Rookie Brittany Force had the most pressure-packed day as she entered Saturday on the outside looking in at a tough Top Fuel field of 23 dragsters. In the opening session she moved into the No. 16 spot, a far cry from solidly in the field. In the final session Force’s Castrol EDGE dragster made a strong move off the starting line and stayed hooked up the entire 1,000 foot race track. At the finish line she lit up the scoreboard with a strong 3.861 second run at over 322 mph and moved from the bump spot (No. 16) to No. 13. She will face veteran Clay Millican in the first round.
“I was excited to get in. I was No. 16 going into my last qualifying run. We didn’t know if that would hold or not so I was a little nervous, but we ran a 3.86 and that was the best we ran all weekend and bumped on up in the field so I was very happy about that,” said Brittany Force.
“I’m ready for tomorrow. I have a great team behind me. I have Dean Antonelli and Eric Lane making the tuning decisions. I have awesome guys on my team. I know they support me and we’re learning together. We’ve made mistakes together, but we’re going to go out there and kick some butt with this Castrol EDGE dragster.”
Ironically Clay Millican was the first driver to ever run side by side with Force at the PRO Winter Warm-up testing event in West Palm Beach, Florida. The combo raced side by side twice in January. This will be the first official race between the two Top Fuel drivers.
Chevy Racing–Sebring 1/2 Way
Corvette Racing In Top 5 at Midway Point of Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring
SEBRING, Fla. (March 16, 2013) – Both the No. 3 and No. 4 GT Compuware Corvette C6.Rs have experienced early problems in American Le Mans Series 61st Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, but, at the midway point, the No. 4 Corvette C6.R remains in contention after overcoming a two-lap deficit at Sebring International Raceway.
At the six-hour mark, the No. 4 Corvette C6.R is in fourth place and on the lead lap in the GT class, after starting second and leading early in the ALMS season opener. The No 3 Corvette C6.R experienced an unfortunate electrical issue very early in the race, and is in 11th place in class, 26 laps off the pace.
“We’ve got a fast car and we’ve been stuck behind some of our class leaders,” said Tommy Milner after his second stint in the No. 4 Corvette C6.R ended just after the midway point. “When the tires are new, our car is really, really good right at the start, so I was able to get by the BMW and the Ferrari, and by the time I got by them, I used my tires up pretty good. So, it was the right pit call there to get us out of sequence and now we’re back on the lead lap.”
Oliver Gavin, who qualified second in the No. 4 Corvette C6.R, quickly gained the GT lead, which he held before handing over driving duties to Milner and Richard Westbrook. The team was still in the lead when, nearing the race’s third hour, Westbrook reported that smoke was coming from the dashboard.
“Unfortunately, toward the end of the stint, we had an electrical issue – one of the fuses burned out,” Westbrook said. “Small, I wouldn’t say fire, but smoke in the dash, so I came straight in. The guys turned it around very quick, as per usual, and we’re back in the fight.”
The team dropped two laps off the lead in-class, but managed to get back on the lead lap at about the 4½-hour mark.
Gavin’s first-lap dash to the lead contained a couple of near-misses.
“Those first couple of corners I managed to be in the right spot and pick my way through some of the PC cars that seemed to be struggling on colder tires,” Gavin said. “One car, I thought he was going to loop it around in front of me, but I just snuck by him before he spun – that was coming out of turn one. Then coming out of turn four another one did exactly the same.
“I knew that having qualifying tires on the car that it was going to be somewhat tough to do that first stint with the heat of today. So I was really mindful not to go all out on them straightaway. They lasted pretty well up until the last three or four laps, and then I was hanging on a little bit. The pit stop came just at the right time, and the guys did a fantastic job of that with that, getting Tommy into the car. It’s a very positive start for us.”
Milner took over about an hour into the race and kept the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R in front.
“We still have to work very, very hard,” Milner said. “The crew has done a great job so far. The entire week we’ve sort of been skeptical with the car because the track surface changes and things like that. But, you know, this crew is fantastic. We know from past experience that come race time the track grips up, the car feels good and we have a good car right now.”
The No. 3 Corvette C6.R started fifth but experienced a couple of problems early. Antonio Garcia accidently ran into the back of a slower car which was in the middle of the track, and incurred a stop-and-go penalty, plus a 60-second penalty to lose one lap, and then Garcia reported problems with downshifting. Starting on lap 20, the car three times came in for repairs – which included changing the gearbox, steering wheel and electronics.
Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor also are driving the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R this weekend.
“The car is very, very good, it’s just a shame that we’re so far back,” Taylor said. “We have a very competitive car.” One restart, he said, he easily passed three or four cars. “We’ll use the rest of the race as a test session.”
Kaeding King at Treacherous Thunderbowl Raceway Once Again
It wasn’t the typical place a race fan would imagine Tim Kaeding was headed after yet another victory.
Visibly exhausted and likely sore, Kaeding mustered a smile and laugh when describing his postrace celebration plans after ending his Victory Lane celebration surrounded by a packed grandstand of his biggest supporters on Friday night at Thunderbowl Raceway.
“Sit in an ice cold bath,” he said.
It was an elbows-up type of night during the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series opener at the high-banked, third-mile oval, which featured more cars on two wheels than a typical motorcycle race.
That fit right into Kaeding’s style and background, even if the track known to be rough was the roughest ever.
