TRG is heading to the Grand-Am Rolex Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway with three potent Porsches for this weekend’s Grand Prix of Miami to be run on Saturday, October 10.
The modified oval layout of Homestead-Miami Speedway is comprised of almost three-quarters of the speedway surface with a tricky nine-turn infield section.
Henri Richard and Rene Villeneuve return to the No. 63 Team Polizei/Dietz & Watson Quality Meats/ Freescale Semi Conductors/Future Electronique/ TRG Porsche, with the addition of third teammate and seasoned road racer, Peter Ludwig.
For Team Polizei, this marks the return of the famous underground brand to the Grand-Am Series. Making their debut at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca earlier in the year, the group, spearheaded by street rally legend Alex Roy, has been hard at work in their efforts to brand with professional sportscar racing. The team will continue their usual flood of behind-the-scenes content at www.teampolizeihq.com.
Driver Henri Richard sees Homestead as a challenge, even though he has laps at the track located south of Miami.
“I have many laps at Homestead, but not with this configuration,” Richard said. “In the Ferrari Challenge we run a different configuration than Grand-Am. I am anxious to see how this layout feels. We will lean towards more down force and compromise speed in order for us to be safe and sound. The biggest issue is stability into Turn One coming off the bank.”
“Homestead is similar in nature to Daytona,” Villeneuve, Team Polizei/TRG driver said. “It is not so difficult on the driver, but you really need to get the infield section right to get a good lap time, as the oval is all about how much downforce you trim off the car for top speed. I have some laps in a street car on the layout that includes both infield sections, but not including the oval. The infield is a fun section with hard braking zones which I like. TRG is the best out there at setting these cars up. We will start the Team Polizei 144 Porsche with the setup that the engineers think will work the best and take from there. I feel we should not worry about top speed and be sure to make our tires last as best we can by looking after them in the infield section.”
Peter Ludwig will lean on his KONI Challenge experience at Homestead this weekend.
“I raced here earlier in the year with KONI, first time ever at Homestead and we won there so that was a good start,” Ludwig said. “The circuit is certainly challenging between high speed banking and a tight infield but I adapted well. I hope to build on the first experience now in GT taking into consideration we are in the slower of two classes, which makes things a bit more intense and exciting. The car will need to be setup to make all the drivers comfortable, I have not yet driven with Rene or Henri so I need to find out what they like and how they drive. For me, It is important that we utilize a proven set-up which TRG feels comfortable with. We are fortunate to have Andy and Spence here to offer suggestions and compare data.”
John Potter and Craig Stanton have high hopes for the season finale in their No. 65 Magnus Racing/TRG Porsche this weekend.
“I have laps in the KONI Porsche at Homestead,” Potter said. “It was good to have some time earlier in the year in that car. In the KONI Porsche, the banking was flat-out but difficult. We have a little more grip in the GT car but it should still be fun. We do the best we can to figure out where we need straight line speed and where we need handling in the turns; the aero changes will be the biggest challenge.”
In the third car, TRG aces Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly will be paired in the No. 66 AXA/TRG car in a sprint race for the first time. This will be a reunion for the duo, who are looking to add to their win column together.
“It will be great to be teamed with Spencer again,” Lally said. “We have been teammates in a bunch of races in our time with TRG. We won the nine hours of Miller together in 2006 as well as the six hours of the Glen in 2007. We hope to add another victory to our partnership this weekend.”
“I expect to hand the car over to Andy and let him take it to the win,” Pumpelly said. “He and I work well together and TRG puts good cars under us so I am optimistic. I think the key to having a good car at Homestead is the ability to set the car up to get over the bump in Turn One well. It is where the time is made up. We will have a good car in the infield, hope to get off the last turn as fast as possible and hold it to the floor going into one.”
Kevin Buckler, TRG team owner, is hoping to bookend the season with a win.
“It is great to have the Team Polizei guys with us again this weekend – this group is awesome to work with in so many ways,” Buckler said. “We also welcome back long time friend Peter Ludwig. John and Craig have been getting consistently better every single weekend and we are looking for a break-out weekend from them here at Homestead. Andy and Spencer should be really competitive this weekend. It is great to have them together in a race car again. We won the first race of the season in Daytona and we are gunning to win the last one this weekend.”
Source : TRG