|
Another Podium For MCM at Montreal!!!
MCM Mid-Ohio Race Review
If the Matt Connolly Motorsports team didn’t believe the age-old statement that “Hard work pays off in the end”, they certainly do now. After leaving a Watkins Glen circuit where the #21 GTO-R was clearly one of the fastest of the GT field, the team had high hopes going into this past weekend at Mid-Ohio, especially with welcoming back young speedster Ryan Phinny who had to miss the last round due to his high school graduation.
The team struggled mightily the entire weekend, and found themselves scratching their collective heads on a direction to take with the set up. For a team used to running in the Top-5 in practice and qualifying on a regular basis this year, the team never once cracked the Top-10 in any session. Each driver wanting different changes, and none proving to speed up the pace, the team decided to go with a soft set up to just make the car easy to drive for both drivers, and with a potential of rain on the way it figured to be a safe route to take.
Phinny would start the race, and straight away began picking off the competition from his 12th in class and 31st overall starting position. Luck was on the teams’ side this weekend as the rains started coming down hard and heavy, and the carnage began to pick up in front of the #21 entry. The rain got so bad that Ryan had a hard time keeping the car on the track surface even under yellow flag conditions. The team brought the GTO-R in for rain tires and Ryan sped away with one goal in mind, get to the front as quickly as possible on the restart. Not only did Ryan quickly start to pick off the GT competition, but to everyone’s amazement, he began picking off the Daytona Prototypes as well.
“We struggled a bit trying to get the car up to speed due to the new weight requirements for the Pontiacs and a bad run in qualifying; I knew we needed the rain.” Phinny continues, “For the race we took a bit of a gamble putting the rain set up on the car and it paid off. I was able to put the MCM GTO-R into the lead and stay there for 30 laps before handing the car off to Diego Alessi”. Ryan not only was leading the GT field through the wet conditions, but when he turned the car over to his co-driver, he did so in 4th overall position, and the officials and commentators alike were looking on in amazement. Diego would reenter the field in 9th position in class, but with four cars between him and the next position, he had some work to do, and did it well.
Alessi states “The team did an excellent job and Ryan’s drive was amazing, especially in the heavy rain, he was able to find the limit before anyone else and just ran away from them. Unfortunately our gain became our curse as the rain brought out so many yellows that it kept the GT field too close to Ryan to really run away from them”. Diego picked up the amazing drive where Ryan left off after pitting out of sequence with the rest of the GT field to bring the car home on the Podium in 3rd position in class and 13th overall. “I pushed as hard as I could, but the track was quickly drying, it was not so easy to catch the leaders on the rain tires, and had to use all my race craft and still take care of the car to come away with the result” a happy Alessi stated after the race.
For team owner Matt Connolly, he too was excited with a seasons’ best result, “Again the combination of Alessi and Phinny have proved to be quite formidable. The car and team were flawless today, and we were able to use the weather to our advantage.” The team will now head to Daytona for the series’ annual sprint race and that too has the team excited as Alessi had already put the car in a top-5 qualifying position leading into the 24 hours, and with a similar effort the team is looking forward with one goal in mind, WIN!
The team would like to thank sponsors Lucy Plast S.P.A., Baja Cantina Restaurant, P1 Groupe, Barbetti, Davide Cenci, Black Flag Gear, ERREMME and Pacific Teaze for their continued support for the 2008 racing season. View www.mcmracingteam.com, www.p1groupe.com, www.lucyplast.it, www.blackflaggear.com, www.barbetti.com, www.bajacantinavenice.com, www.bajacantinacarmel.com and www.erremmesrl.it for more information.
Ryan Phinny leading / Matt Connolly Interview
Pit Stop at Mid Ohio
Ryan Phinny SPEED TV Interview
Here's a Matt Connolly Motorsports Promo Video!
