in No. 80 ACS Manufacturing Viper GT3-R
Solid Weekend and Race Finish for IMSA-Debuting Texas Team in the Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas
Dan Knox, Marc Goossens and the Texas-based Lone Star Racing (LSR) team finished seventh Saturday in the No. 80 ACS Manufacturing Dodge Viper GT3-R at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in the team’s IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship debut.
Both starting driver Knox and Goossens ran competitively throughout the two-hour and 40-minute race and brought the LSR Viper home on the lead lap ahead of some of the more established competition in the IMSA TUDOR Championship.
“We’re very happy with our outcome,” said Knox, a resident of Pilot Point, Texas. “First time out, to finish seventh, you can’t ask for that. We put all of this together only in the last three weeks, and to have an outcome like this, it’s great and was a fun experience. That’s why I’m here and we’ll be back. We’re very excited to be here.”
Goossens, who most recently won in a Viper in June at Watkins Glen in the No. 93 TI Automotive/ViperExchange.com GT3-R, was impressed with Knox’s performance in his first IMSA race.
“I think we had a good start of the race,” Goossens said. “I think Dan did pretty well for his first time in IMSA dealing in traffic and all of that. So, I’m pretty pleased to see him through that and make a good debut in the series.”
Goossens took over from Knox to race the No. 80 to the finish and believed he had a Viper capable of racing well into the top five.
“When I took over, I really thought that we had a decent car, maybe even a top three car, but on my second set of tires I had zero grip in the car,” Goossens said. “Although I expected us to drive into the top three, we just went backwards. We’re looking into pressures, maybe a bad set of tires, I don’t know, but the whole thing, it was very weird. From one stint to the other the car completely changed. The only thing I tried to do was stay on track and not wreck it.”
The drivers did bring the No. 80 home with no damage and the team was pleased in total with an encouraging debut weekend that also saw Knox qualify a solid seventh on Friday.
“From where we came from in the beginning of the weekend I think we kept on making progress,” Goossens said. “We had the same characteristics in the car during the race as we did in practice, everything was very consistent, and experience in this series will only make this already great team even better.”
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.
