Fresh from their fifth P2 win from six races in the 2012 American Le Mans Series, in a strategically smart and close-fought race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Scott Tucker and Level 5 Motorsports now head to the scenic and popular Road America track in Wisconsin for the teams home race.
Both Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b cars will be entered for the four-hour race. Tucker and Christophe Bouchut will compete in the No. 055 while the Kansas City resident will do double-duty with Luis Diaz in the No. 95. As winner of the P2 category last year, in the final race for the teams Lola-Honda, Road America counts as one of the five time national driving champions favorite tracks. As Scott will also be racing a Level 5 Motorsports entry in the Cooper Tires Prototype Lites and IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge series as well as the ALMS, the busy driver will have a substantial number of laps under his belt to help bring the team quickly up to speed.
The David Stone-led crew will be making the short journey from its Madison, Wis., headquarters to the classic circuit for the seventh round of the season, the Road America Road Race Showcase. The 4.05 mile, European-style layout is popular with almost everyone in the field, and features a series of single corners without tricky or technical combinationsincluding the notorious Kinkwith useable curbs which can help to reduce lap time.
This is the highest speed (States side) track visited by the teams and speeds of around 160mph (260kph) are reached three times a lap. With an expected P2 lap time of around 1m 55s, track time will be at a premium in the practice sessions leading up to the race so the team will be working hard to optimize their set up as quickly as possible.
Its quite a difficult track to set up a car for, said Stone. Its long and you need to have a good set up for both slow and high speed corners, bumps and curbs as well. It takes time to set up the car but weve got good data from previous years and are confident that well be strong from the outset of Thursdays test session.
Mexican driver, Luis Diaz, has not been able to drive for the team since Le Mans due to a change in drive-time regulations introduced by the series regulatory body, IMSA. However, with three longer races scheduled from the last four of the season, the popular 2009 ALMS P2 Champion cant wait to return to the cockpit: I'm very excited to be back in the No. 95 car with Scott Tucker and Level 5, said Diaz. Obviously it has been frustrating having to watch from the side lines during the last few races because of the regulations, but it has also been a productive experience to be able to help the team and get involved in different aspects of the weekend with the engineers and the drivers.
But now I'm ready to get back behind the wheel and go fight for the top spots. Road America has always been one of my favorite race tracks and I've had a lot of success there, so there's really no better place to return.
The next round of the ALMS will be the Road Race Showcase at Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on Saturday, August 18. The four-hour race will start at 2:30 pm ET and will be shown on ESPN2.
