Ave,
Kuttner and Gue Finish 19th
In Rolex Series Season Finale
At Miller Motorsports Park Saturday
In Doran Racing's DORAN JE4 Pontiac No. 78
TOOELE, Utah, Sept. 2 - After starting 23rd,
the red Doran Racing DORAN JE4
Pontiac No. 78 finished 19th in the nine-hour
Discount Tire Sunchaser Rolex
Series season finale Saturday on the longest
road course in the nation at Miller
Motorsports Park.
Drivers Tony Ave of Mooresville, N.C., Oliver
Kuttner of Charlottesville, Va.
and James Gue of Athens, Ga. experienced
some brake problems with their car,
which carried advertising for two Web sites:
yououghttoknowthis.com and
nycshuttle.com, as well as Venom Synthetic
Lubricants. Ave had a little contact
and
Kuttner spun once, so all three drivers were
glad that they were able to
soldier on and finish the grueling race on
the 4.486-mile road course.
The car ran in 18th or 19th place for a full
two-thirds of the race, which
was broadcast on SPEED.
The Michael Shank Racing No. 60 of Mark Patterson
and Oswaldo Negri won. For
more information see doranracing.com and
grandamerican.com.
Driver post-race quotes follow:
Tony Ave: "I didn't have any incidents to
speak of during my first stint.
The No. 17 GT car ran into the side of me,
but it didn't hurt us. It just bent
the wheel a little but we were OK.
"The track got dirty.
You really couldn't go off line; there was
a lot of
rubber and trash off line.
"In the afternoon I was
passing the 21 BMW in the kink over there
and he
got into my left rear. I think it bent
the toe-in a bit, and I had to get a
new tire.
"The problem we had was
no brakes. I didn't have any at the
beginning of
that second stint and they got worse. I'd
do one relatively fast lap and
then I had to slow down and try to get the
brakes back.
"That last stint was the
hardest one I've ever had driving at night. I
was thinking at the end of an ATV race I
was in once when I was a kid, and all
the track lights went out. That was
the only time that was worse than this."
Oliver Kuttner: "I spun off. I never
hit anything, but I couldn't see and I
ran off the track two more times because
I couldn't find the track. The crew
teased me and said I shouldn't try to take
soil samples from each corner.
"The brakes came back
for me. I think they got better as
my session went
on because there was less heat in them because
I was going slower than Tony
and James.
"I was put in my place
today, but that's OK. I had plenty
of fun."
James Gue: "We had a few brake issues and
some contact that didn't help. The
car ran flawlessly. It was a little
off the pace, but the crew did a great
job." |