BRASELTON, GA (8 October 2019) –Rebel Rock Racing will be looking for a strong finish to the 2019 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season in Friday’s Fox Factory 120 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta (www.imsa.tv, 1:15 PM ET livestream).
Rebel Rock Racing drivers Frank DePew and Robin Liddell enter the IMSA finale with five top-10 finishes in the No. 71 Urban Grid Solar/MVP Capital Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R, including victories at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Road America, plus a pair of fourths in the team’s full-time return to the series.
Running as a professional for the first time at Michelin Raceway, DePew has many years of experience at the challenging 12-turn, 2.54-mile circuit in Porsche Club and HSR historic events.
“I enjoy Road Atlanta – it’s a great track and a fitting place to end the season,” DePew said. “I have a fair amount of experience there, so I’m comfortable at the track.”
DePew is coming off a solid opening stint at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, where he managed the pace and the traffic to help position the team for a top-ten finish.
“I was happy with that, especially since it was my first time at that track and I was still learning,” DePew said. “I managed to maintain a consistent pace throughout the stint without regard to the tires falling off, which meant that I continued to get better on the track. Otherwise, I would have gotten slower with the tires falling off. I’m happy, but I would certainly like to be quicker, and I’m working on it.”
Liddell won the 2004 Petit Le Mans in the LMP2 class, in addition to winning in GT2 in an ALMS race in 2005. In 2013, Liddell won the IMSA WeatherTech (then GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series) event on board a Camaro.
“I’ve had some very good days at Road Atlanta, it is a fast track that has a little bit of everything for the drivers,” said Liddell, who has seen his amazing late-race surge at Road America go viral. “Frank (DePew) has done a remarkable job on the weekends where he’s seeing the track for the first time, so to go to Atlanta with him already knowing the track, that is a big boost. It is a little hard to believe that we are already at the last race of the year, but the team has come a very long way in a relatively short period of time. We will continue to focus on how we execute everything as a team all weekend long and look to end the year with another strong finish.”
The team is currently eighth in the GS standings – a position DePew would like to maintain or even better in the finale.
“The team ahead of us has us by 20 points, which would be a tall order, and we have a few teams nipping at our heels,” said DePew. “It’s important that we go out there and put our best foot forward, to make sure that we stay in the top 10 and possibly move up a position in the championship. We want to keep the car clean, drive consistently and see if the race comes to us.”
Practice for the Fox Factory 120 begins on Thursday, followed by GS qualifying at 4:55 p.m. ET. The two-hour race takes the green flag at 1:25 p.m. ET on Friday, and will be streamed live on IMSA.com.