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Created on Monday, 04 May 2015 09:04

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• No. 11 PC entry and No. 73 GTD entry both win pole and race at Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Monterey, CA – May 3, 2015.

 Prototype (P) Recap The No. 60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian Ligier JS P2/Honda HPD was best-in-class Friday and Saturday while the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP for Wayne Taylor Racing looked to be best-in-class in qualifying and the race. But in the end, it was the duo of Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook in the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP that took home the win during Sunday’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the TUDOR United SportCar Championship.

Valiante commanded the lead from the third starting position on lap one and went on to lead 15 laps before relinquishing the lead to pole winner, Jordan Taylor in the No. 10. Taylor combined with brother, Ricky Taylor, to run a strong campaign but traffic dictated the race. Late in the race, Westbrook assumed the lead from Ricky and never looked back. The Taylor brothers posted a second-place finish, their third consecutive top-two finish, while the No. 60 combo of John Pew and Ozz Negri combined for their first podium finish of the 2015 season.

Prototype Challenge (PC) Recap From the pole driver, Chris Cumming, navigated the No. 11 RSR Racing ORECA FLM09 to the win along with co-driver, Bruno Junqueira. The duo led 80 of 112 laps and overcame a drive-through penalty to post their first win of the year. The win didn’t come without a fight however. Colin Braun made a late race charge to the front in the No. 54 CORE autosport ORECA FLM09 after Jon Bennett handed over driving duties but it wasn’t enough. The team would settle for second while maintaining the points lead.

The No. 38 Performance Tech pairing of James French and Mike Hedlund finished third in the PC class.

Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) Recap The No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America was the class of the field during Sunday’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix. Following Patrick Lindsey’s career-first pole run, he drove an outstanding stint before handing the wheel over to Spencer Pumpelly who finished the race off by taking the checkered flag 3.677 seconds ahead of Christopher Haase, in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Castrol Edge Audi R8 LMS started by Dion von Moltke. It was a competitive race that saw eight lead changes among six different cars.

Ian James and Mario Farnbacher teamed up to finish third in the No. 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America.

NOTEABLE •    Jordan Taylor scored his first Prototype pole award at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. •    Ozz Negri claimed the fastest lap of the race on lap 84 at 1:19.303. •    Valiante and Westbrook took over the overall points lead with their win. •    The No. 11 RSR Racing AutoMax USA ORECA FLM09 won the pole and the race in the PC class. •    The No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America also won the pole and race in the GTD class.

PHOTOS Take a look at some of our favorite memories from the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix on Facebook.

QUOTEABLE

Jordan Taylor (No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP) finished second in P class – “It was good. The opening stint we got hit a couple times but came out in the lead. On my second stint, on fresh tires, we were able to open up a decent gap but the whole race was dictated by traffic and how you could manage it. You could either open up the lead or lose it. Once Ricky got in he was maintaining the lead and then when we pitted for our splash he came out in traffic and Richard came out ahead and gained a few seconds on us in clean air while we were in traffic. It wasn’t much of a race on the track, wheel to wheel. I think we can be happy with second place and after Daytona, I think we can be happy with three consecutive top-two finishes.”

John Pew (No. 60 Michael Shank Racing w/Curb Agaganian Ligier JS P2/Honda HPD) finished third in P class – “I don’t think we quite had the pace of practice and qualifying, the track was a little bit different. And traffic was a real issue. Just got behind a big group and lost quite a bit of time. But Ozz did a great job. The guys did a great job. Very happy with the turnout here.”

Dion von Moltke (No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS) finished second in GTD class – “Overall good day, P2, that’s the best finish of the season so far so that puts us close to the championship lead which we are happy about. Our Audi R8 LMS was great. The engineers at Paul Miller Racing got the car working on the Continental tires really well. I think where we were best was on tire life throughout the stint. We got a little screwed at the start and fell back. I think if we had a better start we could have challenged for P1 and maybe stretched the lead which could have helped us win the race today. But overall everyone did a great job and we’re happy.”

Colin Braun (No. 54 CORE autosport ORECA FLM09) finished second in PC class – “We had a semi uneventful day. Jon did a good job in qualifying, I think fourth but only six-tenths off the pole. He did a good job early on and I got in and then quickly settled in. I think we led some in the middle, I’m not really sure we didn’t really have any yellows, we had a good race car and it was fast. I’m not exactly sure how we finished second. I thought for a while with the pit road penalty that Bruno got and going off the track that we would be in a good position to win but it didn’t work out that way. Good day for points all-in-all, another second-place finish so you can’t complain.”

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