While Alex Job Racing has yet to finalize plans for the 2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, team owner Alex Job found the opportunity to test at Daytona International Speedway too tempting to pass up.
“Even though we haven’t announced our plans for the No. 22 car (the lineup for the No. 23 car was released prior to Petit Le Mans), we felt it was important to test both cars together,” Job said.
“These are two important days of testing to gather our final data to get a better feeling for where we’re going to be next year. We may come back for another two days in December – these two days will help us decide.”
Alex Job Racing was joined by four other TUDOR Championship teams at Daytona on Tuesday, opening a two-day unofficial test. The next official TUDOR Championship activity will be the Roar Before the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 9-11, with the 2015 season-opening Rolex 24 set for Jan. 24-25.
The defending Rolex 24 class winning teams in GT Le Mans (GTLM) and Prototype Challenge (PC) were both at the test.
Porsche North America (GTLM) had Sebring winner Michael Christensen in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR, while CORE autosport (PC) had Jon Bennett and Colin Braun in the No. 54 Flex-Box ORECA FLM09. Also testing were Starworks Motorsport (PC) and Team Falken Tire (GTLM).
Alex Job Racing had the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT America with driver Leh Keen, along with the No. 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Heart of Racing Porsche 911 GT America.
Alex Riberas tested the No. 23 car on Tuesday, and will be joined by Ian James on Wednesday. Mario Farnbacher will complete the team’s driver lineup for the Rolex 24.
The Porsche 911 GT America was given a new aerodynamic package beginning with the September race at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas.
“We had some aero bits added to the front of the car,” Keen said. “Since our car is basically a (Porsche) Cup car, we don’t some of the aero setups you find on the (Porsche) GT3. We got to add some little pieces to help with the front downforce. That does add a bit of drag, but we need the front aero more than anything.
“We’re learning at the test that the new pieces are definitely helping us at Daytona. The car is more comfortable to drive than it was last time at Daytona, and that’s big for an endurance race. You want a quick car for sure, but a lot of drivers also want to drive a comfortable car for a 24-hour race.”