Farnbacher-Loles Motorsports has chosen Ian Baas of Noblesville, Ind. to substitute for Leh Keen in its No. 85 Porsche GT3 Cup car for tomorrow night’s Brumos Porsche 250 Rolex Series race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Keen was injured in a crash in Turn 9 during the warm-up session for the GT portion of the EMCO Gears Classic at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course June 24.
Baas will share the No. 85 with Dominik Farnbacher in Thursday night’s race, which will be broadcast live on SPEED starting at 8 p. m. Eastern time. The entry is sponsored by Shoes for Crews and Recaro. Its sister car, the No. 87, will be driven by Bryce Miller and GT points leader Dirk Werner. The team, which is headquartered in Danbury, Conn., is currently second in the overall GT team point standings with its No. 87 entry.
Baas and Farnbacher should be immediate contenders at Daytona. Baas was part of the driver squad that won the GT class at last year’s Rolex 24. Farnbacher-Loles Racing was on the podium in that race in both 2006 and 2005, winning the GT class in the latter year. The team led for more than 15 hours in this year’s race.
Thursday’s race will be much shorter, as the distance is 250 miles (70 laps on the 3.56-mile road course) or two and a half hours, whichever comes first.
This is not the first time that Baas has driven for Farnbacher-Loles. He was driving a Farnbacher-Loles Porsche when he got on the podium and was the highest-finishing American in a Porsche Super Cup race at the U. S. Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last year.
“Although I’m sorry that Leh got hurt, I’m thrilled with the opportunity to drive for Farnbacher-Loles again, ” said Baas, 24. “There won’t be much time to work on the set-up since practice, qualifying and the race are all held on the same day, but I’m confident that the Farnbacher-Loles team will give Dominik and I a good race car. “
Practice starts at 10 a. m. Thursday. Qualifying for the GT class will be held at 1:15 p. m. There’s an autograph session at 4 p. m. and the race will start at 8 p. m. A total of 18 Daytona Prototypes and 21 GT cars are entered.
On Friday morning Baas will leave Florida for Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, where he will participate in practice at 3:30 p. m. that afternoon with his STaSIS Motorsport Audi A4 No. 18 in preparation for Sunday’s SPEED World Challenge Touring Car race. Qualifying is slated for 4:30 p. m. Saturday while that 24-car race will get the green flag at 3:30 p. m. Sunday. Part of the Grand Prix of Toronto Champ Car weekend, it will be broadcast on a tape-delayed basis at 11 a. m. Saturday, July 14 on SPEED
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