Team Seattle-The Heart of Racing drivers Mario Farnbacher, Ian James and Alex Riberas will start the season finale TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Petit Le Mans from the third row in GTD for tomorrow’s 11 a.m. start.
Farnbacher (Ansbach, Germany) had the controls of the No. 23 Team Seattle-Heart of Racing Porsche for qualifying. Coming off of a class leading night practice, the young German put in a time of 1:22.776 around the 2.4-mile 11-turn Road Atlanta circuit. Ian James (Phoenix, Ariz.) and Alex Riberas (Barcelona, Spain) have all turned fast laps in anticipation of the final event of the TUDOR Championship season.
“I think the track was totally different compared to last night and yesterday,” Farnbacher said. “That takes the balance out of the car. I expected a little better qualifying time. Sixth place is not a bad place to start. We have 10 hours to go tomorrow and lot can happen. I like our progress this week and I am looking forward to a good race tomorrow.”
James likes the build-up of the team all week.
“We tested here last Friday and have progressed with our speed all week,” James said. “So much so that we were the fastest in night practice. We focus on a good racing car, not a good qualifying car. We have a few things to try in the warm-up and then we will be ready to go for 10 hours.”
Riberas is happy with the way the weekend is going for his first Petit Le Mans.
“The weekend has gone really good so far,” Riberas said. “I am really happy with the team, the car and Ian and Mario are great teammates. We put the car on top in free practice last night, P1, which was great. I am enjoying driving at my first Petit Le Mans. I think we have a car that we can fight for the victory tomorrow. We will drive hard and hopefully make the right decisions in the pits and get the win.”
Alex Job, team owner, has the 23 ready for 10 hours of racing.
“Ian, Mario and Alex showed a lot of speed all week,” Job said. “We were the fastest in practice last night which was a nice reward for a lot of work this week. In qualifying the track got washed pretty good this morning and afternoon with the rain so that changed things. We are feeling good about our starting position and our prospects for a good race tomorrow.”
The team took the opportunity to announce that they will continue in the TUDOR Championship in 2015 with the same driver line-up with Alex Job Racing under the management of Don Kitch Jr. and support from Gabe Newell.