After four rough races for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, the Fresno, CA based team returns to the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón circuit for round six of the 2012 season. Located at the 2.258 mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the two-hour and 45 minute Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge has been a historically strong event for the #52 Quest Software/ Aviation Gin Oreca FLM09 with a third place podium finish in 2011, preceded by a second place podium finish in 2010. Rudy Junco, of Monterrey, Mexico, joined the team last year helping score PR1/Mathiasen’s first ALMS race win and will be looking to help the team score their first victory of 2012 this weekend.
“I’ve been out of the car for a few months, and have been busy with work and family as well as working on my conditioning,” Junco said. “It is great to be back in the car though and I am looking forward to the Mid-Ohio race. I hope we can get back to winning form this weekend, we have definitely shown the capability to run at the front. The guys have done a great job with the car and I am really looking forward to sharing driving duties with Marino.”
Franchitti, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, was slated to make his LMPC racing debut last month at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park , but an early unprovoked racing incident took the #52 out of contention before he could turn a lap. The wreck was so severe, Franchitti’s co-driver, Ken Dobson, sustained a concussion and heavy bruising while the all-new chassis that was making its debut was damaged to such an extend that the team’s back-up car had to be rushed out from California to Ohio within hours after the shunt.
Despite PR1/Mathiasen’s extensive in-car testing program since the disappointing Mosport event, the affable Scot is still itching to finally go racing under green flag conditions.
“It’s been great to get some decent mileage in the LMPC car, but there’s a big difference between testing a car and racing it, so I’m excited to get the chance to do that this weekend,” Franchitti explained. “It’s been a real pleasure getting to know Rudy, we’re working very well together already and hopefully we can get a good result for the team. They certainly deserve it after the challenges of the last couple of races.”
A bit of silver lining from last month’s frightening early race accident can be found in the news that Dobson, of Sonoma, CA, is making a speedy recovery from the injuries sustained at the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport.
“I’m definitely getting better, and I would like to say that I’m already back to 100%, but I have underappreciated the impact I took from the Porsche,” Dobson said. “I took a few laps in a car this week and I realized that I’m not quite ready to drive an LMPC car at speed yet. I will take it easy for another week and see how I feel then. I do want to thank everyone for their thoughts and also the IMSA medical staff and safety workers for their help. I’m looking forward to seeing Rudy and Marino bring the team the win that they deserve for the huge effort they put in to get a car on track for the guys this weekend. I will be cheering from home in Sonoma for them for certain!”
PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Team Principal, Bobby Oergel, has refused to let his crew dwell on the team’s recent arduous past.
“First of all, it’s great to hear that Ken is recovering nicely and we’re all looking forward to having him back in the car to defend his Petit Le Mans victory with us again this year,” Oergel exclaimed. “There’s no point in trying to put a spin on our last few races though. The speed is there, we just keep getting involved in other teams’ messes. We’ve been around long enough to know that there’s always something that can be improved upon though, and we’re certainly not ones to point the finger at others while claiming that we’re perfect. So we’ll use the last four races to learn, build on those lessons, and then that’s it. We don’t want to hear about that negativity anymore. It’s time to focus on the fact that we’ve been contenders at every race this year, that we’ve got two strong drivers in Rudy and Marino this weekend, and that the team is motivated beyond belief to get the podium results that are expected from a team of this caliber.”
Source : PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports