| Doran Racing Breaks Through to Score Top-5 Finish With #77 Kodak Car In Sahlen's Six Hours Of The Gl |
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| Monday, 09 June 2008 | |
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Doran Racing has been knocking on the door of a top-5 finish since the 2008 Rolex series season started, and that door finally opened during the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen with co-drivers Memo Gidley and Brad Jaeger finishing 5th in the #77 Kodak Doran/Dallara Ford. Gidley qualified the car 3rd on the starting grid and led the opening laps of the race and handed the car over to Jaeger during the first pit stop. During several driver changes, the car remained in the top-10, leaving Gidley to bring it home in 5th when the checkered flag finally flew. "We've been getting better and better with the set up of this new Kodak car every weekend, and when we were fastest in Friday morning practice and then qualified third, I knew this could be our top-5 weekend," said Gidley, who finished 10th in this event with the Doran team in 2007. "Qualifying was unfortunately cut short or we'd have been battling for the pole, but the team executed a flawless race that left us on the lead lap at the end and within sight of the leaders. I was able to get up to 5th in the closing laps, and if the race had gone a few laps longer Brad and I would have been standing on the podium. We've been fast all season, but we just need a trouble-free race to show what we could do, and we finally got one. It's great to be at the front, where we belong." Gidley, the very talented and widely respected American driver who was born in La Paz, Mexico and now makes his home in Novato, California, has made a name for himself as one of the most committed drivers in the paddock, driving and winning in everything from karts to Indy Cars and stock cars to prototypes. Brad Jaeger, Gidley's co-driver in the #77 car is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio and recent graduate of Vanderbilt University where he was a member of their Formula SAE team. His racing resume includes karting, Sports 2000, Skip Barber, F2000, Star Mazda and the Indy Pro Series. He co-drove his first prototype race for the Doran team in the 2007 season finale at Miller Motorsports Park and raced at The Glen last year in the Indy Pro Series event. "This was a great race for the whole team, the race where it finally all came together, the pit stops, the setup, everything," said Jaeger. "We rolled off the trailer with the best car we've had all season and we only made a few changes to make it more consistent in traffic. I drove two stints during the race and was happy with how they went. I was running the same times as the leaders and kept the car clean and on track. It's great to finally get our first top-5 and hopefully this will give the team the momentum it needs to finally score a podium in two weeks at Mid-Ohio." If the Gods of Racing were smiling on the #77 car, they were feeling decidedly less benevolent toward the #47 Doran Racing/BSI/CDOC/Anasten Plus Ford Dallara co-driven by Burt Frisselle, Gabriele Gardel and rising open-wheel racer and current Firestone Indy Lights championship leader Richard Antinucci. The weekend started well enough with fast practice times and a qualifying time good for 14th on the 45-car starting grid. Running in the top-10 during the first hour and a half of the race, the team was anticipating a good finish when Gardel went off into the gravel trap and damaged the underside of the car. Although the crew was able to get the car going again, the damage proved more extensive that at first thought and, with Antinucci in the car, the fuel cell started leaking. The resulting fire caused extensive damage to the rear of the car and resulted in a DNF. The car was credited with a 19th-place finish in DP, 39th overall. "it's a shame what happened because the crew did a tremendous job all weekend and we had a really fast car that was easily capable of running with the leaders," said Frisselle, who scored a 2nd-place finish in this event in 2004. "The car is badly damaged, but we're hoping to be able to make the next race at Mid-Ohio in two weeks. It's going to take a lot of all-nighters by the Doran crew to get it done, but they're the best and if anyone can do it, they can. I'd also like to say that we really enjoyed working with Richard Antinucci in his first race with our team and hope to do more with him in the future." Richard Antinucci, the current championship points leader in the Firestone Indy Lights series, made his debut with the Doran Racing team at the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen. Antinucci, who finished 5th in the 2007 Indy Lights event at The Glen and made his Rolex Series Daytona Prototype debut at the Miller Motorsports Park 2007 season-closer. "You get thrown a lot of curve balls during an endurance racing weekend, but we were able to deal with most of them and I was turning competitive times in lapped traffic," says Antinucci. "Then the car started to get hot so I called in on the radio to report and the next thing you know the car is on fire. Even so, it was clear to me that we had a really good car that would have done well in the race. I'd like to thank Kevin Doran and Burt Frisselle for the chance to drive for the team and I'd love to do it again." Antinucci, nephew of F1 and Indy Car veteran Eddie Cheever, won the formula 3 World Cup championship in 2003, and has competed in both the Japanese Formula 3 and Formula 3 Euroseries. He has tested twice with the Williams-BMW Formula One team, won three Indy Pro Series races in 2007 and is currently leading the 2008 IPS championship in the #7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car with one win, one pole and three podium finishes. The two cars the Doran Racing team will field during the 2008 Rolex Series season look the same, but are different underneath. The #47 car is all-Dallara, while the #77 car is a Doran chassis fitted with Dallara bodywork featuring enhanced aerodynamics and increased downforce. Both cars are powered by 500 horsepower Roush-Yates Ford V-8 engines. Doran Enterprises is Dallara's official spare parts distributor and approved repair center for that series. In addition, Doran Designs will fabricate certain special parts for the marque. Doran Racing has a successful history of working with Dallara and won the Daytona 24 Hours in 2002 with a Dallara Sportscar LMP1. While Doran Racing has prepared and fielded race cars in a wide variety of series for many years, from Indy cars to NASCAR trucks, the Lebanon, Ohio-based team is particularly noted for its successes in sports car endurance racing, including being the first and only team in U.S. history to win the 24 Hours at Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the Watkins Glen Six-Hour race in the same year (1998). The next race on the Rolex Series schedule is the EMCO Gears Classic presented by KeyBank at the 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on June 20-22. On-track action begins with several practice sessions on Friday, June 20, with the series' traditional 15-minute qualifying session scheduled from 4:55 pm to 5:05 pm that afternoon. The EMCO Gears Classic for the Rolex Sports Car Series Presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 will take the green flag at 5:00 pm Saturday, June 21. The event is scheduled for 250 miles, 111 laps or 2 hours and 45 minutes, whichever comes first. The race will air on SPEED Friday, June 21 at 5:00 pm ET |
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