DANVILLE, Va. - Pirelli Motorsport and The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 are primed and ready for a return to racing action at this Saturday's Bosch Engineering 250 at Virginia International Raceway (VIR). The race can be seen live on SPEED at 2:30 p.m. EST.
Grand-Am race teams had a long three month break between the first two scheduled races of the 2009 season - the opening Rolex 24 at Daytona in January and this weekend's Bosch Engineering 250 at VIR. A strong field of Daytona Prototypes and GT competitors - all on Pirelli P Zero racing tires - will take to VIR's challenging 3.27-mile road course for Saturday's race, which will kick off the balance of 2009's 12-race season.
Among the competitors hoping to build on recent momentum is the No. 09 Spirit of Daytona/Porsche V8 Coyote team of sports car racing stalwart Guy Cosmo and motorcycle road racing Hall of Fame member Scott Russell. The duo were joined by Russell's fellow motorcycle champions Jeff Ward and Jason Pridmore for the Daytona opener in an AMA Pro Road Racing sponsored race car and managed to finish the grueling race despite encountering just about every type of endurance racing related problem imaginable.
"Daytona was a challenge and the Spirit of Daytona team did a great job," Cosmo said. "With the ever changing conditions of an endurance race, the one constant we had was the consistency and reliability of the Pirelli tires. We had no problems with the tires at all."
Cosmo and the team have also tested extensively during the three-month break between the opening Rolex Series races.
"We did a lot of testing since Daytona and put a lot of miles on tracks like Roebling Road (Georgia) and at Homestead-Miami," Cosmo said. "Roebling Road is particularly tough on tires but we had no issues with the Pirellis. With the progress we have made with this whole package so far, we think we are going to be running strong at VIR, and the Pirellis are all part of that mix. We are looking at running in the top 10 and maybe even challenging for a podium."