{"id":3035,"date":"2021-03-17T13:36:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T17:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=3035"},"modified":"2023-05-03T16:32:21","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T20:32:21","slug":"stoner-car-care-racing-looks-for-success-at-home-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/17\/stoner-car-care-racing-looks-for-success-at-home-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Stoner Car Care Racing Looks for Success at Home Track"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran team ready to put local knowledge in play at this week\u2019s Alan Jay Automotive 120<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ORLANDO, Fla. (16 March 2021) \u2013 As a home race for Stoner Car Care Racing fielded by Automatic Racing, local knowledge of Sebring International Raceway flows freely throughout the team.<\/p>\n

That knowledge will be a vital component in this week\u2019s Alan Jay Automotive Network 120, race two of the 2021 Michelin Pilot Challenge season (Friday, 2:35pm ET, TRACKPASS).<\/p>\n

Veteran Rob Ecklin Jr. (Lancaster, Pa.) will be joined by Brandon Kidd (Syracuse, NY) behind the wheel of the No. 09 Stoner Car Care Aston Martin Vantage GT4, with Kidd competing in his first race at the iconic 3.74-mile road course. Friday\u2019s race will be the precursor to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship\u2019s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.<\/p>\n

Kidd joined the team four years ago following a successful ARCA, late-model and karting career. Given Sebring\u2019s legendary history \u2013 and knowing how much of a knowledge base the team has \u2013 Kidd can\u2019t wait for the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrivers rave about Sebring and how awesome a track it is to race at, so I finally get my chance to \u2018respect the bumps!\u201d\u2019 said Kidd. \u201cI\u2019ve been to the track, but I\u2019ve never raced there before, so this will definitely be a learning experience. I\u2019ve been working on the sim via iRacing and from what I can see on the videos, it\u2019s a very accurate depiction of the track in regard to visual cues. I\u2019ll be as prepared as I can be once I get there on Wednesday. It\u2019s only been two months since Daytona so the track should be the only new variable.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m used to jumping into a new racetrack,\u201d continued Kidd. \u201cWhen I joined the team, all the tracks were new to me, but because I worked on the sim so much, I got up to speed quickly. Hopefully this will be no different!\u201d<\/p>\n

With 11 years of experience with the team and at the racetrack, Ecklin looks forward to bringing Kidd up to speed on the nuances and pitfalls of Sebring.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t make a mistake there, on pit lane or on track, and luck is always involved,\u201d said Ecklin. \u201cBut the main keys are to drive fast, no contact, no penalties: that\u2019s always our goal, and that\u2019s no different for Sebring. But it\u2019s always fun to race here, between the challenge of the track and the weather, and the history. To race on a track that was born out of WWII, and all the names on the wall along pit lane, it\u2019s as though you\u2019re part of its history.\u201d<\/p>\n

With mid-week temperatures expected to reach 90 degrees, Automatic Racing team manager David Russell knows that preparation for drivers and car is crucial, especially given the physical nature of the racetrack itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Brandon, it\u2019s all about preparation going into the event,\u201d said Russell. \u201cHe can get the site pictures down on the sim, but he also has good in-car video and notes from Tom Long (the veteran racer who has driven with the team on several occasions) so he\u2019ll be prepared when he gets there \u2013 except of course, for the bumps. He\u2019s been a quick study at all the tracks we\u2019ve raced at that are new to him, that\u2019s one of his strengths. And Rob knows the track intimately, so Rob can transfer some of that expertise. It\u2019s our home track as well, so there\u2019s plenty of available local knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cSebring is a very technical track and one of the most physical racetracks we go to, because you\u2019re busy all the time. You\u2019re constantly dealing with something, whether it\u2019s the bumps or the changes to the track surface. But I\u2019m confident that both drivers will be ready come Friday!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 takes the green flag Friday, March 19 at 2:35 p.m. Eastern. The race will be broadcast live in the U.S. on NBC Sports Gold\u2019s TrackPass, while international viewers can watch via\u00a0IMSA.tv<\/a>. IMSA Radio will also be available at\u00a0IMSA.com<\/a>. NBCSN will broadcast a two-hour race recap on Friday, April 2 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (check local listings).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran team ready to put local knowledge in play at this week\u2019s Alan Jay Automotive 120   ORLANDO, Fla. (16 March 2021) \u2013 As a home [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3037,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions\/3037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}