Aasco Motorsports Ready For Rolex Return in Daytona

Aasco Motorsports Ready For Rolex Return in Daytona

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., June 28, 2005 - Aasco Motorsports returns to the Grand
American Rolex Sports Car Series Thursday with the Brumos Porsche 250 at
Daytona. Pat Flanagan (Aliso Viejo, Calif.) and Patrick Long (Las Vegas,
Nev.) will join behind the wheel of the Dennis Aase-prepared No. 26 New
Century Mortgage Porsche 911 GT3 Cup for the third time this season in the
Grand Touring (GT) class. The 250 mile/ two hour and 45-minute race will run
on the world-famous Daytona International Speedway (DIS) road course
following a full day of activity that will see the New Century Porsche
practice and qualify leading into the nighttime start. The one-day schedule
will prove a unique challenge to every car in the seventh Rolex Series event
of the year. 

 

While Long and Flanagan each raced in the season-opening Rolex 24 At
Daytona, they did it for different teams leaving the Aasco team one race
behind the competition. However, that disadvantage is minimized by two major
factors. First, team owner and manager Dennis Aase has extensive experience
as a driver and owner at the track. Secondly, since that February race, the
3.56-mile road course has been repaved negating any advantage that the
first-race competitors might have had. The new pavement stretches across the
infield of the oval/road course circuit. That new asphalt will greatly
increase the grip, and therefore speed, at which the New Century Porsche
will traverse the infield portion of the track significantly dropping
overall lap times. The new pavement and minimized track time will force
Aase, Flanagan and Porsche factory ace Long to make decisive setup decisions
to be competitive when the flag falls at 7:15 PM.  

 

The Brumos Porsche 250 can be seen on SPEED Channel at 8 PM (EDT) on
Thursday evening. Live coverage of the event, via timing and scoring, can be
found at www.GrandAmerican.com <http://www.grandamerican.com/> . 

 

Pat Flanagan: "We're very excited to be headed back down to Daytona. The 26
car is back together after the accident at Laguna, tested, polished and
shined and ready to go. Daytona will be a very interesting race with a
couple of elements to it. First, with the race being a one day event, on a
newly paved infield course, it will be critical to be good out of the box
and find a good race setup immediately. There are some big questions around
what the track will be like. We wonder how good our data will be from years
of driving on the old track surface? Secondly, the new GT car will be making
its debut and I think everyone will be interested to see how it performs.
As always, Aasco will give us the best prepared car in the paddock, and with
Patrick Long driving with me, I am confident we will have a great race."