MCM Lime Rock Race Review
The momentum was strong entering the weekend, armed with the knowledge that Lime Rock Park is a Pontiac track and coming off a top 5 finish the previous round at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Behind the determined driving of Diego Alessi and team newcomer Ryan Phinny, the team had every expectation of a podium finish, if not their first win in Rolex Series competition. The team rolled the #21 Baja Cantina Pontiac GTO-R off the truck and immediately began posting quick lap after quick lap. Straight out of the box the driving tandem posted a 54.091 in the first practice session, a time that would have been top 5 during the eventual race itself, a nice start! Of the early results Phinny states: “The MCM Pontiac was very fast straight away, Diego and I were ready to roll this weekend.” The times would only improve as the sessions clicked off, next going to a 53.828 in Practice #2, and a fourth fastest time of 53.051 in Practice #3. Team owner Matt Connolly just kept shaking his head and smiling, at one time saying “That’s our Diego, he’s never been here and is already among the fastest, and Ryan, that kid is amazing….a dream lineup!”
The dream for Phinny isn’t anything new; he’s been molding his abilities for over 10 years now, which is saying a lot considering he is just finishing up his high school campaign. Ryan is a long time student of sports car veteran Joey Hand. Of his protégé, Hand boasts; “From the beginning I stressed Ryan’s race craft, and he picked it up very quickly, which I feel is one of the reasons beyond natural ability for his early success.” Joey continues, “I spoke at length with Ryan and his family about the decision to enter Grand Am coming from open wheel, I felt that the match with a team that was on the verge of great things, but hadn’t reached their full potential just yet would garner Ryan a lot of attention if he got in with early results, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”
Phinny is getting noticed too, one of the Speed Channel commentators during the Lime Rock telecast called Ryan “One of the next great American racers”, which is a strong statement the young Californian embodies with every lap. The MCM team prepared a good set up for qualifying and Ryan Phinny put the car through its paces for a solid run to put the car in P6 for the upcoming race with a fast time of 52.994. With Ryan starting behind a strong field ahead, the green dropped, but the #57 Pontiac GXP-R had issues from the outset just ahead of Phinny and balked the driver enough to send him back to 9th entering turn 1. It didn’t take long for Ryan to get back those lost places in the GT field and more. Before long the #21 MCM entry was the fastest car on the circuit and running in second place and gaining on the leader. While lapping one of the Corvettes, Ryan got hit in the rear, cutting down a tire and limping back to the pits for an unscheduled and unwanted early pit stop that would put the car a lap down to his competition. The team worked quickly to get Ryan back out and he was right back on pace picking off the pack to get back up front. Within its pit window, and Phinny stating he felt a tire going down, Ryan brought the GTO-R into the pits in fourth position to hand over to Alessi. As Ryan entered pit lane, the front tire blew, but the team didn’t miss a beat to get Diego into the fray. With no yellows in the race, a pit stop was certain to make you go a lap down, but Diego was in the hunt and picked up where Ryan left off. Before long Diego was back in the top 5, and running among the fastest times of the race when he too felt a front tire going down. Diego would stay out and do his best to bring the black beast home in a good finishing position with no grip left from the tires, and the #21 entry would finish the day in 7th position for the teams second top 10 in as many races.
“Unfortunately due to getting hit, and the tires going away late in the stints, we could not capitalize on our potential today. The team was great during the race and worked hard all weekend to give Diego and me a fast car. I was thrilled to be a part of the effort this weekend, we’ll take the 7th place finish and see where it takes us” stated Phinny after the race.
The team now begins work on three major tasks, prepping the #21 GTO-R for the grueling Watkins Glen 6 hour, figuring out why the tires blew to halt the drivers’ momentum, and finally to do what they can to keep this driving tandem together for the balance of the year. Team Owner Matt Connolly states; “These two guys have done such a fantastic job these past two races, and have injected the entire team with the enthusiasm that running at the front can bring, we are working very hard with Ryan’s sponsors now to keep them together for the remainder of the 2008 Rolex Grand Am season.”
The team would like to thank sponsors Lucy Plast S.P.A., Baja Cantina Restaurant, P1 Groupe, Barbetti, Davide Cenci, Black Flag Gear, ERREMME and Pacific Teaze for their continued support for the 2008 racing season. View www.mcmracingteam.com, www.p1groupe.com, www.lucyplast.it, www.blackflaggear.com, www.barbetti.com, www.bajacantinavenice.com, www.bajacantinacarmel.com and www.erremmesrl.it for more information.
P1 AFR Wins Team Championship!
