Impressive doesn’t even begin to describe Alex Job Racing’s performance in its return to the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón. Under the watchful eye of team owner Alex Job, AJR Porsches finished 1-2-3 in the GT Challenge class of the 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida with the trio of Leh Keen, Butch Leitzinger and Juan Gonzalez leading the way.
It was the sixth Sebring win for Alex Job, whose team debuted at Sebring in 1989. All six have been with Porsche. The Bill Sweedler/Romeo Kapudija/Jan-Dirk Lueders car was second followed by the entry of Ricardo Gonzalez/Luis Diaz/Patrick Kelly.
“We’re back in a bigger way than we left,” said Job, who first came to Sebring as a spectator in 1965. “I was into cars when I was two years old, and this is what I always wanted to do. I’ve always had a passion for Sebring. It’s been the most successful place for our team over the years. It feels so great to be back. The entire crew put in a lot of work the past couple of weeks. This is a grueling race, but the driver lineup we have almost made it look easy. We had a few spins and a couple of penalties, but no one got rattled and everyone did their job. It is very rewarding to come down here with nine drivers, over 30 crew members and have everything go your way.”
That’s an understatement. Of the race’s 367 laps, the winning AJR Porsche led all but six. Three of those were led by the Diaz/Kelly/Gonzalez car. And the winning Keen/Leitzinger/Gonzalez entry led the final 97 laps. There’s more. Except for a three-lap period in the middle of the race, AJR cars ran 1-2 for the final 226 laps. They were 1-2-3 for the final 78 laps.
“I have to give it to Alex - one-two-three on the podium is a great achievement as well as the same result in qualifying,” said Keen, who posted the 20 fastest race laps in the class. “His team puts together some great cars. We didn’t have a dent or a scratch on our car. We kept it clean.”
The Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach is the second round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón. The race, set at the historic Long Beach street circuit, is scheduled for 4:40 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 15 with coverage on SPEED set for 8 to 10 p.m. ET. Live radio coverage will be available on American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche – a production of Radio Show Limited – as well as Sirius and XM. Visit www.americanlemans.com for ticket and accommodation information. Live Timing and Scoring, track schedule, entry list and much, much more will be available on the Racehub at americanlemans.com.
You can follow the Series on Twitter (almsnotes) and on our Facebook page and the official YouTube channel.
Courtesy americanlemans.com
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