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michelinalley.com

Viper shoots for hat trick

DODGE VIPER BACK IN CANADA WITH NEW/OlD lIVERy

H istory sometimes repeats itself, and for the Dodge Viper team a little historical repeat at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) would be just fine, thank you.

Returning to the classic red and white livery made famous by the original Dodge Vipers, the second generation Viper team is looking to complete a hat trick, by adding a third GT victory here at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (Mosport) to the two scored by the original team in 1999 and 2000.

The team’s first appearance in 13 years here in 2013 was impressive as the Vipers led early, finished a strong 2-3 and claimed the pole. This year, they look to go one better.

“We are all excited about being back,” said 2013 GT pole winner Jonathan Bomarito (pictured right) of his return with co-driver Kuno Wittmer of Montreal (pictured far right). “Last year was my first time here and we won the pole and Kuno and I got the first podium for the #93 car.”

The recent return to the red and white livery has special meaning for Bomarito.

“When I was a kid just starting racing and saw the red and white Oreca Vipers at Laguna Seca, I never dreamed that I would be driving one now. The classic look brings back the tradition and since the red and white Vipers won here twice before, I’ll use that as motivation, too.”

The 10 turn, 2.459 mile circuit is not for the faint of heart. Former champion Klaus Graf describes it as “a big boy circuit” meaning it offers big rewards but carries significant risks on its high speed corners.

“It is a daunting place,” said Bomarito. “Kuno has been here a lot, so that helped, and the team gave me most of the track time during practice. It takes a lot of confidence to deal with

the blind crests and rises. The track is fast with a good flow that really matches our car well.”

“The flowing tracks like Watkins Glen, CTMP and Road America really suit the Viper,” said teammate Dominik

Farnbacher who with co-driver Marc “the Goose” Goossens gave Viper its first victory at Road America last August. “The elevation changes are also good as we have the torque to help us on the uphill sections. I think we will be strong here in Canada.”

Taking that final step to the top of the podium won’t be easy. The Vipers face fierce competition from the factory Porsche North America team, winners at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring; the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship leading and Long Beach, Monterey and Watkins Glen winning Corvette Racing, and the overdue BMW Team RLL, and Risi Competizione Ferrari squads in addition to the independent Falken Porsche.

The driver line-ups are also impressive. Corvette Racing features 2013 ALMS GT Champions Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia and the 2012 champions and defending CTMP class champions Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin.

The Porsche factory counters with former champion Patrick Long teamed with newcomer Michael Christensen and 2013 Petit Le Mans winner Nick Tandy matched with Richard Lietz.

Former champions BMW Team RLL, led by Bobby Rahal, puts BMW icon Bill Auberlen with three-time World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx while former champ Dirk Mueller is paired with young star John Edwards.

Risi Ferrari puts former F1 star and 2014 Le Mans 24 Hour race GTE-Pro winner Giancarlo Fisichella with Pierre Kaffer. Falken counters with Porsche factory shoe Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers.

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Photo: Richard Prince

“The GT class is incredibly tough racing. It’s exciting and everyone is very motivated,” said Bomarito. “You know the teams and drivers are good. You try to elevate your best. You want to be prepared and not waste any time in practice. If you can get up to speed three laps quicker that can give you one more change that may help you pick up a gain. You have to be 100 percent every practice, every lap.”

“The competition in our class is, ‘Wow!’ the strongest ever. There are five manufacturers here and they are all top notch,” said Farnbacher.

Now in its second full season of competition, one of the keys to growing confidence is continuity. “Continuity really helps,” said Bomarito. “We’ve been together almost three years now. We have the same teammates, crew and engineering staff. Over time we start to understand each other better and better. They know by the tone of the driver’s voice what the driver is dealing with.”

“That makes success hugely rewarding and gives the whole team a lot of satisfaction,” said Bomarito. “To win in this competition would provide a huge sense of accomplishment.”

And it would make some new Viper history.

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VIPERSshooting for Canadian hat trick

4 PROTOTyPECat & Mouse

Fans may be in for an exciting game of cat and mouse here at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP).

Recent lap times show that the IMSA technical group has largely succeeded in finding a combination to equate the performance of the former GRAND AM Daytona Prototype (DP) cars with the former American Le Mans Series P2 entries as the two are merged in the new 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Through the first six races of the TUDOR Championship, five different cars from four different manufacturers have set the fastest lap of the race. The Corvette DP of Action Express (Daytona), the Honda P2 of Extreme Speed Motorsports (Sebring), the Michael Shank DP EcoBoost Ford (Long Beach), the Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP (Detroit) and the P2 Oak Racing Nissan team (Monterey and Watkins Glen) have each set fastest race laps.