“I’m saying this was probably the roughest I’ve ever seen Tulare in (turns) one and two,” he said. “(Rough) is what I grew up on. This is kind of my home away from home. Anything that’s rough is usually what I like. It’s get in, stand on the gas, hold on and see what happens at the end.”
While many people likely picked Kaeding to record the victory – his third overall and second straight at Thunderbowl Raceway with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series – nobody could have predicted the finish.
Donny Schatz outraced polesitter Jac Haudenschild through the opening turns of the first lap to control the top spot, which he maintained for the first 14 laps.
Kaeding, meanwhile, cracked the top five on the second lap. He gained a position in each of the next two laps until sliding Haudenschild for the runner-up position on a restart of Lap 8. Schatz held a several car length advantage until the third caution – and second red flag – of the feature for Cory Eliason’s fiery flip in turn two on Lap 15.
The race was red flagged for approximately 15 minutes as repairs had to be made to the fence. When the race restarted, Schatz found himself in the nasty ruts in turns one and two, which forced his car into the fence and broke the front axel. He was unable to restart and finished 23rd.
That gave the lead to Kaeding, who faced a new challenge from Cody Darrah as the final 21 laps of the race were caution free.
Darrah dove to the bottom in turns one and two to pass Haudenschild for second place on the restart. As Kaeding powered around the track in the high lane, Darrah made the bottom groove work. They entered traffic on Lap 20 and one lap later, Darrah pulled side by side with Kaeding as they exited turn two.
Momentum continued to keep Kaeding in the lead, but Darrah stayed with a couple of car lengths until he used a slide job on Kaeding for the lead entering turn one. Darrah dove to the bottom in turn one and slid up the track in front of Kaeding exiting turn two.
“I knew he was close; I didn’t know how close he was,” Kaeding said. “He did the same thing I did at the beginning of the race to get spots – just to slide. He did the slide for life and it stuck.”
However, Darrah never got his tires back underneath him after taking the lead. As they entered turn three side by side – Darrah on the bottom and Kaeding committed to the top – Darrah closed to the back of Wayne Johnson in traffic. Darrah’s car slowly began to slide around and eventually did a full spin on the bottom in turns three and four before he continued as the white flag waved.
“I never got my tires back under me and I just spun it out,” he said. “It was pretty stupid. I’m pretty pissed off because we (had) such a good car. These guys work so hard and they deserve a win. I gave it to them for about a quarter lap and then I took it away.”
Darrah lost valuable position, but was able to hold off Haudenschild for the runner-up spot with Kaeding winning by nearly five seconds.
“It was a good race all the way around,” Haudenschild said. “Tim, he’s the man here. It was good just to be up there running with him.”
David Gravel finished fourth to record his second top five while driving for the injured Bill Rose. Championship points leader and fast qualifier Daryn Pittman ended fifth for his series-leading fifth time in seven races.
Lucas Wolfe placed sixth, Craig Dollansky seventh, Joey Saldana eighth, 15th-starter Rico Abreu ninth and 16th-starter Kerry Madsen rounded out the top 10.
Dyson Racing–New Cars on 1941 Runways: Qualifying at Sebring
Dyson Racing, winners of first place ALMS points in P1 in last year’s 12 Hours of Sebring, will start the 61st editon of America’s most demanding long-distance sport car race in sixth place. Butch Leitzinger qualified the #16 Thetford/RACER Lola Mazda, posting a time a second quicker than the car’s previous best in practice. Butch is sharing the driving duties this weekend with Chris Dyson and Guy Smith, last year’s Sebring P1 winners.
With tomorrow’s race, Butch will move into second place on the list of all time Sebring starts with twenty-one to his credit. “My first 12 Hours was 1989 with my dad’s GTU team. It was the first time here as a team. The clutch went, I spun the car, we had a flat tire, and then we dropped a valve and ran on five cylinders. It was a rough baptism to Sebring, but the next year we won the GTU class and began a string of three wins in a row for the team.”
Guy Smith is no stranger to Sebring having thirteen starts to his credit. His first race with Dyson Racing was here in 2005. “I have run every race here since 2000. It was actually my second-ever sports car race. My first ever was at Daytona with Stefan Johansson. Daytona was pretty big, but when I came here, I found an atmosphere which is probably second only to Le Mans. I very much enjoy this race. It is nice to have an off season, but by January, you are itching to get back in the car. There is nothing better than stepping off a plane nto the warm weather and arriving at Sebring.”
Chris Dyson first raced here in 2002 and won in LMP675 the following year. 2013 marks his twelfth year here. “One of my better memories was the race Guy and I had in 2008 against Penske’s RS Spyders. We were solidly in contention and ended up leading a good part of the race. It was an exciting race for us. And last year’s result was just fantastic too!”
Joining Dyson Racing at Sebring and for the 2013 season is Michelin Tires. The team ran Michelins from 2005 – 2010. “Michelin is pleased to add one of North America’s most storied endurance racing teams, Dyson Racing, as a Michelin technical partner team,” stated Chris Baker, Director, Motorsports Michelin North America. Dyson added, “It is a thrill to be back working with Michelin and they are definitely pushing the envelope with their technologies and I think we are going to be very competitive together this year.”
2013 marks Dyson Racing’s thirtieth year in professional racing. Rob Dyson started racing in the SCCA in 1974 and moved up to the professional ranks in 1983 in IMSA’s GTO class. He started racing a Porsche 962 in IMSA’s GTP class in 1985 and has been a main stay of top-line prototype racing ever since.