Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix
No. 30 MOMO NGT Motorsport Porsche during Saturday's practice sessionMOMO NGT Motorsport's Kuba Giermaziak qualified the Miami-based team's No. 30 Porsche 911 GT America (Type 991) for todays's Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix, and will start the race from the eighth position in the GT Daytona (GTD) class of the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
With a fastest lap time of 1:27.416, Giermaziak was able to stay within the Top 10 cars of the ultra-competitive 23-car GTD field, and with the electrical issues earlier in the first day of TUDOR Championship on-track sessions at the picturesque Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the red-flag shortened qualifying session, this starting position is better than the team expected.
Kuba Giermaziak, driver of No. 30 MOMO NGT Motorsport Porsche 911 GTD:
"We had some issues after the first session, but our qualifying wasn't too bad. I suppose it could have been better. I made some mistakes on my laps, but it's a new track for me. As a team we've done an awesome job because we had those issues in the morning. We'll see how it is in the race. Normally Henrique is really fast and we should hopefully be fighting for the podium."
Ramez Wahab, NGT Motorsports Team Owner, No. 30 MOMO NGT Motorsport Porsche 911 GTD:
"Kuba was on his fast lap but the red flag came out 200 yards before the start/finish line. Then we only had five minutes to go, but he got in a very good lap. We are 5-tenths off the leader, and that's pretty good. Also, we did not have much of a chance to work on the car with this schedule. We cannot have a race weekend in two days. We have two practice sessions and qualifying in one day. If you have even the slightest issue, you play catch-up the whole weekend. After the first session we had some electronic issues so to be honest, this is even better than I hoped for."
NGT Motorsport will also compete in Rounds 3 and 4 of the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where MOMO NGT driver Christina Nielsen qualified her No. 25 Porsche 11th in the GT3 Platinum class of the competition after a suspension break during the session. Nielsen was running second in Friday's second practice, and with this being her first time here in a Porsche, she hopes to move quickly through the field during Sunday's two 45-minute races.
Christina Nielsen, driver of No. 25 MOMO IMSA GT3:
"I didn't get a hot lap during qualifying. I unfortunately broke the suspension. When you hit one of the red curbs, you break the suspension, which I did. I was driving behind another car, as they let out the fast guys first, and everyone else follows after that. Unfortunately, on my third lap, I reached the guys who were further behind in the back, and I was driving really close to them. I missed my turn-in a little bit, and I hit one of the red curbs and that was it. I did three laps, I didn't get proper heat in the tires, and so we're going to have to work a lot for the race. I'm looking forward to some overtaking and the important thing is to make it through the start. It's definitely not fun starting in the middle of the field, but I have to keep a cool head and look for it."
Other MOMO NGT drivers that qualified in the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca include:
Eduardo Cisneros, No. 29 Platinum Class - will start 12th in Round 3Fred Kaimer, No. 23 Master in the Gold Class - will start 10th in Round 3The green flag drops on the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix (PC/GTD) at 10:15 a.m. PDT on May 4. Tune in to FOX Sports 1 for the LIVE start of the race at 10:00 a.m. PDT on May 4.