However, as may be expected in the early days of a major change, there is still a catch. After the first six races of the

TUDOR Championship, the DPs have claimed five victories to a single

win for the P2s. That is where the game of cat and

mouse begins.

The most recent example played out in the final laps at Watkins Glen where the Spirit of Daytona overpowered the race leading Oak Nissan on a late restart to claim the win by 0.87 seconds.

“The cars get their lap times in different ways,” said the sole P2 winner to date, Johannes van Overbeek, who co-drives an Extreme Speed Motorsports Honda with Patron exec Ed Brown. “Our P2 cars have more downforce, so we have the advantage in high speed corners. The DPs have more power and more torque on acceleration and straightaways. It is pretty tough to performance balance that,” said van Overbeek.

Still, van Overbeek sees a window of P2 opportunity here at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The California ace expects that the layout at CTMP will see the two groups demonstrating their opposing strengths. The P2s from Scott Sharp’s Extreme Speed Motorsports Honda, Oak Racing Nissan and Mazda SkyActive will likely have the cornering speed advantage from Turn 1 around through Moss Corner (Turn 5). “From the exit of Turn 5 the DPs will likely have the advantage all the way to Turn 9,” said van Overbeek.

If the Corvette DPs from Action Express, Wayne Taylor Racing or Spirit of Daytona Racing or the Ford Ecoboost-powered Chip Ganassi Racing and

Michael Shank Racing cars get by the P2s on the straightaway, “it will be tough for us to get them back before start/finish. Their biggest advantage is on the straights and in traffic,” said van Overbeek.

Of course, if a P2 car is able open up a big enough gap to survive the straightaway losses, it will be game on as the P2 car tries to further extend the gap through the first five corners. The best opportunity may be in the second half of a long green flag run as the P2 cars appear able to better maintain consistent lap times.

“This is one of my favorite tracks. I’ve always done well here and the P2 cars have more experience than the DPs here, so maybe Ed and I, or our teammates Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel can put another win together,” said van Overbeek.

“We had a perfect race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca,” said van Overbeek. “The car was good right away. Ed did a great opening stint. The pit stops were great. It was one of those races where everything just went right. It was especially nice since that is my home race and a lot of family and friends were there,” said van Overbeek.

Perhaps another perfect race is in order, or maybe an extended game of cat and mouse.

5PROTOTyPECat & Mouse

One way to track the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship is with an appetite. After calamari in Monterey, Coney Islands in Detroit and steaks at Watkins Glen, teams will hit the poutine here in Canada.

Coming up next: Pork tenderloins at Indianapolis Motor Speedway followed by Bratwurst and roasted corn at Road America. Oh, yeah.

Better and BetterIt seems like every year the IMSA teams arrive at Canadian

Tire Motorsport Park and marvel at another batch of track improvements by Ron Fellows and the CTMP leadership. This year the new paddock is drawing great comments. Judging by the increased attendance and sponsorships, the plan to improve the facilities for teams and fans while retaining the character of the great circuit is a winning formula.

6 FAST FACTS

2014 Schedule

January 25-26 Rolex 24 at Daytona

March 15 Twelve Hours of Sebring

April 12 Long Beach (P and GTLM only)

May 4 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

May 31 Raceway At Belle Isle Park (P, PC & GTD only)

June 7 Kansas Speedway (PC only)

June 29 Six Hours of The Glen

July 13 Canadian Tire Motorsport Park

July 25 Indianapolis Motor Speedway

August 10 Road America

August 24 VIR (GTLM/GTD race; PC race)

September 20 Circuit of The Americas

October 4 Petit Le Mans

Watch us now on Fox

All the action of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship races from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park can be seen flag to flag on the Fox Sports 1 network. International fans will also be able to see the race live on IMSA.com.

July 13Canadian Tire Motorsport Park2:00 – 5:00 pm (EDT) on FOXSports1 (Live)

Hungry?

Smellingveryfresh

Dominick Farnbacher says his most difficult challenge of the season came while driving to the Watkins Glen race with Dodge Viper SRT teammate Kuno Wittmer. It seems that the pair of Kuno’s well-worn hockey gloves they were taking for use in the cover photo shoot for The Alley look great, they just, ummm, don’t smell very good. The Viper boys did however finish second and third at Watkins Glen.

