AMERICAN LE MANS ENDURANCE SERIES

SECOND AMERICAN PODIUM FOR TIM

Lexington, Ohio - J3 Racing drivers Justin Jackson and Tim Sugden drove their number 79/J3 Racing/Porsche 911 RSR to a third place finish in GT2 in round three of the American Le Mans Series race run at Mid-Ohio Sportscar Course on Sunday.

This finish marks the team's second podium result in 3 races, the first being a second place effort at the season opener in Sebring, the result putting J3 Racing Second in the GT2 Team Championship.    In the GT2 Drivers table the result places Sugden Third despite the fact that he missed the second race of the season at Road Atlanta due to his commitments to GruppeM racing in the European “Le Mans Endurance Series”.

 
In qualifying, Sugden posted a time of 1:24.186 with an average speed of 97 mph, this was good for a fifth place starting position in GT2 and he was able to lap consistently in the high 1,24s and 1.25s in the race before track conditions changed in the final 45 minutes

Justin Jackson started the car for the two-hour and forty-five minute race and was able to work his way up to third place after the team elected to ignore the opportunity of refueling during a Pace Car period 30 minutes into the race.    This decision gambled that another similar interruption to the racing would come closer to the normal first refueling point and this did in fact occur almost exactly on the 45 minute mark allowing Jackson to hand over to teammate Sugden, who ran for the remaining 2 hours.     The second refueling stop proved to be tough on the Buford, Georgia based team when a slight miscue by a mechanic in the pits resulted in a 60-second penalty costing the team a lap and sure second place at the finish.  An eventual rain shower with six laps remaining made conditions treacherous but Sugden was able to bring the car home in third place on slick tyres.

"We had a second place car today," said Tim Sugden. "The penalty really hurt us and we were lucky at the end when the car in front of us went off. It was a survival race today, we kept it on the track and when the rain came it was like ice out there. Justin did a good job to get the car up there in contention and the team's strategy was sound, all good things for the future".