P1 Groupe would like to congratulate Abdul Aziz Al Yaeesh and Fahad Hizam in bringing home the Team Championship for P1-AFR in the 2008 Chevy Lumina CSV Middle Eastern Championship. Both Abdul Aziz and Fahad had excellent seasons, with great displays of both tenacity and teamwork as they brought Team P1 AFR and UMA Motorsports to the top of the standings with 200 points, taking the title despite a strong year-long showing from contenders Lechner Racing Bahrain, who finished second in the Teams Championship with 197 points. Consistency was truly the name of the game, and both P1-AFR drivers made sure that they were not only fighting for themselves, but were right there to pick up the slack for each other whenever the situation arose. The duo never scored less than 10 points every round, something no other team could boast.
Abdul Aziz and Fahad also both finished in the top-10 in the Drivers championship as well, Abdul Aziz himself finishing in a close second place. P1 Groupe President Eric Burch was extremely excited about the results. “P1 Groupe, UMA, Abdul Aziz Al Yaeesh, and Fahad Hizam all came together to make this year so successful. To not only win the Team Championship, but also have both drivers in the Top-10 for the Drivers Standings as well is a testament to how well everyone worked together this season, and all in the first year! We know that both drivers have a very bright future ahead of them, and we’re proud that P1-AFR has become a force to be reckoned with in the Chevy Lumina CSV Middle East Championship!”
VICI RACING St. Petersburg Preview
From the longest race of the season to the shortest – the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg on Saturday (April 5), the second round of the 2008 American Le Mans Series (ALMS), presents another immediate, and very different, challenge for VICI Racing and its tire development partner, Kumho Tire.
For the second consecutive year, the ALMS competitors will hit the streets of St. Petersburg, for the first of four race meetings to take place on a temporary street circuit. Last year the exotic sports cars of the American Le Mans Series raced into dusk on this course, but for this year an early afternoon race has been scheduled. After the concrete swages of the historic Sebring airfield circuit, the track at St. Petersburg is a mostly asphalt road course; VICI Racing, along with partner Kumho Tire, will take to this short but highly demanding 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary road course tomorrow morning for the opening practice session, with the innovative tire development program having moved up another gear since the opening ALMS round in March. VICI Racing and Kumho Tire have teamed up this year to undertake an exciting, and ambitious, season-long tire development program on behalf of Kumo Tire, which aims to evolve new racing compounds for the ALMS GT2 class. VICI Racing is campaigning the new 2008-specification Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.
Straight out of the box the team hit the ground running in Sebring (12-15 March) for a week that would see a whole set of new components gelling together. The professionalism and experience of all the partners came into play straight from the start and the team made huge strides all week. The program’s inaugural race, the legendary 12-hour fight for survival, went far beyond all expectations, despite the team choosing to formulate a conservative strategy. The #5 VICI Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR ran in a strong podium position for much of the race and eventually crossed the line in a very respectable 6th place even after a string of late race dramas, all of them beyond the team’s control, intervened. This excellent result clearly demonstrated this new program’s huge potential and was a just reward for everybody’s hard work and total dedication; it also sets the team up perfectly for the unfolding of the 2008 ALMS season and in particular for St. Petersburg, the second consecutive ALMS race to take place in Florida, which is just over an hour from Sebring.
VICI Racing is delighted to announce that P1 Groupe has brought Brazilian Ruben Carrapatoso to join the team’s talented driver roster, all of whom will be adept on a circuit which demands technical ability, concentration and the skill to negotiate the incessant traffic and keep the sports cars safely away from the unforgiving concrete crash barriers that line the narrow street track. 26-year-old Ruben, from São Paulo, began his racing career in karts in 1993, going on to win the world title in 1998 after a season during which he took on and beat Fernando Alonso, who has since gone on to win two F1 titles, and the highly-regarded Toyota F1 Test Driver Ryan Briscoe. Ruben then graduated to British Formula Ford in 2001, before following a path, well-trodden by many of his countrymen, in making his way up the single-seater ladder via Italian, and then British, Formula Renault, the Euro F3 Series, and driving for Team Brazil in the F1 ‘feeder’ series, A1GP. Along the way he has also gained closed-roof experience, winning races in the highly competitive Brazilian V8 National Stock Car Championship and the Argentinean V8 Touring Car Championship, over the last three seasons. Ruben arrives at VICI Racing with a reputation already cemented for his rapid pace, natural racing ability, and a tough but smooth style. The driver pool for the #5 VICI Racing Porsche for this week’s action in St. Petersburg will feature, as usual, Craig Stanton and Nathan Swartzbaugh, the team’s driving heroes of Sebring who perfectly played out their part on track, running fast, consistent laps throughout the 10-hour race. Craig’s vast experience, enthusiasm and drive, not to mention winning pedigree, coupled with Nathan’s youth, speed and raw talent, make them perfect combination to drive this program forward – and up a gear.
