TruSpeed Motorsports gets back to racing action after a 10-week break in the summer schedule this weekend at Mid-Ohio. The #45 PrivacyStar Porsche of Patrick Long and #46 Entrust / TruSpeed Porsche of Rob Morgan have been thoroughly disassembled, cleaned, tweaked and tested, and cars, team and drivers are itching to get back to competition. Patrick Long enters the weekend 2nd in the 2011 Pirelli World Challenge GT championship, just 8 points behind the leader James Sofranos, despite missing one race early in the season. In a welcome addition, the team has entered the #47 In Time / TruSpeed Porsche for past Trans-Am Champion and longtime sportscar star Tomy Drissi.
One factor which will increase the challenge for TruSpeed is the addition of 80 lbs. of “success ballast” to all Porsches entered in the GT class, ostensibly to ensure parity and equalize the competition among the various types of vehicles in World Challenge. As of Mid-Ohio, the new minimum weight (without driver) for all Porsches entered is up 80 lbs. to 2900 lbs. Patrick Long, due to his success to date in the championship, will carry an additional 141 lbs. over the mandated minimum weight of the car, meaning he’ll be driving a 3,041 lb. racecar.
Team owner and driver of the #46 Entrust / TruSpeed Porsche Rob Morgan has been keeping himself busy since the last race at Mosport. “We’ve made some organizational changes and have spent the last 10 weeks focusing on really getting our operations dialed in at the race shop. We’re thrilled to have Tomy Drissi on board, too. He’s a great racer and a welcome addition to our team. We’re working really hard to grow and progress as a racing team and as a business, and I’m happy to say we’re making good strides. We’ve been testing the racecars, too, and it felt great to get back behind the wheel and do some development on the 911 Cup platform. We’re under no illusions about how tough the competition in World Challenge is, and for sure, the Corvettes, Cadillacs, Mustangs and Vipers will have spent the break doing the same things we have. We feel ready to come off the trucks in Ohio with a good setup, and we’re relishing putting in some laps in anger.”
Patrick Long said, “I’m excited to get back into the car at Mid-Ohio, and while it’s going to be a very busy weekend for me with an ALMS race and two World Challenge races, it’s going to be a good test. We’re currently a close second in the championship. The series has made some rules adjustments and we’ll see how they pan out, but it’ll be great to get back to racing with TruSpeed. We’ve worked hard on the car and I think we’ve improved from our last outing at Mosport where we finished second. I’ll have to juggle the two different kinds of racing this weekend – rolling starts, pit stops and driver changes in ALMS, standing starts and just me driving in World Challenge, but I love the diversity.”
The Pirelli World Challenge season will pick up in frequency and intensity for the next 8 weeks, with 6 races split across four weekends to decide the championship. This weekend will see twin races for the TruSpeed gang, Saturday the 6th and Sunday the 7th. Twin races at Infineon Raceway in Northern California, then single races at Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta round out the season.
Live streaming of rounds 7 and 8 from Mid-Ohio can be viewed at https://www.world-challengetv.com at 10:45am ET on Saturday, August 6, and 11:30am ET on Sunday, August 7. Television broadcast will be carried by VERSUS on Saturday, August 20 at 5pm ET, and re-aired September 1 at 3:30pm ET.
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TruSpeed Motorsports wishes to thank its 2011 sponsors and partners. For more information, visit:
PrivacyStar: https://privacystar.com/
Entrust: https://entrust.com
NADA Guide: https://www.nadaguides.com
Merrill Lynch: https://ml.com
TruSpeed Motorsports was founded in 2001 by Rob and Charles Morgan, over the years racing in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge and World Challenge. TruSpeed runs a robust arrive-and-drive and trackday business, as well as a street and race car sales and service facility in Orange County, California.
For information about TruSpeed’s racing, performance car sales and service, visit: https://www.truspeedmotorcars.com