CORE autosport looks for victory at Mid-Ohio

ROCK HILL, SC - A trip to victory lane is what CORE autosport expects in Saturday’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge, continuing its record-setting American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season. The team and drivers Jon Bennett, Colin Braun, Alex Popow and Ryan Dalziel are ready to return to the top of the Prototype Challenge (PC) class podium for Round 6 of the 2012 ALMS season.

The question is which pair will it be.

Team founder /owner Bennett is paired with motorsports star Braun in the #05 Composite Resources ORECA FLM09 – a new-for-2012 duo that’s captured two wins, one second and two third-place finishes in five races this season.

The sister #06 Soloson Import car, with lead pilot Alex Popow, has the identical record. Popow, who just last week made history by winning the inaugural GRAND-AM Rolex event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will once again be paired with Ryan Dalziel, a class winner at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, and with whom Popow co-drove the #06 to victory lane at Long Beach.

It’s now a fight between the two cars and crews to see which one will produce the 2012 ALMS PC driver champion(s). Bennett / Braun and Popow are tied up at the halfway point of the 10-race season and it’s at Mid-Ohio where the gauntlet will be laid down.

This is only the second year that CORE autosport has competed at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course in Lexington, Ohio. In 2011 the #06 sat atop the pole, but bad luck befell both cars in the rain-shortened event with a fourth and sixth-place finishes in class. From the 2011 effort, only Bennett remains on the team.

CORE autosport’s driver lineup has had overall success at the historic venue. Braun has had years of experience at Mid-Ohio, with two GRAND-AM podium finishes, while Dalziel has scored top-five finishes there in both ALMS and GRAND-AM, as well as a win in the GRAND-AM Daytona Prototype class in 2011.

Source: CORE autosport