Quotes
Nathan Swartzbaugh: "Heading in to St. Petersburg this week I think the main objective will just be gaining more experience. I know we really turned heads at Sebring with our pace and strategy, and I think if the team can keep the car together all the way to the end, there's no reason why a great result can’t be achieved."
Craig Stanton: "Sebring was just awesome for all of us. To have been as close as we were to a podium has just made us all the more motivated for St. Petersburg, and I’m sure if we get the strategy as good as it was in Sebring, we might surprise a few people.”
Ruben Carrapatoso: “I’m really delighted to be joining VICI Racing at St. Petersburg this week; this will be an important step forward in my racing career. The team is very professional, highly motivated and focused on achieving success on track. I’m also looking forward to learning from my team mates; I will be able to draw on their Porsche and ALMS experience. It will be a big challenge for me, but I have raced for the last three years in South American Stock Cars so I have built up a lot of experience of close action sportscar racing. I have never driven the RSR before, but it’s regarded as a superb car and the guys have told me it’s very driveable. I haven’t seen the St. Petersburg track either but I have been watching lots of videos to memorise the layout and the corners, and I love racing on street circuits, they’re a great challenge. I can’t wait to get out on the track this week.”
Ron C. Meixner, President, VICI Racing: “We’re all looking forward to St. Petersburg and the ingredients are in place to see the program move up a gear on what will be a very different event to Sebring. The team performed really well in the 12 Hours and we came away having clearly demonstrated our potential. For such a new venture, the absolute levels of professionalism I demand throughout the organisation really showed through. However this was just the start, we have to raise the bar with every test and race, getting to the front in GT2 will demand a lot of hard work and development; however I am confident that we can achieve our season targets. Nathan and Craig did everything asked of them at Sebring, while Ruben is a great sports car prospect – it will be good to get him in the car, and I’m pleased he’s joining us. This is a superb line up to have to choose from. I’m now looking for a very good performance in all areas this week.”
Roland Wall, Technical Director & Chief Engineer, VICI Racing: For St. Petersburg we will be having resolved the issues we had with the car in Sebring that were out of our hands. The track is totally different, much slower; top speed will be around 235km/h instead of 258km/h at Sebring. At St. Petersburg the track surface is only concrete on the main straight; everything else is tarmac, normal road conditions, that requires a different setting for the car. There are many slow corners so I will be looking for lots of mechanical traction on exiting the corners. Due to it being a shorter and slower track I hope that we will be a bit closer to the leading class rival, and I hope the development work Kumho is doing will be starting to show up already the next generation of racing tires, feeding back from the Sebring race and the test program.
Tim Bumps, Team Manager, VICI Racing: Sebring was a great event for VICI Racing. Our team showed we can be competitive, and handle a tough challenge that hampered us the final hour of the race. Everyone on the Team is hungry for a successful race at St. Pete, and feels we can be competitive at a street circuit event. We also look forward to a successful season.
The action at St. Petersburg gets underway tomorrow (Friday April 4) with a one hour long free practice session (8:05 – 9:05 AM) Eastern Time (ET) open to all ALMS competitors (LMP1, LMP2, GT1 and GT2). This is followed by a second hour long session (1:05 – 2:05 PM), again combining all the classes, before the 20 minute final qualifying session (2:15 – 2:35 PM) reserved for the GT1/GT2 classes which will decide the starting grid. On race day (Saturday 5th April) a warm up session for all the ALMS classes takes place (9:25 – 9:50 AM) before the second round of the 2008 American Le Mans Series, the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg gets the green light at 1:25 PM ET. The race is scheduled to last for 1 hour 55 minutes, with the checkered flag set to be waved at 3:20 PM. The race will be broadcast on ABC from 1:30-3:30 p.m. ET on April 5. American Le Mans Radio coverage will be available on XM Satellite Radio Channel 144 and americanlemans.com, which also will feature IMSA's Live Timing & Scoring.
|
