Denver, N.C. (16 September 2014) – Action Express Racing enters the penultimate round of the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship at Circuit of the Americas this weekend as the championship leaders with drivers Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi. In a season that has seen the team place among the top-five on the final scoring charts in all but one race this year, Action Express Racing carries even more momentum into COTA’s Lone Star Le Mans event after having scored back-to-back wins in the two previous rounds of Indianapolis and Road America.
With an eye on the overall championship, Action Express Racing remains focused on the task at hand which is to come out on top at COTA and make it three wins in a row with the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype. The team works by the motto ‘Expect to Win’ and with that approach, the squad has won three of nine races and has stood on the podium six times in 2014.
“Last year as we arrived in Texas, it was our first time to race at that track, we didn’t know what to expect,” said Team Manager Gary Nelson. “When we left, we had a pretty long list of things to do differently. Our plan is to leave Texas Saturday evening with much more than just a “next time” list.”
Though there has been a six-week break in TUDOR Championship race action for the prototype machines, Action Express Racing has been full speed ahead with race preparations back at its Denver, North Carolina-based race shop. The group also had a successful test at Road Atlanta last week.
“We went to Road Atlanta last week and had a very strong test,” said Fittipaldi. “Chevy is putting a lot of effort behind the whole program. Action Express Racing is really putting a strong, quick car together for us. So I think we’re going to be ready for the race. It’s not going to be easy. It is very competitive and very tough out there. We’re just arriving from the two day test at Road Atlanta and it was very strong and hopefully we can translate what we learned into the race this weekend.”
A positive result at COTA would put Action Express Racing in solid championship position heading into the final round at Road Atlanta, but just as the team has done all year long, Action Express will take one step at a time with the goal of obtaining the best possible result in Saturday’s 2.75-hour race around the 3.4-mile Texas road course.
“Everyone at Action Express Racing is so focused and committed to performing the best,” offered Barbosa. “The preparation for this season started after the last race of 2013. Now, the team goes 100% prepared to every race, they do an extensive pre-race preparation at the shop, practicing all aspects of it. Heading to Austin we’re just planning on doing the same thing we’ve done at every race this year. We take one race at a time and right now we’re just focusing on a positive result at COTA.”
Action Express Racing will have three practice sessions to work on the set up of its No. 5 Corvette Daytona Prototype ahead of a Friday evening qualifying session which begins at 6:35 PM ET. A final 20-minute warm-up will take place Saturday morning at 9:40 AM ET prior to the green flag for the Lone Star Le Mans which will fly at 12:35 PM ET.
FOX Sports 2 will carry live coverage of the event beginning at 12:30 PM ET and you can catch the race in its entirety on Sunday, September 21 on FOX (check your local listings).
Live timing and scoring is available throughout the weekend at scoring.imsa.com. Follow @AX_Racing on Twitter for live updates through the weekend!
