Monday, July 17, 2006

AJR finishes fourth at Miller Motorsports Park, Utah Driver Change Planned for Portland Grand Prix

Robin Osborne

Round five of the American Le Mans Series took place last weekend at the new Miller Motorsports Park just outside Salt Lake City, Utah. Enduring temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and track temperatures above 135 degrees, Mike Rockenfeller drove the #23 Alex Job Racing/Bell Microproducts/Porsche RSR around the new 23-turn, 4.5 mile track securing a second place starting position on the grid. The 2:44.797 lap time, average speed of 98 mph, would be the best qualifying effort for the team season to date. During the post qualifying technical inspection the #23 car would be found ‘too low’ by one-half of a millimeter forcing Mike Rockenfeller to start the Saturday night race from the last row on the grid. The talented young German would move through the field and into third place by lap 12 and by lap 33 Rockenfeller would make up the prerace deficit and reach second place. On lap 35 Klaus Graf took over the Porsche in second place and would maintain that position until lap 61 when the veteran road racer went off track returning to the circuit in fourth place. “Mike gave me a good car. During the race a lot of debris came onto the track and under the caution period I could feel that I had a lot of pick-up on my tires,” said Graf. “I was heading into turn seven aggressively and my front tires washed out and I went off. It was disappointing for the team; we did a great job to come back from last place.”

“We had a solid second place,” said Alex Job. “We cautioned Klaus on about lap 54 that there was a lot of cars going off of the track and bringing debris on the racing surface. When the yellow came Klaus had a lot of garbage on his tires and subsequently went off in turn seven. The Ferrari had everyone covered, but we were in a position to take second place and go onto Portland with maximum points and a more level playing field.”

ALMS car

Looking to improve their performance this weekend at the Portland International Raceway and round six of the American Le Mans Series, England’s Robin Liddell will partner with AJR regular Mike Rockenfeller. Robin Liddell competed in the series in 2004 in the LMP2 class with Intersport and in the 2005 season with Panoz Motorsports. He is currently running in the Grand American Series with Tafel Racing behind the wheel of a Porsche 997. Robin Liddell is looking forward to returning to the ALMS series. “I’m absolutely thrilled to have been asked to drive the car as I have long been an admirer of Alex Job Racing and their professionalism,” Liddell said. Mike Rockenfeller will visit Portland for the first time. Commenting on the race Mike said “This is another new track for me. I have heard there are some high speed sections and the first turns at the end of the front straight can be hazardous. I have been able to learn these new tracks really easy. The team has been there and won races at Portland, so we should be up to speed right off the truck. Robin is a very good Porsche driver and I am hoping we can get win number two on the season this weekend.” The Portland International Raceway features a 12-turn, 1.94 mile road course with the infamous Festival Curves at the end of the front straight. Alex Job Racing has an excellent Portland track record with wins in 2005, 2004 and 1999. The race will be televised on CBS, tape delayed, on Sunday, July 23rd at 3:00 p.m. EST.

Bell Micro Racing will host its next Relationship Sales Event at the San Jose Grand Prix on Sunday July 30th.