{"id":646,"date":"2017-10-03T19:55:16","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T23:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=646"},"modified":"2023-05-03T16:19:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T20:19:08","slug":"visit-florida-racing-set-for-petit-le-mans-at-road-atlanta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/03\/visit-florida-racing-set-for-petit-le-mans-at-road-atlanta\/","title":{"rendered":"VISIT FLORIDA Racing Set for Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta"},"content":{"rendered":"

EVENT:\u00a0<\/strong>Round 10 & season-finale of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, 10 hours<\/p>\n

TRACK:<\/strong>\u00a0Road Atlanta is a 12-turn, 2.54-mile road course about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta, Georgia.<\/p>\n

BROADCAST INFORMATION \u2013\u00a0SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7<\/span><\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

TELEVISION:<\/strong>
\n10:30 AM \u2013 11:30 AM<\/span><\/span>\u00a0FS1
\n11:30 AM \u2013 2:30 PM<\/span><\/span>\u00a0FS2
\n5:00 PM \u2013 9:30 PM<\/span><\/span>\u00a0FS2<\/p>\n

Radio:\u00a0<\/strong>www.radiolemans.com<\/a><\/p>\n

DRIVER LINE-UP:<\/strong>\u00a0Marc Goossens (Belgium), Renger van der Zande (Netherlands), Jonathan Bomarito (USA)<\/p>\n

THE ADDITION OF BOMARITO:<\/strong>\u00a0An IMSA race winner with multiple pole positions and podium finishes to his credit,\u00a0Bomarito\u00a0is on loan to VISIT\u00a0FLORIDA Racing from Mazda Motorsports for the 10-hour endurance race. He has\u00a0made five starts in the Petit Le Mans and scored two podium results earlier this year with a run to third place in the Long Beach Grand Prix and in the Sahlen\u2019s 6 Hours of the Glen on board the No. 55 Mazda Prototype. With the Mazda Prototype program on hiatus for an extensive testing program,\u00a0Bomarito\u00a0is not only available to race, but also already has a good working relationship with both full-season VISIT FLORIDA drivers.<\/p>\n

VISIT FLORIDA Racing endurance driver Ren\u00e9\u00a0Rast, who scored a podium finish with the squad in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, will remain in Europe during the Petit Le Mans event while he focuses on the DTM Championship title. He currently sits second in the DTM\u00a0standings, with just one race remaining.<\/p>\n

LOOKING BACK AT MAZDA RACEWAY:\u00a0<\/strong>With a clever strategy, outstanding teamwork, and some bold moves from drivers Marc Goossens and Renger van der Zande,\u00a0VISIT\u00a0FLORIDA\u00a0Racing\u00a0scored a dramatic victory in the closing moments in the previous IMSA event at Mazda Raceway\u00a0Laguna\u00a0Seca. The victory marked the third at the track for the team having won in 2012 and 2015 in a Daytona Prototype, and was the third consecutive podium result at the\u00a0\"\"2.238-mile circuit for\u00a0VISIT\u00a0FLORIDA\u00a0Racing. It was also the second podium of the season for the team, which opened the year with a run to third place in the Rolex 24 At Daytona.<\/p>\n

VISIT FLORIDA RACING IN THE PETIT LE MANS:\u00a0<\/strong>VISIT FLORIDA Racing has made three starts in the Petit Le Mans with a best finish of fifth in 2015. The 2017 event marks the first entry into the classic race with the Ligier JS P217 and the team looks to continue its winning ways with another positive performance at Petit as Ligier looks to win two consecutive Petit Le Mans events.<\/p>\n

DRIVERS AT PETIT LE MANS:\u00a0<\/strong>Both Renger van der Zande and Marc Goossens have sprayed the podium champagne at Petit Le Mans. Renger van der Zande finished first in 2014 and followed that result up with a runner-up finish in 2015 \u2013 both in the LMPC category. Goossens has finished third in the event twice (2014 & 2015) while driving the SRT Viper in the GTD category. Jonathan Bomarito has competed in the event five times with a best finish of fifth in 2013 while driving the SRT Viper in the American Le Mans Series.<\/p>\n

CAR\u00a0SPECS: Ligier JS P2\u00a0<\/strong>
\nChassis\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>Monocoque Carbon \/ HP Composites
\nSafety equipment\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>Crushable Nose box, 6 point safety harness, Onboard fire suppression system, Air conditioned cockpit for driver safety and comfort.
\nTransmission\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>Hewland six-speed sequential, paddle operated rear wheel drive.
\nSteering \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>KYB electrical power-assisted steering
\nIMSA Weight \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>930 kg<\/p>\n

MICHAEL HARVEY:<\/strong>\u00a0Prior to the 2017 season,\u00a0VISIT\u00a0FLORIDA\u00a0Racing\u00a0added Michael Harvey to the team as Director of Race Operations. Harvey, who has a long and varied range of experience in the sport, most recently managed the competition efforts for Fall-Line Motorsports\u2019 multiple-championship winning programs in IMSA and SCCA competition as well as serving as a\u00a0Series Director\u00a0for the Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA series.<\/p>\n

NEW PARTNERS FOR 2017:<\/strong>\u00a0In addition to longtime partner\u00a0VISIT\u00a0FLORIDA,\u00a0VISIT\u00a0FLORIDA\u00a0Racing\u00a0has partnered with: Speed Chills, iRacing, Motegi\u00a0Racing, RTIC,\u00a0Go Puck, GoPro, Burt & Scheld, Under Armour, and Whelen.<\/p>\n

DRIVER QUOTES:<\/strong><\/p>\n

MARC GOOSSENS:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cRoad Atlanta is a great track \u2013 a driver\u2019s track with a lot of challenging corners and plenty of elevation changes. The race itself is always pretty good there too. It\u2019s a long, 10 hour race with lots of passing in traffic. So it is very important to stay focused. Patience sometimes gets rewarded big time at Road Atlanta.\u00a0After our win at Laguna Seca, we can hopefully keep the momentum going for a strong result at the Petit Le Mans event.\u201d<\/p>\n

RENGER VAN DER ZANDE:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cWe are carrying some good momentum from Laguna and we\u2019re happy to give it another go at Road Atlanta. The track is uphill, downhill \u2013 there is everything in it \u2013 but what makes it especially challenging is the traffic. There needs to be a good combination of safe driving between the classes to work together. For example in Prototype, when you approach Turn 3 and exit Turn 3, whether the slower cars give us room or not is a big thing. You cannot take the room. You really have to make sure that they see you and that when you get to the corner, you\u2019re not going to touch because it will end up in a big one. So for me the biggest challenge is to get through traffic in a good and safe way.\u201d<\/p>\n

JONATHAN BOMARITO:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThe Petit Le Mans race is one of my favorites on the IMSA Weathertech schedule. Marc (Goossens) and Renger (van der Zande) are coming off of a great win and I am really looking forward to driving with both of them. This is a very tough race, the pace will be flat out while encountering non-stop traffic. The right combination of patience and aggression is key.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EVENT:\u00a0Round 10 & season-finale of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, 10 hours TRACK:\u00a0Road Atlanta is a 12-turn, 2.54-mile road course about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta, [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-646","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\/646","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=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":648,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions\/648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}