TAVARES, Fla. - The Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team looks to finish off the 2008 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series season with a win in Saturday's SunRichGourmet.com 1000 at Miller Motorsports Park.
But, in order to win Saturday's season finale, drivers Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand will first have to endure seven hours or 1000 kilometers (which ever happens first) on North America's longest road course, which is 4.486-miles and features 24 turns. Heading into Miller, it appears that Auberlen and Hand are primed to capture their first victory of the season as the duo is coming off a third-place finish at the newly-built New Jersey Motorsports Park nearly three weeks ago.
"I'm looking forward to going back to Miller Motorsports Park," Hand said. "It's an awesome facility and one of the greatest race tracks on our schedule. Last year, Bill and I were fast in the Sigalsport BMW Riley and I see no reason why we should not be a team to beat this year in the Ruby Tuesday Porsche Riley.
"The team has given us great race cars right out of the trailer the last few races. If we can start the weekend off like we did in New Jersey, we will be in great shape. The track is similar to New Jersey, so we're hoping our New Jersey setup matches up well. It's too bad that we are in the last race of the season, because this Ruby Tuesday team has just now gotten all our ducks in a row and are ready to win races."
"I love the place," Auberlen said of Miller. "We've addressed a couple of little things with the car from last race, so we should be good. I think we are just now hitting our stride. We are now consistently running up front and this is where we need to try like heck to pull this one out and finish on the top step of the podium."
"I can't believe we are already heading into the season finale this weekend," Team Owner Alex Job said. "This season has gone by so fast. And though we did not have the type of season we all expected to have, I think our team has really put together a solid effort these last few races and the only thing we need to finish the season strong is a win. Given our third-place finish at New Jersey Motorsports Park three weeks ago, I have every reason to believe that our crew and our engineer Greg Fordahl can give Bill and Joey a race-winning car this weekend."
Auberlen and Hand will drive the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team Porsche-powered Riley Daytona Prototype for the final time this season looking to add a victory to its already solid list of race finishes, which includes two podiums, three top-five and six top-10 finishes. In fact, in the last three races, the team's average finish is fifth. And speaking of fifth, the Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team finished fifth in this race last year.
After a day-long promoter test day today, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series combined DP and GT practice gets underway with an hour-long session beginning at 10:20 a.m. (MT). tomorrow, immediately followed by a 30-minute DP only session at 11:20 a.m. (MT). Tomorrow's schedule also includes DP qualifying set to begin at 3:30 p.m. (MT). The season finale SunRichGourmet.com 1000 will start at 11:08 a.m. (MT) Saturday, Sept. 20. SPEED will air the race live, in its entirety, beginning at 1 p.m. (ET). Fans can also watch live timing and scoring at www.grand-am.com.
|
