Subtitle:
Six Manufacturers Competing in GT Daytona Class in Saturday’s Race
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 21, 2015) – The debut of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship at historic Lime Rock Park is shaping up as an automobile enthusiast’s dream weekend, when teams representing six manufacturers battle it out in the GT Daytona (GTD) class in Saturday’s Northeast Grand Prix.
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The GTD competitors will join the Prototype Challenge (PC) class in the two-hour, 40-minute race, set to take the green flag at 3:15 p.m. ET on Saturday. The race will be streamed live on IMSA.com and on the IMSA mobile app and will be televised Sunday on FOX Sports 1 at 5 p.m. ET.
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Paul Miller Racing takes a 10-point lead into the event, with Christopher Haase and Dion von Moltke riding a streak of three consecutive podium finishes in the No. 48 Castrol EDGE Audi R8 LMS. The team’s commercial headquarters are based in New Jersey, and while the race shop is located in the Atlanta area, the team considers Lime Rock Park its home track.
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Haase and von Moltke have 149 points, followed by Porsche competitors Leh Keen and Cooper MacNeil, 139 points, and Ferrari drivers Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell with 138.
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For Sweedler, it will be a home race when the Westport, Connecticut resident joins Bell in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia.
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“Lime Rock is my home track and of course my favorite place to race with all the friends and family that will attend,” said Sweedler, who*
finished*third with Bell in the GTE Am class in the recent 24 Hours of Le Mans. “This is one of the only tracks that you really have not time to rest – it is the closest thing to an oval for sports car racing. The Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia should be well suited for the fast flowing nature of the track.”
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Also racing close to home is Amesbury, Massachusetts-based Turner Motorsport, with Michael Marsal of New York City in the No. 97 Alvarez & Marsal/IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4. Dane Cameron – a competitor in the TUDOR Championship Prototype class – returns to the team this weekend to sub for Markus Palttala. Cameron won the 2014 GTD title for Turner.
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Native Long Islander Andy Lally will be competing at one of his home tracks, co-driving the No. 44 Flex-Box Porsche 911 GT America with John Potter. Magnus Racing is coming off its best finish of the season, second in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen last month, the most recent race for the GTD class.*
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Alex Job Racing will field two cars in the event. Keen and MacNeil share the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT America, while two-time 2015 winners Mario Farnbacher and Ian James co-drive the No. 23 Team Seattle/Heart of Racing Porsche 911 GT America.
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Other Porsches include the No. 73 Park Place Porsche of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca winners Patrick Lindsey and Spencer Pumpelly, and the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Brumos Porsche/UIS entry. Pumpelly will be doing double-duty on Saturday, also driving the No. 17 Rennsport One Porsche Cayman in the Street Tuner class of the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge in a two-hour race beginning at 10 a.m. ET.
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Other manufacturers competing in the class are Dodge, with Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen in the No. 33 Riley Motorsports ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R; and Aston Martin, with Christina Nielsen and Kuno Wittmer in the No. 007 TRG-AMR Royal Purple/Orion Energy/LaSalle Solutions/PassTime USA Aston Martin Vantage.
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In addition to the Paul Miller Racing entry, Audi will have a second car in the event, with Ray Mason and Pierre Kleinubing debuting the No. 76 Compass360 Racing AERO Advanced Paint Technology/Children’s Tumor Foundation Audi R8 LMS.
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TUDOR Championship practice opens at 11:35 a.m. on Friday, with qualifying streamed live on IMSA.com beginning at 5:15 p.m. ET.
Races:
Lime Rock Park
Northeast Grand Prix
TUSC Lime Rock 2015