{"id":6884,"date":"2024-03-18T19:15:51","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T23:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=6884"},"modified":"2024-03-18T19:15:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T23:15:51","slug":"mixed-results-for-racing-to-end-alzheimers-at-sebring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/18\/mixed-results-for-racing-to-end-alzheimers-at-sebring\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed results for Racing to End Alzheimer\u2019s at Sebring"},"content":{"rendered":"

A difficult pair of races to begin the 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup season balanced by a record number of names honoring loved ones who have suffered from dementia and Alzheimer’s\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

SEBRING, Fla. (18 March 2023) \u2013 The Racing to End Alzheimer’s team was fast \u2013 but unlucky \u2013 in the opening round of the 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup North America campaign at Sebring International Raceway this past weekend.<\/p>\n

Racing to End Alzheimer’s champion driver Mark Kvamme entered the weekend beginning a quest for his third-consecutive championship in the renamed Masters category.<\/p>\n

But his workload grew when a post-qualifying technical violation sent him back to the back of the 40-car grid for the start on board the No. 43 Racing to End Alzheimer\u2019s Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car (type 992) entry for both of the weekend\u2019s 40-minutes races.<\/p>\n

An additional penalty for unavoidable contact cost him four overall positions in the Thursday race. Then in Friday night\u2019s race, Kvamme sprinted from the back of the grid to a podium position, only to be taken out by a competitor with three laps remaining.<\/p>\n

But even more important was the huge numbers of race fans who came by the bright purple Racing to End Alzheimer\u2019s tent next to the team transporter, chatting with founder Phil Frengs and, for some, placing their friend or family member\u2019s name<\/a>\u00a0on the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs always, it’s great to be at Sebring,\u201d said Frengs. \u201cWe’ve had really a wonderful weekend \u2013 our story was featured in the local newspaper (the Highlands News Sun)<\/a> and we put so many names on the car going into the weekend. There are 82 names on the car, which is the most we’ve ever had to start the season \u2013 and there are at least another 15 to 18 names that have come in so far this weekend, or that we’re expecting to come in, since we met more people this week than ever before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also had a group of people who have been enthusiastic supporters that are part of Turn 4 Palm Palace, which is a big encampment here that has gone on for 20-plus years,\u201d Frengs continued. \u201cOne of the gentlemen had made the donation to put his grandmother\u2019s name and his wife\u2019s mother\u2019s name on the car, and he brought a crew of people to watch both names go on. He got quite emotional, as people often do. I was able to give him a hug and asked him to pass that hug on to his wife, whose mother just recently passed away. It was wonderful to see how enthusiastic and happy they were to be here: it brought tears to my eyes and tears to his eyes. So, we know we\u2019re doing a good thing here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kvamme, whose grandfather\u2019s name is on the car, appreciates the chance to help the program grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Phil has done is amazing,\u201d said Kvamme. \u201cWe’ve had a lot of local support this weekend, and gotten shoutouts from Racer magazine and IMSA<\/a>, which is great. Everyone’s really getting behind this program.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the racing side of the program, Thursday\u2019s qualifying saw Kvamme turn in a sensational final lap, missing the Masters class pole by only 0.064-seconds \u2013 but a ride-height violation later dropped him to the back of the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to be on the pole for Friday night\u2019s race,\u201d Kvamme said. \u201cBut you qualify for both races in that one session, and all of my times were disallowed. It was unfortunate, but it\u2019s part of racing. We\u2019d taken the car to tech before the race and it passed fine so the car must have settled somehow \u2013 we failed by 0.7 millimeters, that\u2019s half the width of a dime! It gave us no advantage; it was just a silly thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the green flag waved, Kvamme worked his way up the back, also helped by a great restart following the event\u2019s lone caution period early in the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe raced well,\u201d Kvamme said of the Thursday race. \u201cWe started 40th, ended up 25th, fifth in the Masters class. Not great, not what I wanted to do, but it helped since I qualified second.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the avoidable contact penalty, Kwamme finished sixth in class.<\/p>\n

Going into the second race, Kvamme said, \u201cMy plan was to pass as many people as I could and try to get on the podium.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sticking to his plan, he passed 11 cars on the opening lap to move to sixth in class. Following a lengthy restart, Kvamme passed four cars on the restart, moving up to third in the class. Down the stretch, he was fourth with three laps remaining as darkness blanketed the airport circuit \u2013 until a competitor bumped him from the inside in Turn 17. Kvamme spun, with a competitor literally running over the back of his Porsche. Kvamme tried to continue, but the damage proved terminal \u2013 resulting in 10th place Masters class finish.<\/p>\n

Next up for Racing to End Alzheimer\u2019s and the Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America will be the doubleheader in support of the Formula One Miami Grand Prix at the Miami International Autodrome, May 3 to 5. The races will be broadcast live in the U.S., on IMSA.tv, the NBC Peacock streaming app and\u00a0PorscheCarreraCup.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A difficult pair of races to begin the 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup season balanced by a record number of names honoring loved ones who have suffered [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-race-2-end-alzheimers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6884","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=6884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6886,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6884\/revisions\/6886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}