GrandAm - Jeff Segal and Co-Driver Emil Assentato Finish Fourth At Barber

BIRMINGHAM, April 10, 2011: Reigning GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series GT-class Champion Jeff Segal, and his No. 69 FXDD/SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 GT teammate Emil Assentato, finished fourth in Saturday’s Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park after battling in the top-three in the final half of the race.

Segal took over from starting-driver Assentato 45 minutes into the 2-3/4-hour timed sprint and started picking off positions. He was up to fourth with just under an hour remaining, cracked the top three with 45 minutes to go and then battled with SpeedSource teammate Jonathan Bomarito in the No. 70 Mazda RX-8 GT for the final podium spot in the race’s final 30 minutes. With newer tires, Bomarito managed to slip by for third.

“That was just good, clean racing,” Segal said. “Jonathan definitely had fresher tires than we had, so he was coming, we held him off longer than I thought we would have, but there was too much race left, and his car was faster at the time. He got by, it was close, and I made him work for it, but we had nothing left. To get fourth was pretty good, there were a couple of cars with newer tires and little more pace at the end behind us, and we held them off, so to that end it was pretty good.”

The fourth-place finish followed Segal and the No. 69 team’s second-place showing one race ago in the Grand Prix of Miami. Although they remain 10th in the team championship standings with 64 points, the No. 69 team improved to just 20 markers behind the GT class leaders.

“It was a good weekend,” Segal said. “Any time you are in the top five with this crowd it’s good. I am a little bit disappointed because I thought we had more there. There was a little bit of a weird deal with GRAND-AM giving the wave-by to the first and second-place cars, which basically handed it to them on a silver platter. It’s a shame that we couldn’t have been a part of that battle because I think that maybe we would have had something. Ultimately fourth place is good points, so we will move on to VIR and try and stay in the top five, like we did last year, and see what happens.”

Next up for Jeff Segal and the No. 69 FXDD/SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 GT team is the Bosch Engineering 250 at Virginia International Raceway, May 13 – 14, and the race can be seen in same-day “virtual live” coverage on Saturday, May 14, at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT.