Team Seattle-The Heart of Racing will start from the third row in the GTD class for Sunday’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway.
This weekend, co-drivers Ian James (Phoenix, Ariz) and Mario Farnbacher (Ansbach, Germany) have struggled in each of the three practice sessions to find just the right setup that could put them near the top of the GTD speed chart. Prior to qualifying, the best lap the No. 23 Team Seattle-Porsche turned was a 1:48.602 (108.396 mph) in this morning’s practice. After that session, the team went right to work and made a few changes. They hoped to give Farnbacher a car that would qualify better than it had practiced.
In qualifying, Farnbacher found a little more speed and turned a 1:48.405 (108.593 mph) around the 3.2-mile, 18-turn undulating road course. It was the best lap the car had turned all weekend. In fact, Farnbacher managed to do everything he could to get the most out of the car despite not feeling well. And, for his effort, the No. 23 machine start sixth tomorrow.
“Yesterday was my first time on this track – another new track for me,” Farnbacher said. “I learned it pretty quickly. I like the circuit. But, it’s a tough track. You’re always on the limit and have to really drive the car to be fast. It’s always a big risk. In yesterday’s practice session, the car was actually okay. This morning, we tried something different and it didn’t work very well. We tried to fix it before qualifying, but the car stayed pretty much the same. It’s difficult to tell what the main problem is with the No. 23 Porsche. We have to look at it before the race. But, I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow.”
“At most tracks, we’ve been really on it,” James said. “Here, we’re struggling a little bit. Mario put in a great lap. But, he had to man-handle it more than the car deserves. We’ll look at some stuff tonight and work on it. We’ve got the best guys here. We’ll figure it out and we’ll be strong tomorrow.”
Team owner Alex Job was impressed at how quickly the team and the drivers worked to get the car faster before qualifying
“Phil Pierce did a great job before qualifying to get some of the handling issues sorted out,” Job said. “The car was much better in qualifying than it was in practice. Mario did a great job driving it to put it in sixth place. Mario is quite sick right now. He’s got a real bad cold or flu or something. We’re going to send him back to the hotel and try to get him as much rest as he can. Considering how ill he is at the moment, he did a great job qualifying.”