Photo by: Richard Sloop
Elkhart Lake, WIS. - Lotus Alex Job Racing's (AJR) Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell finished an encouraging seventh at today's running of the American Le Mans Series Road America Road Race Showcase at Elkhart Lake's Road America.
Road America is a daunting four-mile, 14 turn undulating road course that takes a complete package to have a successful weekend. Townsend Bell (San Luis Obispo, Calif) and teammate Bill Sweedler (Westport, Conn) worked diligently with the AJR team all weekend on high-speed down force tweaks searching for increased grip. The tweaks helped and created a confidence inspiring package for Bell and Sweedler.
Bell started the No. 23 Alex Job Racing Lotus Evora GT and was able to keep within shouting distance of the ultra-competitive GT field. Handing over to Sweedler, the Connecticut resident ran a strong stint gathering valuable data for what lies ahead for the Evora GT.
"We met our goal here this weekend," Sweedler said. "That was to come here and keep improving. Greg Fordahl, our engineer, and the team made great improvements on the aero. It showed in the performance. We finished on the lead lap in seventh with a shot at sixth. Townsend did fast stints. Yokohama is working great with the team and improving right along with us. That is a critical element. You have to have great tires, and they are with us every step of the way giving us what we need."
Bell is encouraged by the performance today.
"The little car that can is showing some spark," Bell said. "Our science experiment took another step forward today. Greg and the guys continue to put the AJR years of endurance GT racing knowledge to work, fabbing parts on the fly and making them work. We had a better balanced car this weekend and that allowed us to keep within shouting distance of the GT field. We will continue to keep our noses in the data and our hands working to move this project forward."
Alex Job, team principal, keeps the team moving forward.
"When you are in a development program like we are, you have to take the little victories," Job said. "Today I think we had one. We have a car that ran flawlessly all weekend and raced very respectably today. Townsend and Bill are providing the feedback we need to keep working on specific items, and that is what we are doing. Running against these top manufacturers in the GT Class at the fastest track we visit and finishing seventh is a small reward for the team that has worked so hard on a new car."
The team will travel to Baltimore for the Baltimore Grand Prix presented by SRT, Aug. 31-1 through the streets of the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards.
Source: Lotus Alex Job Racing
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