American Le Mans Series

Alex Job Racing Sixth in GT2 Qualifying

© Alex Job Racing

Alex Job Racing qualified sixth today for round four of the American Le Mans Series to be run at Lime Rock Park. Klaus Graf’s qualifying time will see he and Mike Rockenfeller starting the number 23/Alex Job Racing/Bell Microproducts/Porsche from the third row on the GT2 grid for tomorrow’s two-hour-and-forty-five-minute race.
The 1.54 mile Lime Rock circuit consists of eight right hand turns and one left hand corner. The track is short and very bumpy in critical areas. Klaus Graf was able to post a qualifying time of 54.127 seconds with an average speed of 102 mph.

Klaus Graf is coming to grips with his first visit to Lime Rock. “The track is like an oval with one left hand kink. I had some understeer in the qualifying session and then it went to snap oversteer and I spun. The bumps on the track really make it difficult to push in crucial areas like the braking zone into turn one and the exit of the chicane at the top of the hill. We will make some adjustments in the warm-up and be ready to run a competitive race tomorrow afternoon.”
Mike Rockenfeller is ready to add a second win on the season. “The track is really bumpy. The team that can keep soft tires under the car and tune the best for the rough surface will have a good result tomorrow, hopefully that will be us. We are a little ways back at the start, but this is a track that rewards a driver that is confident in traffic, I think we can be up front at the end. The traffic with the faster cars will be an issue as they are really fast here. We need a good run to bounce back in the points from our poor showing at Mid-Ohio.”

“Lime Rock is a tough little circuit,” said Alex Job. “Whenever we bring a new driver here their first reaction is complaints about the bumpy surface. There are different combinations of shocks and tires out there, so that makes the engineers and crews work that much more important this weekend. Also strategy will be key, as the prototype cars are running 46-second lap times. The team is poised to make up for Mid-Ohio and is looking forward to a strong to the front tomorrow.”

Rockenfeller and Graf are currently sixth in drivers points, 26 out of the lead, with Alex Job Racing fourth in the team standings.