Ben Keating,ViperExchange,Dodge Viper GT3-R,Continental Tire Monterey Grand PrixOvernight Riley Motorsports Engine Change Gets Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen Back On Pace in No. 33 Viper GT3-RBen Keating qualified fourth in the No. 33 ViperExchange.com/Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R for today’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Round 3 for the GT Daytona (GTD) division on the 2015 IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship calendar, the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix can be seen live on FOX Sports 1 tomorrow, Sunday, May 3, at 4 p.m. EDT/1 p.m. PDT.After an overnight Friday engine change by Riley Motorsports, Keating and co-driver Jeroen Bleekemolen were immediately up to speed in the No. 33 in this morning’s final practice. That session ended with the No. 33 third fastest, and Keating went on to battle for the pole in qualifying that afternoon to lock down the second-row starting berth.“I was a little all over the place,” said Keating, who turned a top lap time of 1:28.267 (91.278 mph). “I think the track has changed quite a bit. I ran a lap that was almost a second faster this morning, a really fast lap and a good one that I couldn’t come close to repeating. We made some changes to the car and I think the track changed.”Saturday’s qualifying run was the first Keating has made in the No. 33 this season, but he did qualify the team’s sister No. 93 Viper GT3-R at both of the season-opening races in Daytona and Sebring.“Obviously I was able to do a fast enough time to get into P4, which is a great place to start on the second row, but it was a difficult car to drive. That’s not something you hear me say very often on this car. We feel pretty confident we are going to be able to get that turned back around.”The No. 93 is competing this weekend with co-drivers Jeff Mosing and Marc Miller with the support of Mosing Motorcars. Miller was recently named as the third driver, joining Keating and Bleekemolen, for ViperExchange.com’s effort in the 83rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, June 13 – 14. This weekend’s Monterey Grand Prix is being used to get Miller familiar with a Viper race car before next month’s Le Mans race and he is certainly making the most of it. Miller turned the second quickest time in GTD qualifying with a top lap of 1:28.021 (91.533 mph) in the No. 93.“Quite frankly, we are going to go back close to the setup Marc had,” Keating said. “Marc did an unbelievable job and that was his best lap of the weekend. He still feels like he is dialing it in but it sure is nice for him.”
Keating will start tomorrow’s race in the No. 33 before handing off to Bleekemolen, the team’s usual closer.“Ben has always been doing really well against the other silver drivers, so I knew we had a good chance to be up there, but you still need to do it and he did,” Bleekemolen said. “We are going to work on the car, make it a little better and now we have to focus on the race.”Riley Motorsports Team Director Bill Riley is pleased to have a Viper GT3-R on each of the first two rows for tomorrow’s race.“I feel pretty good,” Riley said. “The track changed a lot for qualifying so we have a little bit of work to do for tomorrow to have good race cars but it shouldn’t be anything out of control. We should be pretty strong tomorrow.”Race-day Sunday starts with a 20-minute warm-up at 8:15 a.m. PDT. The featured Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix goes green at 1:05 p.m. PDT for 2 hours and 40 minutes on the 2.238-mile Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca road course.
