Pacific Coast Motorsports heads to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the third round of the 2005 American Le Mans Series this weekend, eager to get back to action and hoping to maintain a perfect finishing record in the GT1 class.
The
2004 Toyota Atlantic Champions have belied their sports car 'rookie' status with the privateer #5 Menards-Yokohama Corvette successfully scoring back-to-back top-ten finishes at Sebring and Road Atlanta.Sunday's race, hosted on the challenging 2.25-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, is the second 2-hour
45-minute 'endurance sprint' of the year following last month's Road Atlanta dash and the season-opening 12 Hours of Sebring marathon.Quickly adapting to the demands of sports car racing PCM held its own in March with Alex Figge and Ryan Dalziel partnered by Canada's David Empringham at Sebring to finish 6th in the GT1 category and 10th overall.
Last month's Grand Prix of Atlanta further demonstrated the team's dedication in extracting maximum performance from the C5-R package. Despite being up against the might of the all new factory-backed Corvette C6-R's, Dalziel caught the headlines topping the GT1 timesheets in Saturday practice.
While the factory cars ultimately set the pace on race day, Figge and Dalziel's solid effort saw the #5 Menards-Yokohama Corvette maintain a
100% finishing record with 9th overall and 5th in GT1 class at the chequered flag - and both are eager to attack the twists and turns of Mid-Ohio this weekend."Mid-Ohio's a great track, it definitely ranks as one of America's leading permanent road courses," sad Figge. "I don't know many drivers who don't enjoy racing there and I'm looking forward to getting out in the Corvette.
"I'm optimistic we're going to have a good weekend there. We've shown we can be fast but I think the key to a successful weekend will be maintaining a consistent level throughout practice, qualifying and the race."
"I enjoy racing at Mid-Ohio as it's a great venue and a suitably challenging circuit with all its twists and turns!" added Dalziel. "I last raced here in 2003 in Toyota Atlantics and came away with a podium finish.
"It feels like ages since the last race at Road Atlanta so I'm pretty excited to be getting back behind the wheel, not least as we've been working hard on tire gains and set-up changes which we're confident will improve our performances and keep our momentum going."
Meanwhile, the generous five week break between last month's Road Atlanta event and this weekend's Mid-Ohio race has given PCM the opportunity to take stock of their fledgling sports car campaign while planning for the future both on and off track.
The calendar gap has subsequently seen Ironclad added to the PCM sponsor portfolio with this weekend's event the first opportunity for the team to sport the Ironclad logo alongside principle team sponsor Menards on the car, driver and team uniforms, transporter and pit equipment.
Back on track the team squeezed in a short test last Wednesday, 11th May, at the Infineon Raceway in their native California where Figge and Dalziel were both on hand to put the Corvette C5-R through its paces at the Sonoma circuit - home to Round 5 of the ALMS in mid-July.
"When we raced at Road Atlanta five weeks ago it was the first time out with the new aero configuration on the C5-R and it really changed the balance of the car," commented PCM team director Tyler Tadevic. "As a result we were left playing catch-up while we tried to find a workable set-up for the race.
"Arriving at Mid-Ohio we have a great opportunity to be more competitive thanks to a productive test at Infineon Raceway last week. We all came away happy with the test results and the performance of our Yokohama's.
"We're heading into practice with a good balance on the car, having successfully worked on the aero configuration, as well as a new tire compound to add to our overall competitiveness," he declared.
Round 3 of the 2005 American Le Mans Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course gets underway at Noon EST, Sunday 22nd May, with live network television coverage courtesy of CBS from 1pm-3pm EST.