New Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R shows promise in opening race at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 24, 2013) – The new Chevrolet Camaro Z/28.R completed its first week of racing Friday with a promising showing in the BMW Performance 200 – the opening round of this year’s Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. The potential of the historic nameplate was evident in the two-and-a-half hour race that saw CKS Autosport’s No. 01 Camaro lead the contingent of new cars in the Grand Sport class.

The No. 01 Camaro Z/28.R of Lawson Aschenbach and Eric Curran placed 13th in GS, but that wasn’t the entire story. Both CKS and Stevenson Motorsports made great strides toward establishing the Camaro has a GS contender in an exceptionally difficult series and class.

“To be able to show up, sort through some issues, make the race and finish in a decent spot, we have to be happy with that,” Aschenbach said. “A penalty in pitlane hurt us. But the pace is pretty good and we are excited about that. To me, it looks like a very good package that’s good overall. It seems to do everything pretty good. We just have to work on it a little bit more.”

Curran finished on the same lap as the winning BMW. Stevenson Motorsports’ No. 9 Z/28.R of Andy Lally and Matt Bell was running at the end and finished six laps down after an early fuel line issue. The No. 6 entry of Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis suffered a mechanical failure in the last 37 minutes after a solid run in the top-10.

“This weekend was an opportunity to learn and gather data on a brand new race car,” said Lisa Talarico, Chevrolet’s Program Manager for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. “We feel very good about the potential this new package offers. Everyone at Chevrolet Racing and our partner teams will look at the data collected throughout the weekend, improve the car and be ready for the next race at Sebring in March.”

The next round of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge is March 14 at Sebring International Raceway.

Team Chevy Racing