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Mid-Ohio: Robertson Racing preview

Robertson Racing ready for Mid-Ohio 03/08/2010 - This weekend's Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge (August 6-7) marks the start of a busy month for Robertson Racing, who will take in three American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron rounds in ...

Edited: Aug 4, 2010, 1:10 AM

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Robertson Racing ready for Mid-Ohio

03/08/2010 - This weekend's Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge (August 6-7) marks the start of a busy month for Robertson Racing, who will take in three American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron rounds in just four weeks.

From Lexington, the Atlanta-based squad will steadily zig-zag north, first to Road America in Wisconsin on August 20-22, and then on into Canada for the Grand Prix of Mosport a week later.

That packed schedule ensures that there will be little respite for a team already busy building up a second Ford GT chassis for the final round of the season, Petit Le Mans, in early October.

Indeed, there will be a number of regular crew members missing from this week's (August 2-3) pre-race test at Mid Ohio thanks to the demands of preparing a second car.

Despite the tight turn-around times, accident damage sustained during last week's race at Lime Rock Park has been fully repaired on the existing #40 GT. That, along with the previous round's weather conditions, have largely prevented the car from demonstrating its true pace after a number of updates were introduced pre-Utah.

And Team Manager Andrew 'H' Smith is hopeful that what have so far only been glimpses of progress can be translated into tangible gains.

"I keep being optimistic that the stuff we developed for Salt Lake City is going to come through," he said. "That wasn't the case at Lime Rock because it rained but when we ran in the race our pace was really good. Hopefully we'll go to Mid-O, have a dry weekend and stretch our legs a little.

"In the short turn around we've been really busy fixing all the damage. 90% of the panels had to be replaced or repainted so that's kept us busy, although thankfully there's been no mechanical problems to sort.

"Our goal will be to try and have a clean race as any major issues at this stage of the season, with so many events in a short period, means you're going to struggle to fix much, especially as I'm having to split the team up in order to maintain progress on the second car. We're also hoping to have that second chassis running on E85 fuel so it's not just a case of copying what we've got but actually developing along the way.

"We're thinking now that with everyone having switched to ethanol there's a performance and environmental benefit, but also a lot of work involved getting there. We're going to have to take that step otherwise we'll be left behind."

The two-and-three-quarter hour race sees David Robertson return to driving duties alongside David Murry and Andrea Robertson after he missed the last round.

-source: robertson racing

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