TAVARES, Fla. - The Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team heads to Virginia International Raceway April 26-27 for the Bosch Engineering 250, the site of an incredible last lap, last turn pass that gave the team its second Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series win two years ago.
The team looks to replicate that effort this year with drivers Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand piloting the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team Porsche-powered Crawford Daytona Prototype. But, to accomplish this, the team will most certainly need to hit the car set up right out of the trailer due to the quick turnaround time between practice and qualifying on Saturday.
"VIR is one of my favorite tracks," Hand said. "It is one of the great American racetracks. But, it's not known for it quite yet. I love it. It's a high-speed track with a long straightaway, fast Esses, and low-speed corners. You have a little bit of everything. I've done a lot of driving there. Bill and I have some good history at VIR. But, this weekend, it's just a matter of hitting the set up right out of the truck. It's going to be fun."
"We won this race two years ago," team owner Alex Job said. "So, we know how to win at VIR. And, you couple that with the fact that Bill and Joey have both won at this track and you've got to like our chances to do well here again. Just like every race this season, we will need to hit the set up early in the weekend because there is not much time between practice and qualifying on Saturday. But, I am confident in what our team can do in a short amount of time. They've done it pretty consistently all season."
Auberlen and Hand have enjoyed success at VIR. In fact, they won the Koni Challenge GS season finale at VIR last year. Currently, the teammates are 13th in the Daytona Prototype driver point standings with 66 points (36 points behind the point leaders), while the Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team is seventh in the Daytona Prototype team point standings with 66 points.
The No. 23 Ruby Tuesday machine will take to the track at 10:15 a.m. (EDT) Saturday, April 26 for its first practice session, with a DP only practice session immediately following at 11:15 a.m. (EDT). At 2:30 p.m. (EDT), a 25-minute combined practice session begins, followed by a 15-minute DP qualifying session at 3:50 p.m. (EDT). Round four of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series starts at 1 p.m. (EDT) Sunday, April 27. This weekend's race will air at noon (EDT) Saturday, May 3 on SPEED.
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