Team Seattle-The Heart of Racing will start tomorrow’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Detroit Grand Prix from the fourth row in GTD.

Mario Farnbacher (Ansbach, Germany) had the wheel of the Team Seattle-Heart of Racing Porsche for the 15-minute qualifying session. The young German posted a time of 1:33.691, good for eighth on the GTD grid.  Farnbacher and teammate Ian James (Phoenix, Ariz.) are running the 2.3-mile, 13-turn island circuit located in the middle of the Detroit River for the first time.

“I expected a little better qualifying time,” Farnbacher said. “We improved on our lap time from practice, but so did everyone else. The car was good, every lap I went quicker. The track is awesome. It is fun and I like driving here. The race will not be easy, especially with the prototypes. They tend to dive deep into the corners and there is no room if someone makes a mistake. We will have to drive fast and stay out of trouble.”

James likes the track and is ready for the race.

“It is a very challenging track,” James said. “It is a fun and fast track. You have to be pretty aggressive with the car. We are always better in the races than in qualifying. We focus our set-up effort for the race as opposed to one fast qualifying lap. 100-minutes for a sports car race is not a lot of time. We will have to be perfect on the track and make up some positions and then get a little help from the crew on our only pit stop.”   

Alex Job, team owner, likes the approach of the drivers.

“Mario and Ian did their homework,” Job said. “This is the first time for both of them at this tough track. We gave them a good baseline to get comfortable with the circuit and, as they got more laps, they began to tune some speed into the car. They always race well and we will be ready for a great pit stop and some strong strategy to help them move up tomorrow.”