Alex Job Racing has Successfull
Roar Before The Rolex 24 at Dytona
Alex Job Racing (AJR) had a successful
weekend of testing at the Roar Before The Rolex 24 at Daytona
International Speedway in preparation for the 50th Anniversary GRAND-AM
Rolex Sports Car Series Rolex 24 At Daytona, Jan. 28-29, 2012.
The Florida-based team was in
full effect with two cars: the No. 23 WeatherTech/Alex Job Racing
Porsche for drivers Cooper MacNeil, Butch Leitzinger, Emmanuel Collard
and Porsche factory driver, Marco Holzer; and in the No. 24 McKenna
Porsche/Battery Tender/Kensington/Koss Stereophones/Alex Job Racing GT3
Cup Michael Avenatti, Bob Faieta, Bill Sweedler, Fred Poordad, and Cort
Wagner.
For the No. 23 WeatherTech/Alex
Job Racing Porsche car it was a smooth weekend with no issues and fast
lap times. The 23 crew came away from the three-day test with the
badge for being the fastest Porsche, posting a lap time of 1:49.423,
third fastest overall in the GT category.
The No. 24 McKenna
Porsche/Battery Tender/Alex Job Racing GT3 wasn't so lucky. In
the opening laps of Saturday's night practice, Michael Avenatti was
exiting Turn Five with another GT competitor when the No 01 Daytona
Prototype tried to go up the middle of the two GT cars and turned in on
Avenatti resulting in front end damage to the Porsche. The AJR
crew made quick work on repairs and had the 24 back on track the next
morning. The incident ended the weekend for the Ganassi team.
"I had two separate incidents,
both with the 01 DP (Daytona Prototype) car on the track," Avenatti
said. "The big contact occurred early during our night practice
on Saturday causing significant damage to our car. AJR did a
remarkable job getting the car repaired overnight Saturday and back on
the track Sunday. Our focus was getting everyone comfortable in
the car and ensuring that we have the right handling set-up for the
race."
"AJR did a great job prepping
the car and all drivers did what we set out to do," Faieta said.
"I am new to the 24, so I was being cautious and courteous. Our
focus was to get a handle on the track and slowly work up to
speed. We worked with our engineer (Greg Fordahl) to develop a
winning car."
The 23 drivers had a clean run
over the three-days of testing and tuning.
"We really had the
WeatherTech/AJR Porsche handling great right from the start of the
weekend," MacNeil said. "I never had any close moments on the
track. Going into the test, our goal was to run clean and take it
one lap at a time. We didn't want to hurt the car in any way, but
we also wanted to develop it and make it as fast as possible. We
accomplished all of these things. The plan for the race is to qualify
well and run clean, especially for the first eight hours. I think
we will see a significant amount of yellows, hopefully we won't be a
part of any."
Team owner, Alex Job, had his
two cars up to speed and provided his drivers maximum laps in
preparation for the big race at the end of the month.
"We wanted to make sure that we
got all the drivers a lot of laps and everyone comfortable with all of
the technical aspects of the car," Job said. "We were not looking
for all out speed. We made some long runs and everyone was able
to find their comfort zone in the car, traffic, and on the track.
The incident with the 01 was very unfortunate, but that's racing.
He just came over on Michael and caused a lot of needless damage to two
cars, especially his. We ended the weekend third overall on the
GT time sheet giving us a good feeling heading back there in two
weeks."
Alex Job Racing is one of the
most successful teams in sports car racing with 39 wins, including a
1999 Rolex 24 Hour GT Class win. This record is supported by 46
pole positions and 84 podium finishes. The team has won
three championships (GT in 2002, 2003 and 2004) complimented by their
two GT class wins at Le Mans. The team also boasts seven Sebring
12-hour wins.
The Grand-Am category is
specific to one of the most popular factory produced racing cars in the
world, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.Developed for Porsche's one-make series
around the world, the new version of the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is based
on the road-going 911 GT3 RS. The power unit featured in the new 911
GT3 Cup is largely identical to the production engine of the 911 GT3 RS
with the same output of 450 bhp and the same maximum engine speed of
8,500 rpm.
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