Alex
Job Racing Looking for Sebring Four-Peat
Tavares,
Florida -- Alex Job Racing is poised to win its fourth Mobil 1 Twelve
Hours of Sebring in a row and begin their run to a third consecutive
American
Le Mans Series GT championship when the green flag drops next week.
Adding
to the drama will be Lucas Luhr, driver of the number 24 McKenna/mail2web.com
/Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, will be going for a record
breaking fourth
straight class win.
Luhr
is going for a record fifth class win in a row, which would surpass
legendary
Porsche driver Bob Holbert. Currently the two are tied with four
consecutive class
wins each. Luhr has a chance to be the sole Sebring record holder
of five straight
class wins in a row. "Bob Holbert is a legendary Porsche driver,
being recognized
in the same history book as him will be a special memory in my career,"
said Luhr.
Sascha
Maassen returns to Sebring, but this time he will not be partnered
with
his longtime teammate Luhr. Maassen, ALMS's winningest driver, will
be teamed
with Timo Bernhard and Jorg Bergmeister, while Luhr will partner
with Marc Lieb
and Romain Dumas. In 2001, Maassen set the GT class qualifying record
with a
time of 2:06.764 and an average speed of 105.07 mph. Also in 2001,
Maassen,
Luhr and Emmanuel Collard set the GT class race distance record
with 326 laps
(1,206.2 miles) completed.
"We
are looking forward to going for our fourth 12-hour win in a row
and our
sixth Sebring victory. It will be an interesting race with our two
cars, we will
have Lucas and Sascha racing against each other," said Alex
Job, team owner.
"The GT field gets increasingly competitive every year. The
Porsche teams keep
raising their level of performance and the Ferrari is becoming a
real threat."
Although
the team will not participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 3.7-mile,
17-turn central Florida circuit can be a bigger test of driver and
car. "Sebring is
very tough! A 12-hour race there is harder on the car and the driver
than any
24-hour race. Because Sebring is quite bumpy in a lot of sections
and you have
very fast portions where, over the course of the race, your fitness
and
concentration is important. On top of that you have to deal with
the heat
and humidity," said Timo Bernhard.
The
updates to the Porsche have the drivers anxious to compare their
new car
to the competition. "One of the big advantages of the Porsche
is its engine
placement. The motor in the rear gives us a big traction advantage,
the ability
to put the power to the track. The other big advantage has been
the braking
performance of the Porsche. Combine these traditional Porsche attributes
with
the new sequential gearbox, this gives us a very strong package,"
said Sascha
Maassen.
The
race will be televised Saturday, March 20, on Speed TV starting
at 10:00a.m.
Speed will carry the complete race, over 13-hours of coverage.
Luhr
and Holbert:
Lucas Luhr Class Wins Bob Holbert Class Wins AJR Sebring 12-Hour
Wins
2000 - Porsche 1961 - Porsche 1995 - Porsche
2001 - Porsche 1962 - Porsche 1999 - Porsche
2002 - Porsche 1963 - Porsche 2001 - Porsche
2003 - Porsche 1964 - Cobra 2002 - Porsche
2003 - Porsche
AJR
Sebring History:
· 5 Sebring wins in 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003, the team also
won the fall race in
1998, the year before the ALMS started
·
Fastest race laps at Sebring in 1999 (Randy Pobst), 2001 (Sascha
Maassen),
2002 (Lucas Luhr), 2003 (Jorg Bergmeister)
· Four
Sebring pole positions in 2003, 2002, 2001, and 1999
· Six
podiums at Sebring
AJR Sebring
driver pairings:
#23 McKenna/mail2web.com/Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
Jorg Bergmeister
Timo Bernhard
Sascha Maassen - Sebring and Petit Le Mans
#24 McKenna/mail2web.com/Alex
Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
Romain Dumas
Marc Lieb
Lucas Luhr - Sebring and Petit Le Mans
AJR
thanks team sponsors McKenna Porsche, mail2web.com, and partners
Mobil 1, Michelin, Puma and ZF Sachs.
For
more information or photos, please contact Kyle Chura at chura@aol.com
or at (248) 821-0468.
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