The Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team turned the fifth fastest lap in today’s Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve combined practice sessions, in preparation for Friday’s Montréal 400k at the Circuit Gilles-Villenueve.
Both Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long spent most of the morning practice session learning the intricacies of the 2.71-mile road course and performed quite well given that neither had ever driven the famed Formula 1 track. Driving the No. 23 Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team Porsche Crawford Daytona Prototype (DP), Bergmeister turned the sixth quickest lap in that session with a 1:38.704 (98.805 mph).
In this afternoon’s practice session, Bergmeister and Long continued to get quicker, shaving nearly two seconds off their morning practice time. Nineteen laps into their session, Long turned the team’s fastest lap with a 1:36.767 (100.782 mph).
“Given that Jörg and I have never driven here and have had only minimal track time, we are pretty happy with today’s practice, ” Long said. “It [today’s practice] says a lot about Greg’s [Fordahl] setup and all of the hard work the guys did between Barber and here. We are pretty optimistic about the weekend. ”
“I think we had a pretty good day, ” Bergmeister said. “We just ran one set of tires all day. They were a used set from the last race and our lap times were pretty good. Patrick and the team did a great job. The car was in good shape coming out of the trailer. This is probably the best car we’ve had since Laguna. ”
“Things were pretty good today, ” team owner Alex Job said. “This is the first time we’ve ever been to Montréal. Neither the team, nor the drivers have ever been here and to be in the top five – that’s pretty positive. We weren’t going for times today and we were not that far off [from the top DP car]. Overall, I am pretty optimistic about our first day. ”
The Ruby Tuesday Championship Racing Team has one win, two top-five and eight top-10 finishes this season. Both, Bergmeister and Long are tied for eighth-place with 233 points (65 points behind the point leader Scott Pruett) in the Grand-Am Rolex Series Daytona Prototype Driver Point standings. The team is in sixth-place in the Grand-Am Rolex Series Team Point standings also with 233 points.
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