15.05.2009 THREE DAYS OF TRACK ACTION KICKS OFF IN UTAH
 

Tooele, Utah - A busy three days of track action for T-Mobile® VICI Racing™ kicked off this afternoon at a warm and dry Miller Motorsports Park, located just a 30 minute drive from downtown Salt Lake City. Following a successful start to the new season for the team four weeks ago in Long Beach it’s on to a whole different challenge for the next round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), and with a revised driver line-up in the cockpit of the #18 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

In comes rapid Dutchman Nicky Pastorelli, teamed up with German youngster Johannes Stuck who made his debut for T-Mobile® VICI Racing™ at the California street race. Nicky though is starting his third season with the team and he drove the RSR here in Utah last year. With the same high-speed ‘perimeter’ course being used again this week he brings circuit knowledge with him but with the team now running on Michelin tires there is a gap to be filled in terms of collecting data for the Miami, Florida-based team.

A long day unfolded at the Miller Motorsports Park with the first action for the ALMS teams being set for mid-afternoon, leaving the crews with a day of making final preparations and set up for the promoter test sessions. The schedule called for a half-hour Promoter test session (2:40-3:10 PM MDT) which would be reserved for the GT2 class runners. It would be followed immediately by a further hour of testing (3:10-4:10 PM MDT) which was be open to all classes, meaning that the GT2 class cars would share the track with the LMP1 and LMP2 category prototypes.

The 90 minute test session allowed both drivers and the team to get to grips with the track on Michelin tires for the first time and provide valuable laps for Johannes to learn the intricacies of the circuit.
 

For Technical Director Roland Wall his focus was to start working towards a race set-up. Both drivers were able to run very consistent laps in the 1:50 bracket while the team also practiced pitstops and with Nicky and Johannes driving together for the first time, it was a pressure-free chance for the two to synchronise the driver change routine. After 90 minutes of trouble-free running the #18 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR turned in 38 laps on the 3.06-mile, 14-turn Miller Motorsports Park with the quickest of these being a 1:50.552 set on lap 26 by Nicky.

VICI Racing™ is a long-established German/US racing team which has set out this week on its second year in the prestigious sports car racing series. T-Mobile USA is a leading innovator and provider of mobile communications. At the end of 2008, T-Mobile USA served more than 32.8 million customers. T-Mobile USA is the U.S. operation of Deutsche Telekom AG’s Mobile Communications Business, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of T-Mobile International, one of the world’s leading companies in mobile communications. T-Mobile is a federally registered trademark of Deutsche Telekom AG. Michelin is a technical partner of the team.

Tomorrow (Saturday May 16) will get underway with an early morning hour-long practice session (9:30-10:30 AM MDT) open to all classes. A further hour of free practice, again open to all classes, follows in the afternoon (2:10-3:10 PM MDT), and is followed by a brief ten-minute break before the 20-minute long qualifying session gets underway (3:20-3:40 PM MDT). Race day (Sunday, May 17) begins with the 25-minute duration warm-up session (9:55-10:20 AM MDT) before the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix from Miller Motorsports Park goes to green flag conditions at 2:15 PM MDT. The 2 hour 24 minute-long race is scheduled to see the chequered flag being waved at 5:00 PM MDT. SPEED will broadcast the race starting at 10:00 PM MDT on the same day. American Le Mans Radio and Live Timing and Scoring will be available at americanlemans.com.