in No. 80 ACS Manufacturing Dodge Viper GT3-R
Knox Co-Drives Viper GT3-R with Marc Goossens In Saturday’s Lone Star Le Mans IMSA TUDOR United Sports Car Championship Race
Texan Dan Knox and the Lone Star Racing (LSR) team will make their IMSA debut at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) this weekend, September 18 - 19, where the team’s No. 80 ACS Manufacturing Dodge Viper GT3-R will be co-driven by international sports car stalwart Marc Goossens.
Knox and the Lone Star Racing team, which is based at Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, Texas in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area, will be making their first IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race start in familiar Texas territory.
“Texas has a large race fan following and LSR is working on becoming a premier race team in Texas,” Knox said. “We have only been together as a team at LSR for two years and we are continuing to grow our fan base. We are very excited to be opening our IMSA debut in our home state, allowing our fans to come out and see us at one of the nicest track facilities in the country, and it’s local.”
One of Belgium’s top race car drivers for more than two decades, Goossens has raced Vipers in the U.S. the last few years. He most recently co-drove the No. 93 TI Automotive/ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper GT3-R to a GT Daytona (GTD) victory in June’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen with Al Carter and Cameron Lawrence. He also co-drove to a second place GT Le Mans (GTLM) finish at COTA last year in a Dodge Viper GTS-R.
“The Viper GT3-R is maybe not the utmost best for straight line speed, nor for downforce, but it has a very good average of everything that's needed at COTA,” Goossens said. “We finished one-two here last year in GTLM so hopefully we can aim for a podium finish in GTD this year too.”
The No. 80’s preparation for this weekend’s race included a trip from Texas to the headquarters of Riley Technologies in Mooresville, North Carolina, just before Labor Day weekend. There Lone Star Racing Team Manager and Engineer AJ Petersen worked with the Riley organization in converting the LSR Viper GT3-R to IMSA GTD specifications.
“This has all come together only in the last three weeks,” Petersen said. “Riley Technologies has been very helpful and has offered support with pit lane equipment, various electronic systems and general race support. IMSA has a different way of doing things than our previous series and Riley has been helping us navigate these ways to help us be prepared for the event. They have a good program for IMSA and we are fortunate to be able to learn from them.”
Lone Star Racing is supported by ACS Manufacturing, a state-of-the-art design build manufacturer of acoustical equipment enclosures, fuel tanks, turbine systems and skids that is based in Denison, Texas.
“Without the help of ACS Manufacturing, Riley Technologies, AJ Petersen and our Car Chief Mike Lopilato, we would not have been able to put all this together in such a short time frame,” Knox said. “I raced the GT3-R at COTA earlier this year, we did very well and expect to do better this time around.”
The No. 80 is Viper chassis No. 003, the same car Knox and LSR raced in World Challenge this season and last year, scoring a GTA-class win in Detroit. The Motown victory was the first in a North American racing series for the Riley-built Viper GT3-R that debuted in 2014.
Knox is looking forward to getting more laps on the ultra-modern COTA track but admits to liking the challenge of some of America’s older and more legendary road courses.
“Circuit of The Americas has the best facilities of any track in North America,” Knox said. “The track is so new that it is still very smooth and very wide, which will be helpful with the multi-class racing. I like the high speeds and wide and smooth track of COTA but like racing the layouts of some of the older tracks like Road America and Watkins Glen,” Knox said. “They are more challenging to drive.”
Goossens also likes his race tracks old school but does have a great deal of appreciation for the ultra-modern COTA course.
“Circuit of The Americas is a great facility and the layout is a very interesting combination of high and low speed sections,” Goossens said. “It is, of course, one of the new type of “F1 safety-standard" tracks. I personally prefer the old-school tracks like Watkins Glen, Road America or Road Atlanta but we all know things are changing for a reason. Spa back home used to be way more challenging in the past too but that track has lost some of its flair because of all the safety that was built. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for big wrecks or disasters, but the challenge should remain.”
The Lone Star Le Mans at COTA, Round 11 of the 2015 IMSA TUDOR Championship and the first of the year’s final two races, will be televised live on FOX Sports 2, beginning at 12:30 p.m. EDT this Saturday, September 19. The race will be rebroadcast on FOX Sports 1 this Sunday, September 20, beginning at 1:30 p.m. EDT.
About Lone Star Racing: Based at Motorsport Ranch within the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area in Cresson, Texas, Lone Star Racing is in its second season campaigning the No. 80 ACS Manufacturing Dodge Viper GT3-R. Both the team and lead driver, Dan Knox, will make their IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship debuts at Circuit of The Americas (COTA), September 18 – 19, 2015. Although Lone Star Racing is new to IMSA, its team members have won races across North America spanning sprint and endurance racing formats. The crew has worked together on many different teams and various types of cars, developing a strong bond and proven capability that gives them a competitive and winning advantage. The team races with the support of Riley Technologies and Dodge Mopar and primary partner ACS Manufacturing, Inc. (www.acsmanufacturing.com). Look for Lone Star Racing and Dan Knox on Facebook and follow the team on Twitter @LSRTeam.