7FAST FACTS“Bill may be 45 years old, but he is a driving like a 25 year old. What I love about racing

here is that it doesn’t matter if you are 21, 31 or 41 as long as you are fast.”

Andy PriAulx on his BMW TeAM rll co-driver Bill AuBerlen.

Friday, July 11, 20148:00 am - 8:45 am Practice #2 - CTSC

9:00 am - 9:30 am Practice #2 - MX-5

9:45 am - 10:20 am Practice #2 - IMSA Lites

10:35 am - 10:55 am Qualifying - GT3 Cup

11:10 am - 11:40 am Qualifying - Lamborghini

11:55 am -12:55 pm Practice #1 - TUDOR (All Classes)

1:55 pm - 2:25 pm Qualifying - MX-5

2:40 pm - 2:55 pm Qualifying - CTSC ST

3:10 pm - 3:25 pm Qualifying - CTSC GS

3:40 pm - 4:00 pm Qualifying - IMSA Lites

4:15 pm - 5:15 pm Practice #2 - TUDOR (All Classes)

5:40 pm - 6:25 pm Race #1 - GT3 Cup

Saturday, July 12, 20148:00 am - 8:45 am Race #1 - MX-5

8:55 am - 9:45 am Race #1 - Lamborghini

10:10 am - 10:55 am Race #2 - GT3 Cup

11:10 am -12:10 pm Practice #3 - TUDOR (All Classes)

1:15 pm - 3:45 pm Race - CTSC

4:00 pm - 4:45 pm TUDOR Autograph Session

4:20 pm - 5:05 pm Race #2 - MX-5

5:20 pm - 5:35 pm Qualifying - TUDOR (GTD)

5:40 pm - 5:55 pm Qualifying - TUDOR (GTLM)

6:05 pm - 6:20 pm Qualifying - TUDOR (P)

6:45 pm - 7:15 pm Race #1 - IMSA Lites

Sunday, July 13, 20149:00 am - 9:20 am Warm Up - TUDOR (All Classes)

9:50 am - 10:35 am Race #2 - IMSA Lites

10:55 am - 11:45 am Race #2 - Lamborghini

2:05 pm - 4:50 pm Race - Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix Presented by Hawk Performance for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship

Canadian fans will have a pair of drivers to cheer for here in the only TUDOR United SportsCar Championship stop in Canada, as this is the “home” race for two top drivers. Michael Valiante of Burnaby, who teamed with England’s Richard Westbrook aboard the Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP prototype for the overall victory at Watkins Glen, will be fighting for the race win. Meanwhile, Montreal’s Kuno Wittmer will seek the GT LM win aboard the #93 Dodge Viper.

“Home” boys

06BMW

Auberlen/Priaulx BMW Team RLL • BMW Z4 GTEGT Le Mans Michelin

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FAN

FAVORITES

Michelin North America, Inc • One Parkway South, • Greenville, SC 29615 • TEL: 1-800-458-5000 • www.michelin.com • Printed in USA, July 9, 2014 • Volume 8, Issue 6No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior permission of the publisher. • Copyright © 2014 Michelin North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Printed on recycled paper • 10% Total Recovered Fiber • All Post-Consumed Fiber

CORVETTE

Magnussen/GarciaCorvette Racing • Chevrolet Corvette C7.RGT Le Mans Michelin

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HONDA – HPD

Sharp/DalzielExtreme Speed Motorsports • HPD ARX-03b Prototype Continental

1

FERRARI

Fisichella/Kaffer Risi Competizione • Ferrari F458 ItaliaGT Le Mans Michelin

62CORVETTE DP

Westbrook/Valiante Spirit of Daytona Racing • Corvette DPPrototype Continental

90 PORSCHE

Dempsey/Davis Dempsey Racing • Porsche 911 GT America GT Daytona Continental

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93DODGE VIPER Wittmer/Bomarito SRT Motorsports • Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R GT Le Mans Michelin

See the video of the Dominick Farnbacher talking about the Viper’s winning heritage in Canada.

Smartphone scancode here

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FORD RIlEy DP

Pruett/RojasChip Ganassi Racing • Ford Riley DP Prototype Continental

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Long/Christensen Porsche North America • Porsche 911 RSR GT Le Mans Michelin

PORSCHE 912NISSAN – MORGAN

Pla/Yacaman Oak Racing • Nissan - Morgan Prototype Continental

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