ALMS
Alex Job Racing qualified third for tomorrow’s running of the Grand Prix of Portland and round six of the American Le Mans Series to take the green flag Saturday evening.
In heat registering 105 degrees on the thermometer and track temps above 125°, Mike Rockenfeller drove the number 23/Alex Job Racing/Bell Microproducts/
Porsche 911 RSR to a second row qualifying effort in GT2 with a time of 1:13.312 and an average speed of 96 mph.
Rockenfeller and teammate Robin Liddell have been adjusting on the Porsche for two days. The handling of the car and the ever changing track conditions, due to the heat, have the AJR crew on their game.
Mike Rockenfeller is satisfied with his qualifying run. “I had a good lap, maybe a tenth or two left but not enough to really improve our position. The track is really changing due to the heat and we have been adjusting on the car every stop. It feels like we are running a rally car out there with all of the sliding around that is going on. We need to work more on the balance of the car over a race stint. The team that is able to keep their tires under the car the longest will have a good day tomorrow.”
Robin Liddell is searching for grip around the 12-turn Portland circuit. “We are throwing a lot of setup changes at the car. We haven’t improved that much over our practice times from yesterday. The team has not yet been able to hit the sweet spot of the car’s handling, Greg Fordahl [team engineer] will have to pull a rabbit out of his hat for the race. We need to put a setup on the car that will allow us to run fast consistent lap times; right now we are only able to get a couple of laps on a new set of tires until the times really fall off.”
“The guys are really working hard on the setup,” said Holly Job, team owner. “We have been trying to focus on having a good race car as we knew we did not have a chance at the pole. Robin and Mike are providing good feedback on the conditions and the car, but the heat is really affecting the grip level of the circuit. We will review our notes and make some more changes for the warm-up. It was hot here last year and we persevered to win.”
The Portland International Raceway features a 12-turn, 1.94-mile road course with the infamous Festival Curves at the end of the front straight. Alex Job Racing has an excellent Portland track record with wins in 2005, 2004 and 1999.
Round six of the American Le Mans Series to be run at Portland International Raceway will be televised on CBS, tape delayed, on Sunday, July 23rd at 3:00 p.m. ET.
Rockenfeller is currently seventh in drivers points, 43 out of the lead, with Alex Job Racing fifth in the team standings.
ALMS GT2 Portland Top Qualifiers:
1. Salo/Melo Ferrari 1:12.769
2. Long/Bergmeister Porsche 1:13.235
3. Rockenfeller/Liddell AJR Porsche 1:13.312
4. Hand/Auberlen BMW 1:13.375
5. Maxwell/Brabham Panoz 1:13.828
6. Milner/Jeanette Panoz 1:13.970
7. Law/Neiman Porsche 1:14.008
8. Marks/Sellers Panoz 1:14.010
9. Henzler/van Overbeek Porsche 1:14.254