Orbit Racing - Phoenix qualifying

grid set

Orbit Racing will start ninth on the GT grid for the Rolex Sports Car Series 
race at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday. Joe Policastro qualified 
the No. 44 Classic Industries Porsche 911 GT3 RS in one minute 5.927 seconds on 
the 1.51-mile infield road course. He will start the race on Saturday, 
followed by his son, Jay Policastro, and Mike Fitzgerald.

"Mike gave me some pointers about how I could knock a couple of seconds off 
[the lap times] and they really worked," Joe Policastro said. "I ran into some 
traffic coming onto the track, but I had a couple of clear laps when I could 
get my foot into it. When we get out for the race, it's going to be tight 
initially, so we're going to have to be very careful at the start. It's going to 
require some real good strategy to play all our strong points."

transition run

Jay Policastro will drive the middle race stint, a transition period between 
daylight and night. He said adjusting to the light change won't be as 
challenging as dealing with the physical demands of the track.

"The transition period is not the difficult one; the difficult one is when 
the sun is going down," he explained. "When I get in, the track and the air will 
be a little cooler, so I'm thrilled to not be driving when it's daylight. But 
it's a very physical track, much like go-karting. It's going to take a lot of 
upper-body movement. That will be the biggest challenge of the race."

tech talk

Orbit owner Rodger Hawley appreciates the efforts of the Grand American Road 
Racing Association to achieve equality among manufacturers in the Rolex Series.

"It's a driver's series, which is pretty cool. Instead of battling with 
different tires and different engine specifications, it's a bunch of drivers out 
racing cars," he noted. "I think the Porsche has some inherent advantages, but 
the BMW has a couple of really quick drivers, so we have parity. The BMW 
drivers have to overcome what we have technically, and we have to overcome a little 
what [BMW driver] Bill Auberlen can do."