Orbit Racing - Road Atlanta preview

race residuals

Orbit Racing will carry extra energy to the track this week, after scoring a 
second-place GT finish in the 24 Heures du Mans in France on June 15.  Leo 
Hindery of New York and Peter Baron of Deerfield Beach, Fla., will return to the 
No. 43 YES Network Porsche 911 GT3 RS for the June 29 American Le Mans Series 
race at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga.  Their Le Mans co-driver, Marc Lieb of 
Germany, will be in England for an FIA GT Championship race.

"Success like we had in Le Mans elates you forever and it certainly convinces 
you that you can do well again," Hindery said.  "Our confidence doesn't 
really increase since we were always confident that we could do well.  But it sure 
gives you a taste of success which will never leave your mouth."

sprint set

Joe and Jay Policastro weren't idle while their teammates were in France.  
The Latrobe, Pa., pair spent five days testing the No. 42 Classic Industries 
Porsche on the 2.54-mile Road Atlanta road course.  They focused on driver 
development and car setup for the next seven ALMS races,  which will be sprints of 
three hours or less.

"It was good from both a [driver] seat perspective and from a car setup 
perspective," Jay Policastro said.  "We had a great deal of time on track with very 
little traffic - there was enough to keep us on our toes, but not enough to 
keep us from turning some flat-out laps.  We were able to find out how far the 
car will go fuel-wise and we also ran full stints under race conditions.  
We're prepared to go at it now, rather than sitting around waiting for the race to 
come to us."

short stop

The Orbit Racing team hasn't had time to celebrate its Le Mans success.  The 
crew returned to North America and went straight to work preparing for the 
Road Atlanta race.

"The main thing is getting the crew rested and adjusted to the time change 
again," team owner Rodger Hawley explained.  "Luckily, we ran a different car in 
France.  We already have a second car ready to go and we have two complete 
sets of pit equipment - one we left in France and one we keep in the States.
 
"Mechanically, you go through the same rhythm every race," he noted.  "But 
once you've gone through the Daytona 24 hours, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 
Le Mans 24 hours - where the mindset is long, late and hard - these short races 
are over before they've started.  The weekends will go incredibly fast now."

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Sylvia Proudfoot
spur07@cs.com
403 287 3945