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Jason Martinelli Hoping to Keep the Wins Coming at VIR ALTON, Va. -- Jason Martinelli added a few more trophies to his collection during the break between Grand-Am Cup rounds, and now the Roxbury, Connecticut driver is looking forward to ...

Edited: Dec 21, 2009, 5:26 AM

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Jason Martinelli Hoping to Keep the Wins Coming at VIR

ALTON, Va. -- Jason Martinelli added a few more trophies to his collection during the break between Grand-Am Cup rounds, and now the Roxbury, Connecticut driver is looking forward to another weekend of success during the Grand-Am Cup 200 at Virginia International Raceway.

Martinelli and Jeff McMillin will be back behind the wheel of the No. 14 Martinelli Motorsports BMW M3, competing in the Grand Sport class during next Saturday's 200-mile race. The pair drove from 29th to 12th during the season opener at Daytona, making an impressive Grand-Am Cup debut.

During the break between Grand-Am Cup rounds Martinelli has not only been racing, but he's also been collecting some first-place trophies.

After Daytona, Martinelli headed to Sebring International Raceway for both PBOC and Historic Sportscar Racing events. During the PBOC weekend, Martinelli drove his club racing BMW M3 to a win in a 90-minute enduro. When asked about driving such a long stint, Martinelli laughed.

"I could stay in the car up to three hours if the car could go that long. I did that in a '68 Porsche without power steering in the heat at Sebring. I had to drive down the front straight with my left foot on the gas because my right foot was cramping. It seemed like I was in the car for only a short time at Daytona."

A six-hour race allowed Martinelli to team up with Don St. John and David Russell, and the trio took home the first-place trophy in their class and fifth overall despite problems with their brake calipers.

Martinelli also arrived a week early to VIR so he could also drive in the BMW CCA event last weekend. He crossed the finish line with a 58-second lead in the one-hour enduro, but a penalty for a pit stop infraction dropped his final result down to eighth. "I got my timing down, found some new places to pass and found more speed out of the corners," said Martinelli. "There were a lot of cars out there, so it gave me a feel for what traffic will be like out there this weekend."

Now that the Grand-Am Cup season is starting up again, there is one thing on Martinelli's mind: points. He and McMillin proved they have the speed after their comeback at Daytona, and they are anxious to get a better finish and improve their standing in the championship.

Martinelli thinks that VIR is just the track for them to reach that goal. "VIR is a good track for us, and both Jeff and I are familiar with it," he said. "We worked on the problems we had at Daytona, and we need to have clean pit stops. We've sorted things out with the car since Daytona. It's been such a long wait between races that we've had plenty of time to prepare, and we're ready to get back to racing."

-www.MartinelliMotorsportsLLC.com.

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