Burtin Racing Daytona January test notes, day 1

FOAMETIX®/Burtin Racing Second Quickest in GT and Fastest Porsche on Opening Day of Roar Rolex 24 At Daytona Test

#17 Burtin Racing with Goldcrest Motorsports Porsche GT3: Sebastian Asch, Jack Baldwin, Claudio Burtin, Martin Ragginger, Bryan Sellers

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 6, 2012) – FOAMETIX®/Burtin Racing with Goldcrest Motorsports driver Martin Ragginger Jr. led the charge as the team capped off the first day of testing at this weekend’s Roar Before the Rolex 24 At Daytona Test sitting comfortably near the top of the GT time sheet and as the fastest Porsche on track. Ragginger posted a 1:49.623-second lap at 116.910 mph during the morning session, which kept the FOAMETIX team second overall with two test days remaining in the final tune-up for the 50th Anniversary Rolex 24 At Daytona later this month.

After a morning track delay due to fog, the No. 17 FOAMETIX Porsche GT3 team was eager to get on track. The crew quickly identified, diagnosed and replaced a faulty water pump at the start of opening practice and never looked back as Austrian driver Ragginger set the pace for the team. Ragginger was impressed with the No. 17 Porsche and feels confident heading into the remaining two test days and the Rolex 24 Hour.

“The No. 17 FOAMETIX/Burtin Racing Porsche is the best prepared race car that I’ve ever driven so far,” Ragginger said. “Claudio Burtin and Goldcrest have set-up a really good package for us, and right now we have a really good driver line-up as well. I think we are ready to go into this race. We have a couple of things to sort of, like everybody does, but from where we are right now, I would say this is the best team we’ve ever assembled, from the drivers to the crew. I’m very happy with what we did today.”

Late last year, FOAMETIX/Burtin Racing announced the team's Rolex 24 driver line-up that includes Burtin, Ragginger, Bryan Sellers, Jack Baldwin and Sebastian Asch.

“The test is to prepare each driver to the maximum, to know about the car, how we work together and learn from each other,” Ragginger said. “The test is for us to improve ourselves and the team, and that’s what we are doing. We’re preparing ourselves for the race. There are a lot of GT cars here and a lot of potential winners, and I think we are one of them.”

Team owner and co-driver Burtin was pleased with the efforts of the FOAMETIX team and driver line-up.

“The Goldcrest team, together with Burtin Racing and the driver line-up, seems to be jelling really well and I think everybody gets along together well,” Burtin said. “Everybody is happy. We had the minor issue with the water pump, but we fixed that and hope that is the only bad luck we have during the test and race. I think everything is really, really good. We’re looking forward to the 50th running of this race."

A top European talent with factory Porsche experience, Ragginger returns with Burtin as the team’s lead driver for the Rolex 24.

“Martin Ragginger is a very quick driver and fastest on the team today, and that’s what we expect from him,” Burtin said. “We’re very pleased with how things are going right now. We came out of the box strong and now we’re just going to be working on our race set-up.”

The Roar Before the Rolex 24 At Daytona Test runs through Sunday, January 8, at Daytona International Raceway. The 50th Anniversary Rolex 24 At Daytona will be run at Daytona International Speedway, January 26 – 29.