Following their Le Mans 24 Hours heroics three weeks ago, Robertson Racing return to domestic sportscar duties at Lime Rock Park for the Northeast Grand Prix next weekend (July 8/9) where round three of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron awaits.
It will be the Braselton-based outfit’s first ALMS appearance since the opening round at Sebring back in mid-March after taking time out to prepare for a trip to France that led to the record-setting GTE-Am podium finish at the 79th Grand Prix of Endurance.
While those memories remain fresh, the team’s focus has shifted to Lime Rock Park’s two-hour 45-minute race where the #40 Ford GT, now stripped and rebuilt following its La Sarthe exploits, will be reunited with the sister #04 machine.
Despite their success at Le Mans, Robertson Racing’s driver crews revert back to previous ALMS configuration for Lime Rock, the first of seven ALMS rounds during a packed 13 weeks of racing. David Robertson and wife Andrea, who both tasted champagne in France, remain at the wheel of #40 while fellow podium finisher David Murry moves back across to the #04 cockpit alongside Anthony Lazzaro.
Freighting the team and equipment back to America, as well as fully preparing two cars, has been a tough task since Le Mans. Even so, Team Principal Andrew ‘H’ Smith is hopeful of a strong result.
Andrew ‘H’ Smith: “It will be great to have all the team back together after that amazing result at Le Mans. As you can imagine the whole camp is in excellent spirits and hoping for a strong performance at Lime Rock, especially from the #04 ‘pro’ entry. We’ve only got just over a week in total to prepare both cars for the race but have already converted the engines back to running E85 fuel after their stints in Europe. Reliability has always been our strong suit and despite its 24 hours of continuous running, the #40 was in remarkably good condition so we’ve not had too many issues during the rebuild. An additional restrictor break means we should be competitive.”
There’s a number of ways to catch all the action live from Lime Rock Park next weekend.
North America: ESPN3.com @ 13.50 ET (Live, Saturday)ESPN2 @ 13.00 ET (Highlights, Sunday)
Europe: Motors TV @ 18.50 (Live, Saturday)
Don’t forget there’s also live commentary of every session throughout the event with John Hindhaugh and the team at RadioLeMans.com.
Northeast Grand Prix schedule:
Friday 8 July:11.10 – 12.10: Free Practice (All Classes)14.20 – 15.20: Free Practice (All Classes)15.45 – 16.00: Qualifying (GT Class)
Saturday 9 July:09.55 – 10.15: Warm-up14.05 – 16.50: American Le Mans Series Northeast Grand Prix (2hrs 45mins)
