3-19-05
-- For Immediate Release
Alex Job Racing has Disappointing Sebring
Sebring, Florida - Alex Job Racing finished the Mobil
1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in a disappointing thirteenth and fourteenth
place in GT2 this evening in round one of the American Le Mans
Series.
The day started very positive with both Alex Job Racing cars
running strong with the number 23 AJR car leading and the number
24 car in sixth place. Things
began to unravel on lap 20 when Randy Pobst, driving the 24/BellMicroproducts/ProVest/Alex
Job Racing/Porsche 911 GT3, in sixth place began to hear transmission noise. Soon
after third gear had gone, causing his lap times to increase. The team
took the Porsche to the paddock and had to rebuild the transmission. ALMS
series rules no longer allow the replacement of the transmission; teams have
to rebuild the one that started the race in the car. This repair took
about two hours. Upon returning to the track on lap 107, the transmission
problems persisted with a loss of fifth gear. The car could not be
repaired a second time to put it back on the track to complete 70% of race
distance to score points so the car was withdrawn from the race.
The number 23/mail2web.com/Hyatt/Alex Job Racing/Porsche 911 GT3 RSR was
started by defending GT2 series champion Timo Bernhard. Bernhard took the lead
in class on lap three from his third place starting position. He then
handed over to season long teammate Romain Dumas on lap 37 and the French driver
continued to lead the GT2 field. Sascha Maasen assumed the seat early
in the afternoon only to suffer an engine problem that ended the day for
the AJR 23 entry just four hours and 107 laps into the race.
Timo Bernhard, #23 Alex Job Racing/ mail2web.com/Hyatt/Porsche 911 GT3
RSR, "It
has been a long time since I have had an engine related problem in a Porsche. The
car was running great, I took the lead early and we had a very good pace set. This
will make the championship an uphill battle for Romain and me, but we have
nine races to come back. Leaving Sebring with zero points is a tough
start to the season."
Romain Dumas, #23 Alex Job Racing/ mail2web.com/Hyatt/Porsche 911 GT3 RSR: "This
is crazy. We were leading by one lap and not pushing the car too hard. This
is a very unusual failure for the team and for these cars. This is a
bad start to our championship. Timo and I will have additional pressure
to score points the rest of the season."
Sascha Maassen, #23 Alex Job Racing/ mail2web.com/Hyatt/Porsche 911 GT3
RSR: "I
was running great. The car was very good, handling perfect and then I
began to lose power, some white smoke and then it stopped. This is hard
to take after winning four times in a row here. The team does a great
job to prepare these cars and Porsche Motorsport supplies an excellent drivetrain."
Randy Pobst, #24 Alex Job Racing/Bell Microproducts/ProVest/Porsche 911
GT3 RSR: "I was running good, careful to steer clear of any incidents. Around
lap 20 I began to hear a noise when the car was in third gear. Soon after
I lost third gear all together. Without third at this track your times
drop by about seven seconds. It was too early to give up that kind of
time so we had to bring it in and fix it. This is a tough start to
our seson, but we will be ready for Road Atlanta."
Ian Baas, #24 Alex Job Racing/Bell Microproducts/ProVest/Porsche 911 GT3 RSR:
"Disappointing way to start the season. The weekend was going great up
until the race. I hope this takes care of our bad luck for the year. The
professionalism of the team and the whole experience this weekend has been great. I
was able to get acclimated to the car and get a feel for this type of racing. It
makes me look forward to Road Atlanta."
Brian Cunningham, #24 Alex Job Racing/Bell Microproducts/ProVest/Porsche
911 GT3 RSR: "I think I did about one race lap. It was just a tough
day, not an Alex Job Racing Sebring by any stretch. The crew worked their
tales off to the very end. When they were told that we couldn't make
the 70% rule they were dejected."
Alex Job, team owner: "This is the first time since 2000 that we have not finished
an event and the first time in our history of running two cars that we did
not finish at least one. We were running strong in the lead for the first
quarter of the race with the 23 car. The 24 had transmission problems
from the 20th lap. This is a tough one to give up, it will be difficult
to make up the Sebring bonus points. We will have to start our Sebring
winning streak over in 2006."
Sebring GT2 Top Ten Finishers:
1. Long/Bergmeister/Luhr Porsche
2. Jackson/Sugden/Jonsson Porsche
3. van Overbeek/Fogarty/Law Porsche
4. Krohn/Sluszny/Cawley Porsche
5. Barazi/Vergers/Thompson Porsche
6. Ivankovich/Pumpelly/Lally Porsche
7. Maxwell/Sellers/Jeannette Panoz
8. Burgess/Rockenfeller/Jensen Porsche
9. Hyne/Pearce/Dean Porsche
10. Tomilson/Hughes/Kane TVR
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13. Pobst/Baas/Cunningham AJR Porsche
14. Bernhard/Dumas/Maassen AJR Porsche
The next event for Alex Job Racing will be April 17th at Road Atlanta.
AJR thanks team sponsors mail2web.com, Hyatt, Bell Microproducts, ProVest and
partners Mobil 1, Michelin, Puma and ZF Sachs.
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