FOAMETIX Burtin Racing with Goldcrest Motorsports Set For Sixth-Consecutive Rolex 24 At Daytona

 with No. 17 FOAMETIX/Z-Value Porsche GT3Claudio Burtin and Martin Ragginger to be joined by Jack Baldwin, Mario Farnbacher and Robert Renauer for Rolex 24 opener FOAMETIX/Burtin Racing with Goldcrest Motorsports returns to the Rolex 24 At Daytona for the sixth-consecutive year in 2013 with team owner and lead driver Claudio Burtin confirming today that he will co-drive the No. 17 FOAMETIX/Z-Value Porsche GT3 with Martin Ragginger and Jack Baldwin and team newcomers Mario Farnbacher and Robert Renauer. 

FOAMETIX/Z-Value returns to the Rolex 24 after successfully competing in 2012s GRAND-AM Road Racing North American Endurance Championship.  Burtin and Ragginger closed out the three-race series with a career-best showing of sixth in the GT class at the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last July.

Without question this is my favorite race, Burtin said. Its a very, very difficult race. The quality of the drivers is world class from top to bottom. The equipment is also world class. Our car as everybody knows now is in its sixth time here, so shes a little old. We are just going to do the best we can with what we have.

Ragginger and Baldwin join Burtin as returning drivers to the FOAMETIX team. Ragginger is a top sports car talent and experienced Porsche driver from Austria who has served as the lead driver for FOAMETIX for the past five years.  Baldwin is a racing legend who is a former Trans-Am and IMSA Camel GTU Champion and a former Rolex 24 class winner.  Baldwin also scored a Pirelli World Challenge GTS class victory last April at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Its nice that FOAMETIX made it here again with Goldcrest, Ragginger said. We are putting everything together like every year. Our big goal is to finish the race without any issues. Of course you have to have a little bit of luck. Weve had no luck five times so far. Hopefully the luck helps us a little bit for this year and we have a nice finish in this race.

First time drivers for FOAMETIX include Mario Farnbacher, brother of top sports car racing talent Dominik Farnbacher, and his German countryman Robert Renauer.

This will be my first time running at Daytona, Farnbacher said. Last year I came to observe. The track is nice. Its totally different from Europe with the banking. I completely love it. I am so excited for the race.

Renauers only previous experience at the Rolex 24 was in a Daytona Prototype.

This is my second year driving at Daytona, Renauer said. The first was six years ago driving a Porsche Fabcar so now it is my first time in a GT car. Daytona is tricky but I love this track and we have a good lineup for the race so I am really looking forward to it.

Goldcrest Motorsports is made up of the same key personnel that were behind the success of the 2009 championship-winning No. 87 Farnbacher/Loles Porsche GT3 of Dirk Werner and Leh Keen.  In 2011, Goldcrest worked with Keen and the returning Brumos Porsche GT3 team at the Rolex 24, which helped move that effort off to a successful start in what proved to a be championship-winning season.  Goldcrest also partnered FOAMETIX in its three-race NAEC campaign last year.

FOAMETIX/Z-Value participated in this weekends three-day Roar Before the Rolex 24 test at Daytona International Speedway and posted a best time of 1:50.193 (116.305 mph) in Saturday afternoons second session.

Noteworthy

-    FOAMETIX/Burtin Racing is racing to raise awareness for Z-Value with the No. 17 FOAMETIX/Z-Value Porsche GT3 at this years Rolex 24.  Z-Value is like an efficiency rating for insulation, Burtin said. Z-Value is an attempt to get what would be more like a SEER rating or efficiency rating. It takes three different physics principals into account, instead of simply one laboratory test to determine the efficiency of the product.

-    Burtin was impressed by the on-track performance of his pair of new drivers. We have two new drivers with us this year for the Rolex 24 and they have both done a marvelous job, Burtin said. Robert Renauer has done a fabulous job this weekend. We also have Mario Farnbacher with us. Weve had his older brother Dominik with us a couple of years back and I think we have a strong lineup. Its just a matter of keeping our nose clean and making it to the end.


Related Motorsport Articles

84,520 articles