Circuit of the Americas, Friday Quotes
GS // John Edwards // 46 Fall Line Motorsports BMW M3 // Started 9th, Finished P1 // Co-Driver Trent Hindman
We were questioning whether or not they were going to throw the yellow for the Subaru on the front straight away. I probably would have made the call to pit, but my engineer kept me out there. We decided to see what happened and ride through the transition area, and then the next few laps I was slower. So we went to rain tires and we knew from practice the track took about 45 minutes to dry up and it was 45 minutes from the end, so it was the right call.
GS // Matt Bell // #9 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro Z/28.R // Started 7th, DNF // Co-Driver Andy Lally
Something in the clutch failed. It was getting bad. It would almost have a bobble, then the clutch never came back. It went completely to the floor, but still engaged. I could shift, but after 5 or 6 laps, that thing was just getting worn out. It was hard to downshift even in the dry. In the wet, the slightest accidental over blimp on the downshift you can get all crossed up. It was hard, so we had to just bring it in and hope they can save it the best they could.
GTLM // John Edwards// 56 BMW Z4 GTE with BMW Team RLL // Qualified 6th (2:04.253) // Co-Driver Dirk Muller
The Porsches have been strong all weekend, so we knew they were going to be tough to beat. We thought we could get a P4 or something behind the Porsches. I was pushing really hard, and I think we got the most out of the car that we could today. When you don’t have the car to be on Pole, you just have to do the most you can. From practice, even in just the short 15-20 minutes we had before qualifying, we improved the car. We’re on a good track. Unfortunately, the Porsches are super-fast. I’d prefer a wet race at this point. There are more variables, when we’re not quick in the dry, that will help us.
GTD// Jan Heylen // #58 Porsche GT America Dempsey Racing // Qualified 8th (2:09.130) // Co-Driver Madison Snow
We had a mechanical issue that took us out of the third free practice session. We can only be happy with the result. The guys did an amazing job getting the car back together. There’s a lot of potential. P8 is obviously not what we want. Having done only half of the second practice this morning and not having done third practice at all and only going straight into qualifying. It was the best we could do on two laps. I had to break the rotors in, bed in the brakes and in qualifying that’s not ideal. In the end, there were two laps for me to do the time. P8 is better than not qualifying at all, which looked to be the case for a while. The car probably had a P1 or P2 time in it, if we could have started qualifying the way we normally do. I’m happy overall. We’re going to have a good race tomorrow.
GTD // Dion von Moltke // #35 Flying Lizard Audi R8 LMS // Qualified 13th (2:09.664) // Co-Driver Seth Neiman
Today the team did a really great job of maximizing our package and where it stands. The conditions were really difficult today because it rained really hard overnight. We were all pretty sure it was going to be wet today. In this morning’s session it was wet for Seth, but I got about five minutes of dry time. Then it rained again in the middle of the day and Seth got the nice, wet track while I got the nice, beautiful dry track. Seth stuck it out in tricky conditions, but he’s done a really nice job of coming back and get used to difficult conditions like a drying track on slick tires. The track seems to absorb water, so it’s difficult to see how wet it really is. Overall, for qualifying, looking at the running order, it says it all. The best Audi is in P10, and that’s our Flying Lizard #45 car. We like to be the top two Audis, and we achieved that. We’re further back than we want, but the engineers have done a really good job of getting us what we want. We feel like we put down a pole lap, but we’re pretty far back. We’re focused on what we can control and keeping our rear tires under us for tomorrow if it’s dry. Rear tire temperatures and pressures will be the keys for tomorrow’s race. We’ll hope we can do a better job controlling that than anyone else and win this sucker.
GTD// Alec Udell // #19 Muehlner Motorsport Porsche 911 GT America // Did Not Qualify // Co-Driver Mark Klenin
I got to run a bit of time in the rain today, which was good in case we have any rain tomorrow. We unfortunately did not get a chance to qualify this afternoon due to a front suspension issue that happened during Mark’s stint in the practice session. I’m bummed about us having to start from the back tomorrow, but it’s a long race and there is lots of time for improvement.
