ALMS GT - Segal Shooting For Second-Straight Podium at New Jersey

MILLVILLE, July 21, 2011: Shooting for consecutive top-three podium finishes at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) and in the 2011 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season, reigning GT champions Jeff Segal, his teammate Emil Assentato and the No. 69 FXDD/SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 GT team head to NJMP’s Thunderbolt Raceway this weekend primed for their first victory of the year in the American Red Cross 250. The weekend’s featured 2-3/4-hour timed sprint race can be seen live on SPEED this Sunday, July 24, at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.

Segal and Assentato finished third in the No. 69 FXDD Mazda last July at NJMP and matched their best race result since then with a second-place finish two weeks ago at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The No. 69 team’s first second-place run this season came last March at the Grand Prix of Miami.

“The Mazda Raceway race was our best in a while, if not our best race this season,” Segal said. “I was really encouraged that I felt like we put together the whole weekend. We were strong in practice, we tuned the car well to boost Emil to a fantastic qualifying performance, and then we executed as a team. The performance didn't surprise me at all, as I think we're capable of this sort of performance each and every weekend.”

Adding some consistency to the pace and teamwork displayed at Mazda Raceway in the year’s final stretch of races could put Segal in a position to defend the 2011 GT title. Scoring at least one victory this season, as Segal and the No. 69 team have done every year since 2008, is also a top priority as the racing calendar winds down.

“We haven't been as consistent as we'd like this season, and I think the goal now is to examine the strong parts of the Mazda Raceway weekend and try to repeat it for the final four races of the year,” Segal said. “I'd like to think that if we can put together four more strong weekends, we can net a win before the year is over, and that's the goal.”

The strong performance last year at New Jersey, and one race ago at Mazda Raceway, has Segal encouraged but still realistic. The most recent podium was also the second in the past three races for Segal and the No. 69 team after finishing third at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen last month.

“I'm confident heading into NJMP, but we're not letting our recent success go to our heads yet,” Segal said. “We have had great races two of the last three times out and ended up with a much needed podiums, but we still didn't have the speed that the winning Porsche showed in the final run to the checkered flag at both races.”

Mazdas ran competitively with the competition at Mazda Raceway and Segal thinks New Jersey may suit the RX-8 GTs as well, even if GRAND-AM’s current rules package may not.

“I think that New Jersey's tight and twisty nature should also lend itself to the Mazda's strengths, but I expect the Camaros and BMW M3 to be strong as well, since I expect that their torque advantage will help them out of the slower corners,” Segal said.

With extreme humidity and scorching temperatures in the high 90s and even 100-degree range predicted, the American Red Cross 250 could come down to a race of survival in every respect.

“Last year we had a good run at NJMP, and a lot of the strategy there was to stay out of trouble,” Segal said. “We did this while other stronger cars faltered and fell by the wayside, and I think our strategy will be much the same this year. This track is tight and tricky, and I expect the weather to be hot and very challenging in the cockpit. We'll shoot to be there at the end, and see where that puts us.”