2010 News

SEBRING, Florida (March 19, 2010) – After a week of preparing for the season opener of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron season, the JaguarRSR team had a successful qualifying run this afternoon in preparation for Saturday’s 58th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida.

“We approached qualifying as a practice session,” said JaguarRSR Principal Partner and driver Paul Gentilozzi. “We left all of our endurance equipment on, all of our endurance brakes, while many of the other teams went to sprint configurations aerodynamically and distance wise. We chose not to do that because we really need to learn more about the race. I am satisfied with the session, we ran nine laps with reasonable times and we will just get ready to race tomorrow.” 

Mark Goossens was the qualifying driver this afternoon behind the wheel of the #75 JaguarRSR XKR GT. During the 25-minute qualifying session the Belgium recorded a best time of 2:04.804 on his fifth lap. “Qualifying wasn’t really a qualifying run for us. We used it more of a practice session and finding out what the tires would do on the longer stint, so I went out in the beginning of the session and stayed out until the end to really get a good run in. The car felt reasonable, we got a good read on the Yokohama tires and on the balance of the #75 JaguarRSR XKR GT. I think we know which way to go for the race now.”

The #75 JaguarRSR XKR GT will start 31st on the provisional grid, 12th in GT2 class.

Driver seat time has been kind of like playing musical chairs to the glorious roar of the JaguarRSR XKR GT. Between the three assigned drivers this weekend, Gentilozzi, Goossens and Ryan Dalziel, each had adequate time to get comfortable with not only the car, but the car on track in preparation for the 12-hour endurance event. The race lineup will see Gentilozzi take the green flag, followed by Dalziel and Goossens in respective stints.

“I think that we have done a great job,” added Dalziel. “It has been a testing week for everybody on the team and the guys have worked a lot of late hours. I am proud to be a part of a program that has so many dedicated people. We have made huge gains on the #75 JaguarRSR XKR GT. It might not look that way to the outside, but within the JaguarRSR team we know we are moving forward in so many ways. We are happy with the progress we are making and we are looking for a safe, reliable race.”

The green flag will fall at 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 20 with live coverage on SPEED starting at 10 a.m. ET. Live coverage also will be available on American Le Mans Radio, as well as Sirius Channel 127 and XM Channel 245. Live Timing and Scoring, starting line-up and more is available on Racehub at americanlemans.com. Follow the team on our Facebook page: RSR Jaguar.

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