After collecting five pole positions and six podium finishes in their first two years in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports scored their first professional sports car class victory today at the four-hour Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase. Once again, the LMPC class proved to be ultra competitive as the margin between the top two cars was below five seconds for the majority of the four-hour race around Road America’s dauntingly quick four-mile layout.
Having outscored several LMP1 class cars, and the LMP2 machine as well, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports also earned third place overall in the final race standings.
Rudy Junco, of Monterrey, Mexico, took the green flag for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports and was immediately thrust into battle against the #06 LMPC car before settling into a comfortable, conserving pace. After retaking the lead early in the first hour, Junco went on to run an effortlessly fast double stint, setting the team’s fastest lap of the day. Pitting for the second time on lap 35, Junco handed the wheel of the #52 over to Butch Leitzinger, of Rebersburg, PA, with nearly the entire LMPC class at least one lap down until the #63 got the wave around from race control. That set up a two hour battle that saw the #52 and the #63 Oreca FLM09s swap the lead several times until the final moments of the race when Leitzinger’s pace pushed the #52 to an insurmountable 20-second lead to the checkered flag.
“The race went so smoothly, just perfect for us,” Junco said. “In fact, the podium celebration was more eventful. I got sprayed in my eye by champagne! Even though everything went so well, it was still a nail-biter. The competition is so fierce in this class and having the #63 in front of us at the halfway point by a few seconds, then having them behind us by only a few seconds at the end definitely kept us on the edge of our seats. In the end though, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports and Butch did an incredible job and I’m very proud to get them their first sports car win.”
Leitzinger added to his already extensive resume with his victory from pole position performance in his debut LMPC race today.
“I’m floored really, it just shows what a good team PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports is by being able to take an LMPC novice and let him win the first time out,” Leitzinger said. “Rudy did great and really taught me a lot about these cars. There are so few things that you can do with these, it really makes every part of the team so important. The setup, the pit stops, everything needs to run perfectly. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports did such a great job and their program is so well built, they could be winning championships next.”
PR1/Mathiasen Team Principal, Bobby Oergel, has always been confident in his team’s ability to obtain ALMS victories.
“This result has been a long time coming for us,” Oergel explained. “The speed has been there from the start. In our very first races in the series, we were already challenging for the pole and for podiums. We’ve been so close so many times. Multiple poles, multiple podiums, we just needed the small little misfortunes to relent long enough for us to capitalize on what this amazing team has been building on for the past two years in this series.”
“This race is the perfect example of a properly executed plan,” Oergel continued. “We went into conservation mode after Rudy’s first stint. We wanted to have a look around and see what the field was up to and to really be cautious with race traffic. Again, we knew we had plenty of speed, so there was no reason to risk anything. With about 45 minutes remaining, we radioed in to Butch to go for it, and that’s exactly what he did. Those final moments ticked by slower than I would have liked, but everyone remained calm and professional until the end. I’m almost speechless. I’m just so proud of Rudy, Butch and all of our guys. They earned this one for sure.”
Source : PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports