Continental Tire Challenge - Kinetic And Kia Looking For Continued Success At Lime Rock

Burford, May 26, 2011: After a bittersweet race weekend at Virginia International Raceway, the Kinetic Motorsports and Kia Motors America team is hopeful for a good result for both cars at Lime Rock Park. At VIR the #12 Infinity Audio Kia Forte Koup produced its best finish of the season in eighth place and the #10 car placed twenty-sixth in the Street Tuner (ST) class. Since Lime Rock Park is only a 1.5 mile long track, the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge classes, Grand Sport (GS) and Street Tuner (ST), which usually compete together, will be split into two different races. This division will decrease the amount of traffic that each team has to work with during the two and one-half hour race. With Nic Jönsson currently third in points and only seven points behind the leader in the Street Tuner (ST) class, and with Kia only 3 points behind the leader in the Manufacturer’s Championship, the Memorial Day Classic at Lime Rock Park is sure to be an interesting race and bring about a spectacular effort from Kinetic Motorsports and Kia Motors America.

“Last year we did well at this track, it was our first insight to the potential that the Koup platform offered – until we experienced a brake failure going into turn 1 with the #10 while running in third spot. The #12 car finished fifth for our best finish in 2010,” said Russell Smith, owner of Kinetic Motorsports. “I think the secret to Lime Rock is to stay clean and save the car for the last 15 minutes, when you can go to work on the tight track. We definitely have the quality of drivers to get it done up there, so we have high expectations. However, it’s a tough field with many good drivers and fast cars, so we will have our work cut out for us.”

“It’s amazing what the second year Kia Racing program has accomplished so far, and as we reach the halfway point of the 2011 season at Lime Rock just three points behind the engine manufacturer standings leader we are excited about what might lay ahead in the future,” said Michael Sprague, vice president, marketing and communications, Kia Motors America. “With all the experience Adam Burrows and Trevor Hopwood have at Lime Rock this is the second homecoming race of the year for us, and with the gains Kinetic Motorsports has been able to make with the Infinity Audio Forte Koups we are looking for an extremely strong result this weekend.”

Lime Rock Park is also a home track to two of the Kinetic Motorsports drivers, Adam Burrows (Canton, CT) and Trevor Hopwood (Elliot, ME). The duo of the #12 Infinity Audio Kia Forte Koup are really looking forward to some hometown exposure, and also to drive at a track with which they are extremely familiar.

“Lime Rock Park is a track that rewards momentum more than outright horsepower, and strong braking and handling are key as well,” said Burrows, who also frequents the facility as an instructor for The Club at Lime Rock Park. “Kinetic continues to find more speed with this Kia Koup, and it should be a great match for this track. The VIR weekend was really encouraging with the pace we had in qualifying, and hopefully we can have a car that has that same kind of speed throughout the full race distance on Saturday. There is a lot of racing to go this year still, and with just a three-point deficit in the Manufacturer’s Championship, we want to make the most of any opportunity we have to bring a great result home for Kia. And, to do it on our home track would make it that much better.”

“Adam and I have experienced a little bit of everything at Lime Rock Park, and it is one of my absolute favorite places to race,” said Hopwood, who would also mention Spa in Belgium as another outstanding track. “We’ve been able to bring the car home with some solid points the last two rounds and we want to just keep building on that and bring as many points as we can for Kia in the championship. A lap at Lime Rock is always busy for the driver and with the laps clicking off so quickly, it is always an intense race. I just can’t wait to get down there and get going.”

Although the #10 Kinetic Infinity Audio Kia Forte Koup did not have the strong finish they had hoped for at VIR, the team has put the past race behind them and is looking forward to a tight race and a good result at Lime Rock.

“The #10 did not have a good race at VIR,” continued Smith, who co-founded Kinetic Motorsports with driver Nic Jönsson. “There was an incident early on that caused the car to go off track and hit the wall pretty hard. Fortunately, there was little other than cosmetic damage, but the car still needed to come to pit lane for repairs. I don’t think that we can prepare any more for an on-track incident like that, but the car has been put back together in record time – with every single body panel except the roof and hood having been either repaired or replaced by our genius paint guy Jason Jones. The cars look as good as they normally do.”

“I’m delighted to be going back to Lime Rock,” said Nic Jönsson, driver of the #10 Kia and Kinetic team principal. “I won a pole at Lime Rock a year ago in the Krohn Racing DP car and really enjoy this track. Lime Rock is a quick and challenging circuit and should be well suited for the Kia Forte Koups. We are going to push hard to make it back into the Top Five this weekend.”

“I’m actually very excited about racing at Lime Rock. The car should perform well and should be more competitive,” said Michael Galati, who co-drives the #10 Infinity Audio Kia Forte Koup. “I think it’s going to be different, obviously, because of the two separate races for GS and ST. I think the biggest part is staying out of traffic.

“We have to keep a good pace with everybody and be up front. It’s a very short track, so the race will seem very fast,” continued Galati. “It’s a momentum and handling track, so hopefully it will be good for our car.” The Street Tuner (ST) race of the Memorial Day Classic will begin at 10:30am ET on Saturday, May 28 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut. The television broadcast schedule is yet to be announced.