AJR to start fourth, fifth and 10th at Long Beach in GTC

Alex Job Racing (AJR) will start the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) presented by Tequila Patron Long Beach Grand Prix from the fourth, fifth and tenth place starting positions in GTC for tomorrow’s race.

In the morning’s two hour practice session the AJR cars were trying to turn maximum laps as only three of the six drivers have ever raced in the tight confines of the Long Beach circuit. The session was hampered by six red flags, stopping the action to remove damaged race cars. The tight 1.9-mile, 11-turn ocean side concrete lined circuit will require a steady hand during the 100-minute race tomorrow.

Butch Leitzinger took team honors in qualifying driving the No. 81 Mission Foods/Alex Job Racing/Porsche GT3 911 Cup car to a time of 1:24.288. The time, good for a second row starting position, will have the car going away from the grid in fourth. Teamed with Juan Gonzalez, the duo is looking to duplicate their Sebring 12 Hour win from four weeks ago.

“It is the continuation of my baptism by fire with the Porsche 911,” Leitzinger said. “At Sebring I was trying to take care of the car and here I am trying to learn more about the car while keeping it off of the walls. I am with a team that has no weak links, I am able to concentrate just on what I am doing. I am not quite where I want to be yet, but it is coming. We have a very good car for the race and Juan is doing a great job getting up to speed here. We will need to have some good race-craft to have a good result. It is a tough, tough place to pass and there will be a bunch of us on top of each other. We will also have fast traffic to deal with and we will need to take advantage of every opportunity. I think there will be a lot of argy-pargy tomorrow.”

“Today was my first time ever at this track,” Juan Gonzalez said. “This morning I did 37 laps without stopping. I was able to get faster and faster and learn the circuit. The trick here is to keep the car clean and away from the wall. You cannot afford to lose your concentration. This afternoon the crew improved the setup of the car making it easier to drive. For tomorrow we will be looking to have a clean race and stay out of trouble.”

In the No. 23 Battery Tender/Tequila Patron/Alex Job Racing/Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry Romeo Kapudija qualified fifth with a time of 1:24.462. Kapudija and teammate Bill Sweedler made steady progress all day and were second fastest in the morning session.

“We have a little work to do with the car to get it handling a little better,” Kapudija said. “The car is binding up in the corner and then you get some snap oversteer, which causes us to get off of the throttle and then go back, costing valuable time. We need to dial the binding out of the car at mid-apex. Bill and I will be good in the race. We will need to pass as many cars as possible. We need to run a good clean 100-minutes tomorrow.”

“I got about four hot laps in this morning, which were my very first here at Long Beach,” Sweedler said. “There were a few red flags in this morning’s practice making it tough to get a rhythm and sort your braking and turn in points with the starting-and-stopping of the session. In the afternoon practice I was able to get 15-minutes in the car, which was nice. Romeo and I are in the same ball park in terms of lap times. Consistency is what matters. I am looking forward to the race.”

Luis Diaz and Ricardo Gonzalez had a tough start to the day. Diaz went into Turn Nine on his first fast lap and the car veered into the wall. The No. 80 Car Amigo/Alex Job Racing/Porsche 911 GT3 Cup sustained left front damage. In qualifying Diaz was able to come back and post a time of 1:26.771 that see the Mexican duo start from tenth.

“The time that we lost this morning really cost us quite a bit since we basically had no practice and we’ll have to race tomorrow with very limited experience with our Porsche at this track,” Diaz said. “I went out for morning practice and was just beginning my second lap when I arrived at the braking zone for Turn Nine, the car just suddenly pulled to the left and I hit the wall. I’m not sure what happened, I had never felt something like that, but the important thing is that the team did a great job and managed to fix the car perfectly. Obviously this isn’t how we wanted to start off the weekend but our goal has always been the championship and the priority tomorrow will be to stay out of trouble and finish the race so we can keep raking up the points.”

“It was a really tough day, I didn’t know this track and I was hoping to get at least an hour or more of practice so I could slowly get up to speed and learn the track,” Ricardo Gonzalez said. “But it ended up being the total opposite because I had to go out and immediately adapt. I focused just on the basic stuff and even though there is still a lot of time left in me, I am confident that in the race tomorrow we’ll be competitive and we can score points. From the very few laps I did I could feel that we have a good car, it’s a tough track but I’m optimistic for a good result tomorrow.”

Alex Job, team owner, has his crew ready for the shortest and toughest race of the season.

“We had a slight bobble this morning with the No. 80 car and Luis,” Job said. “It was a combination of dirty track and cold tires. The team was able to make the repairs and get the car perfect for the afternoon and qualifying. Butch is coming to grips with the 911. It is a different animal than he is used to driving. He and Juan are ready to have a good run tomorrow. Romeo and Bill made steady progress all day ending the first practice session in second. We need to work on the handling of the 23 a little more, but we will get it right for the race. Luis and Ricardo were robbed of track time this morning, but they took a steady approach this afternoon and we were able to get them some good laps in before qualifying. We will really need to be on our game with strategy and pit stops tomorrow.”