{"id":6267,"date":"2023-07-31T13:25:14","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T17:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=6267"},"modified":"2023-08-08T09:19:21","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T13:19:21","slug":"sean-creech-motorsport-looking-for-more-at-road-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/31\/sean-creech-motorsport-looking-for-more-at-road-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Creech Motorsport looking for more at Road America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nico Pino to sub\u00a0for Lance Willsey as the team looks for that elusive victory<\/em><\/p>\n

JUPITER, Fla. (31 July 2023) \u2013 Sean Creech has competed in in a multitude of sports car series from 1990 until the present day, including Group C, IMSA GTP,\u00a0WSC, Grand-Am, and the\u00a0SRO World Challenge. But last year\u2019s IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America marked a new milestone for the veteran racer: the first time his eponymous team earned a pole position in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, setting a new LMP3 track record in the process.<\/p>\n

The team returns to Road America for the two hour and 40-minute IMSA SportsCar Weekend, determined to capture that elusive top step of the podium. Chilean Nico Pino \u2013 the team\u2019s endurance race driver \u2013 joins Jo\u00e3o Barbosa as Lance Willsey will be absent due to other commitments. After weeks spent studying video and working on the simulator, Pino will see his first action on the legendary 14-turn, 4.048-mile circuit on Friday.<\/p>\n

Sean Creech Motorsport moved to the WeatherTech series in 2021, having captured the IMSA Prototype Challenge championship title in 2018. The team parlayed victory at the 2022 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring into a run at the championship title, a top-three finish in the Michelin Endurance Cup (awarding points through the four endurance classics) and a pole position at Road America.<\/p>\n

But in last year\u2019s race, the No. 33 SCM Focal One Ligier JS P320 was caught up in another car\u2019s off-road excursion after an early-race rainstorm, ending the team\u2019s day. But as the team prepares to return to the legendary Wisconsin circuit, Barbosa knows that the team\u2019s hard work has paid off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I think that pole position showed is how prepared we were last year,\u201d said Barbosa. \u201cAnd I have to say, I feel that we\u2019re even more prepared this year given all the experience we\u2019ve accumulated. Everyone really took notice of the team last year, with the win at Sebring and with the pole here. We were competitive everywhere and that trend is continuing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barbosa continued: \u201cWe were having a great race here last year but unfortunately, we were involved in someone else\u2019s mistake. It\u2019s so disappointing: the team did a great job all weekend, we had a strong car \u2013 but unfortunately, we couldn\u2019t show it at the end where it mattered. We\u2019ll look forward to making up for that this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every team looks forward to racing at one of the most scenic racetracks in North America, and one that is an absolute fan favorite. Even the names of the turns \u2013 Hurry Downs, Kettle Bottoms and the Carousel \u2013 are famous the world over.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoad America is such an old-school racetrack,\u201d said Barbosa, who has four podiums including a victory at the legendary circuit. \u201cI mean that in the best way possible. It\u2019s also quite unforgiving so a mistake in the wrong place can be very costly. With the right pavement, it will make for even better racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of pavement \u2013 added to the mix this year is the off-season complete repaving of the circuit \u2013 a repaving that ensures that more than a few of the team members will be paying attention to other series racing at Road America before the IMSA weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a good setup to start with, but we tested here in July to make sure we knew everything we needed to know about the new racing surface,\u201d said Creech. \u201cBut we know some things won\u2019t change \u2013 you need the top speed, that\u2019s first and foremost, but you also have to balance that with speed through the Carousel and the Kink. That balance is the key to going fast at Road America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had two good days of testing here two weeks ago, which is good, because the track is so different than it was last year,\u201d said Barbosa. \u201cIt will be quite a challenge \u2013 the track is considerably faster but it\u2019s still slippery offline. We\u2019ll see if that changed after NASCAR was here last weekend. It\u2019s great to have Nico back with us, we\u2019re looking forward to a good result.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Pino, it may come as an advantage to be learning the circuit now, coming to the race weekend with no preconceptions about the racing line \u2013 since that line has obviously changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoad America looks very challenging,\u201d said Pino, 18. \u201cIt\u2019s a very long track, very challenging. It reminds me of some of the British circuits, with the wall and the grass so close to you all the time. There\u2019s no margin for mistakes but I like those kinds of tracks, where you have to be on point all the time. The main goal is obviously to get the win \u2013 strategy is so important in the shorter races and I know we\u2019ll be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team recently announced its entry into the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship\u2019s LMP2 class, with its recent addition of a Ligier JS P217. SCM will continue the season with a dual focus \u2013 finishing the 2023 season on a high note and preparing for 2024.<\/p>\n

SCM thanks team partner Focal One for their continued support.<\/p>\n

The IMSA SportsCar Weekend main event takes the green flag Sunday at 11:10 a.m. Eastern. The race will be broadcast live in the U.S. on USA Network and Peacock. International viewers can watch via IMSA.tv, with IMSA Radio also available at IMSA.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nico Pino to sub\u00a0for Lance Willsey as the team looks for that elusive victory JUPITER, Fla. (31 July 2023) \u2013 Sean Creech has competed in in [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sean-creech-motorsports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267","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=6267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6269,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267\/revisions\/6269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}