Action Express Racing Corvette DP Captures Lead After First Segment In Tequila Patrón North Amer ican Endurance Cup At Sebring

Please see attached press release, below is a text-only version.

Action Express Racing Corvette DP Captures Lead After First Segment

In Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup At Sebring

· Team Falken Tire Gains On Corvettes In GTLM

· PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Closes To Within One Point of PC Lead

· TI Automotive Dodge Viper SRT Continues To Pace GTD

SEBRING, Fla. (March 21, 2015) – Action Express Racing captured the lead in the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup team standings after running second in the opening four-hour segment of Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida.

The four points for second place gives the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP of Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais 17 points in the competition that covers the four endurance races in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates’ No. 02 Ford EcoBoost Riley entered the event with 16 points and the lead after winning the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, but is not competing at Sebring.

Scott Dixon, who co-drove the No. 02 car at Daytona and is currently with Scott Pruett and Joey Hand on the No. 01 entry, leads the Prototype driver standings with 19 points.

Mike Rockenfeller passed Fittipaldi only two minutes before Saturday’s race reached the four-hour mark, enabling the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP team to pick up five valuable points. Entering the race with a seven-point deficit, the Florida team closed to within three points of the lead. Ganassi Racing’s No. 01 Ford EcoBoost Riley and the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP both have 15 points.

Points in the four-race Patrón Endurance Cup are awarded at specific intervals throughout each race – every four hours in the Twelve Hours of Sebring – with the leader at the end of each segment scoring five points, four points for second, three points for third and fourth-place on back receiving two points.

Team Falken Tire improved a position in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) standings after Wolf Henzler led the opening segment in the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche RSR. Corvette Racing remains 1-2 in the standings, with the No. 3 Corvette C7.R with 20 points and the No. 4 Corvette C7.R with 19, while Team Falken Tire is third with 14 points.

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports closed to within one point in Prototype Challenge (PC) as Andrew Palmer led the opening segment in the No. 52 Cuttwood/Spyder ORECA FLM09. James Gue ran fourth at the four-hour mark in the No. 54 CORE autosport FLM09, giving the team 21 points.

Ben Keating led the opening segment in GT Daytona (GTD), driving the No. 33 TI Automotive Dodge Viper SRT. The team’s No. 93 Viper was running third to up its total to 22 points, leading the second-place Scuderia Corsa Robert Graham/Royal Purple Ferrari 458 Italia by three points.

The Patrón Endurance Cup continues with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International on Sunday, June 28, and concludes with the 10-hour Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 3.

Fans can follow today’s action on FOX Sports 2 through 7 p.m. IMSA.com takes over coverage from 7-10 p.m., with FOX Sports 2 returning from 10-11 p.m. A two-hour special highlights show will be aired on FOX Sports 1 on Sunday, March 22, from 8-10 a.m.

NEWS AND NOTES

· Olivier Pla led early in the pole-winning No. 57 Krohn Racing Ligier JS P2/Judd, but lost four laps due to damage sustained on pit road when Tracy Krohn was hit on pit road by a car exiting his pit. Krohn nursed the car until the next caution, when the team replaced the nose and discovered a loose muffler, leading to an extended stop.

· The Action Express Racing No. 31 Whelen Engineering /Team Fox Corvette DP ran in second three hours, 30 minutes into the race, when Eric Curran lost his right-front wheel shortly after exiting the pits. That brought out the third caution, dropping the team two laps down.

· The No. 0 Claro Video/TracFone DeltaWing DWC13 brought out the third caution when Katherine Legge pulled off course with left-rear suspension damage. The team attempted repairs before calling it a day.

· The fourth-qualifying No. 60 Tire Kingdom Service Centers Ligier JS P2/Honda became the first contender to go to the garage when Ozz Negri clipped the curbing in Turn 14 and spun across the track into a tire barrier, causing rear-end damage.

QUOTEBOARD

Ozz Negri, Driver – No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Tire Kingdom Honda Ligier JS P2/Honda:

“I was just pushing very hard trying to stay on the lead lap. I got behind a GTLM car and I thought he let off and gave me the way, but then he started to turn into the corner and I thought I was going to hit him. So I tried to avoid it and went over the curb and when I hit the curb, that’s when the car took off and spun the other way. It’s one of those things. Maybe I should have been a little more patient and passed him elsewhere but in the heat of the moment, you have to push, push, push. I’m just bummed for the Michael Shank Racing team that worked so hard changing over to a new engine yesterday.”

Antonio Garcia, Driver – No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R

“The Porsches seem to be really strong. What they showed in qualifying they are still showing in race pace. Now we’re going into a different period of the race where the track will be completely different. So far the car is behaving how we expected. It feels like the car is slowly coming to us. We need to stay where we are and keep pushing but not do anything crazy out there. If we can find just a little bit more from the car, it will be great.”

Joey Hand, Driver – No. 01 Ford EcoBoost Corvette DP

“The car was really tough to drive in the first stint. I struggled just to keep it on the track. They made a lot of really big changes. We needed those yellows to be able to do that kind of stuff and we got them in just the nick of time, really. That’s why this program is so awesome. These guys are really good at making changes on the fly, like nobody I’ve ever seen. We’re definitely close. I could actually race the others on that last stint. Scott’s having a go at it right now. We can’t win the race right now with this car, but a couple more changes, we could definitely get ourselves a podium car.”

Contact:

Nate Siebens

Senior Manager, IMSA Communications

(386) 310-6568

nsiebens