Team Seattle -The Heart of Racing will start from the third row for the 62nd running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Saturday, March 15.
Mario Farnbacher (Ansbach, Germany) had the wheel of the Team Seattle-The Heart of Racing Porsche for the 15-minute Sebring qualifying session. Running a time of 2:04.542, the young German put the lap in on his fifth circuit. The team comprised of Farnbacher, Ian James (Phoenix, Ariz) and Alex Riberas (Barcelona, Spain) have been improving the handling of the blue Porsche all week.
“This morning, we had a good run in practice and we more or less kept that set-up for qualifying,” Farnbacher said. “[In qualifying] you have to have a bit of luck to get a clear lap, but it’s a long race. Qualifying has nothing to do with how you finish. We’ve got a good car set-up. We just want to stay out of trouble and try to finish on the podium.”
Riberas likes the Sebring circuit and the qualifying result.
“We are quite happy with this qualifying session,” Riberas said. “Actually, I wasn’t expecting to be in the top six and we made it. Our focus has been on the preparation for this race and to have a car that was consistent throughout the race – not necessarily in one [qualifying] lap. To be sixth in qualifying was a surprise and we are very optimistic about the race tomorrow. I really like the Sebring circuit and especially driving here at night. It is going to be a very competitive race tomorrow. We will be ready.”
James who has two class wins (2004 and 2005) and a lot of laps around Sebring as a driver and as a driving instructor is pleased with the qualifying result.
“I think the important thing [to remember] is that we didn’t really change the car for qualifying,” James said. “This is our race set-up so that is encouraging. We’ve been working all week towards what it’s going to be like tomorrow. Mario did a brilliant job. So, I’m very happy. The team has a great history here and it would be fantastic to get Alex a tenth Sebring win tomorrow.”
Alex Job, team owner, has the team poised to run for a record tenth Sebring class win.
“Ian, Mario and Alex have been doing a great job all week working with the team to get the Team Seattle-Heart of Racing Porsche to the front,” Job said. “Although we started back in the GTD field at Daytona we were able to get to the lead and we plan to do the same tomorrow.”