 Kumho Gt2 Teams Qualify 9th And 10th For 56th Twelve Hours Of Sebring
SEBRING, FL, March 13, 2008..…Kumho’s teams qualified 9th and 10th in the 16-car GT2 class for Saturday’s running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
Marc Goossens qualified the number 28 LG Motorsports Riley Corvette with a time of 2:04.133, while Uwe Alzen qualified the number 5 VICI Racing Porsche 911 RSR with a nearly identical time of 2:04.235.
The LG Motorsports Corvette was just completed two weeks ago and is making its first-ever on track appearance at Sebring. The team did not have time to test before arriving at the track earlier this week.
“Right now we’re tuning everything together,” said LG Motorsports team owner and co-driver Lou Gigliotti. “We made great gains this morning, so we’re right in the hunt. The car has been indestructible so far. It’s been running like a clock. We don’t see any problems getting it to run 12 hours. We’re not going to be in contention for a win, but our goal is to finish the 12 hours and let the best come out of it.”
Doug Peterson will round out the driving contingent for LG Motorsports.
While both LG Motorsports and VICI Racing are new to the American Le Mans Series this year, VICI was able to do two pre-races tests with its new Porsche 911 RSR before Sebring. Even so, the team is still learning the best setup for the car and its Kumho tires.
“Michelin has about 1 million laps ahead of us,” said VICI team owner Ron Meixner.
“Altogether we have about 250 laps on Kumho tires. I would say they’ve been very remarkable. We have another Porsche and even a Ferrari behind us on the grid. To compete for a victory right now in the first race would be not very realistic, but I think we’ll make a very strong showing. Porsche is very content and happy with our progress and so are we. It’s going to be a good result. “
Uwe Alzen, Craig Stanton and Nathan Swartzbaugh will drive the VICI Porsche, and all three have significant experience in the 911.
“Uwe Alzen is a legend,” said Meixner. “He has won anything you can imagine. He will get the last out of the car that is possible. Nathan was our protégé in IMSA GT3 Cup a few years ago. He’s very smooth, very talented and very dedicated. Craig is an all around talent and is very good on the equipment, and that’s our strategy. Be smooth, good on the equipment and no troubles.”
Rudy Consolacion, Kumho motorsports manager, is pleased with the progress of Kumho’s GT2 teams so far. “Considering that we hadn’t tested with LG Motorsports before this week and had limited testing with VICI Racing, I think we had a good qualifying result,” said Consolacion. “Both teams were actually a little quicker in practice this morning, so they should be able to run a strong pace in the race. | 
