American Le Mans Series – Northeast Grand Prix

[Mark H]

Lotus Alex Job Racing finished tenth at Lime Rock at the weekend. The team is developing its Lotus Evora GT and managed to get a lot of miles under their belts during the two month ALMS break, and a top ten GT class finish is a steady step in the right direction.

Townsend Bell qualified the Evora 23rd overall and tenth in class, and handed the car to team-mate Bill Sweedler for the start. Racing in his home state of Connecticut, Sweedler is something of a local hero. Unfortunately, he was pushed off, costing the team positions, but he managed to get it back on track without damage. Bell took over on Lap 88 and showed very consistent pace to help return the car to where it started, tenth in this highly competitive class and 18th overall.

Bill Sweedler: “Our goal today was run hard all race, and we did. We are developing the car and we are showing a lot of promise. Townsend and I were really close in speed. Townsend was a bit quicker, but we had a good day with the Lotus. It was unfortunate, I got pushed off the track by one of the Ferrari's on the downhill and cost me a few laps, but the car was fine, and we kept it going. We had good pace, diced with some RSRs and passed a few competitors. It was a good day for our development program.”

Townsend Bell: “I am really proud of this team. We ran pretty strong all weekend. The team has worked really hard on the development of the car since Laguna Seca, and it is paying off. We have come, literally thousands of miles development wise. The guys have put in a lot of hours on the car. The car ran flawlessly. We are starting to close on the competition.”

 

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