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| Sahlen Six Hours of the Glen Preview: Pontiac |
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In DP competition the Riley-Matthews team has been carrying the Pontiac performance banner this season. Jim Matthews and Marc Goossens are second in points and have a win at Mexico City and two other podium finishes at VIR and Laguna Seca highlighting their season of consistency. Sportscar veteran Marcel Tiemann joins the duo for The Glen.
I think the team has proven that we can win both in shorter and longer races, Goossens said. The main factor will be that we don't make any errors both on track and in pit lane, none at all. We have had some pretty strong runs so far and we just have to keep working hard and hopefully the results keep coming our way. Also, having Marcel Tiemann with us at the Glen will sure benefit the team's effort. He just won the Nurburgring 24 Hour and he has many times proven to be a successful endurance driver. So I am really looking forward to hopefully score another strong finish for the Riley Matthews Motorsport team.
Wayne Taylor's bad luck on the track spilled over to the open-road following the Laguna Seca race. The team's transporter caught fire just out of Amarillo, Texas destroying all of the team's equipment and their new Dallara. A village of Grand-Am competitors and suppliers overwhelmed Taylor with calls for support and equipment which will allow them to compete this weekend at The Glen. The team has taken their Riley DP car out of the show room and will race it at The Glen.
It's been really, really tough, Taylor said. We certainly have support from SunTrust, my biggest partner, Toshiba, Pontiac and the whole motor racing industry. People have really stood up, the Target Chip Ganassi team, along with everybody else, including Bill Riley, Rum Bum, Mike Shank and Mark Patterson. Just about everybody you can think of in our series has offered to help in whatever way. We're going to be running the Riley we raced in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the car that weve got for sale in all of the magazines - thank God nobody bought it.
Michael Valiante and Max Angelelli have taken on the track contact and crashes in stride. The duo have been competitive on the time sheet every event, starting on the front row at Homestead and on the pole at VIR.
The Dallara has exceeded our expectations and we have threatened to win nearly every event, Valiante said. It is a bit frustrating because we want to develop the car and it hasn't even had a full test day. [The Glen with the Riley] will be business as usual. We are going to the race to win like we have every other one. A lot of what has happened has been out of our controls so we will see what happens.
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