Orbit Racing - Mont-Tremblant practice

disciplines of speed

Orbit Racing posted the fifth-fastest GT time during practice for the May 23 
Rolex Sports Car Series race at le Circuit Mont-Tremblant. Mike Fitzgerald 
lapped the 2.65-mile road course in one minute 38.339 seconds in the No. 44 
Classic Industries Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Joe and Jay Policastro are quickly learning 
the track, in preparation for the six-hour race.
 
"It's a beautiful facility," Jay Policastro said. "The racing surface is nice 
and wide, extremely smooth - probably one of the smoothest we run on. The 
coolest part of the track is the turn one complex. It's a big sweeping 
right-hander that's a complex of three corners, going in in fifth gear, pretty much top 
speed, and then coming down to a third-gear corner that's a real slow chicane. 
So it combines all the disciplines of speed - sweeping turns, momentum and 
braking. It's really quite spectacular."

aero fix

The Orbit crew added a splitter to the front of the Classic Industries 
Porsche to improve the car's aerodynamic downforce. The fix worked better than 
expected.

"Aerodynamic is a lot more important here than at a lot of other tracks 
because the track is so smooth," team owner Rodger Hawley explained. "We tried 
something different, putting an aerodynamic aid on the front of the car to try to 
keep it pushed down in the high-speed corners. It actually worked better than 
we thought, and we had to make some adjustments to the aero in the rear of the 
car."

new helmet

Jay Policastro is sporting a new look this week. His helmet, previously 
silver, is now red with a double silver band around the visor and a waving 
checkered design on the back.

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Sylvia Proudfoot
spur07@cs.com
403 287 3945