Wright Motorsports: A Busy Week

Cincinnati, OH, July 21, 2008 - The week started out with a BANG...when factory Porsche driver Timo Bernhard stopped by Wright Tuning and out to The Motorsports Country Club of Cincinnati for a visit before heading up to the ALMS race. Timo ate lunch with the clubs members , answered questions and then was challenged to some laps around the track on the 9 HP Rimo karts.

Then..the weekend started with Wright Motorsports drivers were all over the map racing at various events: Mid Ohio IMSA CUP and World Challenge GT, Putnam Park PCA, Road America HSR.

Putnam Park PCA:
Continuing there momentum from the Barber PCA adventure were : Rene Robichaud, Kasey Kuhlman, Greg Frese, Marcos Amongero, and Dave Campbell.
To say the weekend was a good weekend would be an understatement.
Rene Robichaud set the pace all weekend finishing 1st in class (GTA) and overall in all three races ( 2 Sprints and 1 Enduro) in dominating style.
Kasey Kuhlman in his 2nd PCA weekend also continued finishing 2nd overall and 1st in class (GTC3) in all 3 races.
Marcos Amongero finished 4th overall and 2nd in class
Greg Frese finished 5th overall and 1st in GTC4 in the sprint races
Dave Campbell finished 1st in class (GT3)
Congratulations on a great weekend.....that's a lot of 1st place finishes for the Wright Motorsports team.

Mid Ohio:
Larry Schumacher and Joe Policatro both ran the IMSA GT3 cup challenge race at Mid Ohio.
Battling it out in factory Porsche 997 Cup cars : Larry finished 4th in class and ran his fastest times he has turned in a 997 at the track.
Joe Policastro returning to the series for the first time since the Sebring race back March...was able to bring it home with a top 10 finish in class and also was able to better the car through out the weekend.

Philip Martien ran the Speed World Challenge GT race against some tough competition: Andy Pilgram, Randy Pobst, Tommy Archer, Mike Galati to name a few. It was the first race back with Wright Motorsports.. which worked hard the last few weeks dialing in the car. After avoiding a couple incidents mid way through the race...he was able to pick his way through the 32 car field coming home to 19th place.

John Wright: our fearless leader returned to the ALMS series working with the Flying Lizards 3 car Porsche 997 RSR team.
It was his first outing with the team and used it to get familiar with the drivers and crew.
He was brought to the team through Porsche Motorsports North America as one of their nominated choices to help sort things out on the #44 car.
Best of luck to them the rest of the year. As stated this is a FACTORY backed team and the knowledge that will be gained ...... priceless.

Road America
Andy Hauck ventured to Road America for the HSR Brian Redman race.
Racing his vintage Jackie Stewart Lola Can Am car bringing home a 2nd in class and a 2nd in class with his Porsche GT3 Cup car.

One thing I notice.......almost all these guys have been running lots of laps during the week at The Motorsports Country Club of Cincinnati.
Hmmmmm.......anyone recognize a trend?.....maybe its just in the water.
:)

Congratulations to all the Wright Motorsports Drivers and Crew.....for another solid week....waving our flag!

Wright Motorsports - March Update

Cincinnati, OH, March 15, 2008 - Wright Motorsports just returned from Sebring Florida where John was the crew chief for Joe Policastro in the IMSA Challenge Porsche 997 GT3 race. All was well in the heavily contested battle between identically prepared Porsche 997 GT3 factory cup cars. Thursdays first race had Joe running consistently in the 2:17 range bringing the car home 4th in the Gold 2005-2007 class. Friday had race #2 and Joe knocking off another second...running 2:16s and finished 6th in the Gold 2005-2007.

Next week the Wright motorsports crew will be venturing down to the PCA Road Atlanta weekend. Making the trip are Andy Hauck (996 Gt3) Rene Robichaud (997 Gt3) and John Ellis (993 FIA GT2.) We will be leaving Wed morning for track set up/ Test and tune on Thursday/ Race weekend Fri/ Sat/ Sun. with a full report to follow.

Upcoming events.....
Lime Rock PCA April 24-25-26
Rene Robichaud / Andy Hauck

Wright Motorsports test and tune day at Mid Ohio Thursday May 15th
As of right now we have Mid Ohio rented right before the PCA race weekend. This is open to the first 10 who sign up and will include a full 8 hours of available track time/ driver coaching and even a fully catered lunch. We will be requiring a $500 deposit for this event ASAP to lock in your slot. Once we finalize the amount of people locked in we will be able to determine the test day fee. Last year the fee was $1500....it was sunny. warm.....and lots of open track. If you keep it clean.....you will get more track time in this one day than 2 PCA race weekends!

Mid Ohio PCA race May 16 -17 -18 -19
We are extremely limited this year on cars we can properly support. We are all ready adding names to the list and as spaces become available we will let those know.
If you have not all ready done so please email / call / fax/ write us a letter and let us know you are attending this race and need support.

One last note.....Spring is right around the corner and with it ....MCC of Cincinnati will be ready to run again. April 1st marks the opening for its 2008 season.
For those that have not seen it......we urge you to come out and see it....you wont be disappointed!

Wright Motorsports - February Update

Cincinnati, OH, Feb 12, 2008 - Wright Motorsports returns from Sebring PCA. Making the trip this year : Alan Schriber,Greg Frese, John Haas, Rene Robichaud and John Ellis. The event kicked off on Thursday with a test and tune day and night time practice. It was just about everyone's first night time experience and they all had the same reply.......its dark! Lots of people have been to a track and been able to thrash around in the daytime....but once the lights go down....its a little different.
Perceptions and site marks along the track that normally give the driver a comfortable reference for turn in and more importantly braking zones.....vanish.
Once everyone got aquatinted with this new feeling though...it brought a lot more confidence to their day time driving. There were 2 events that the drivers ran : night time 50 minute race and the day time sprint races on Saturday. Frese and Robichaud both ran the night race event: Frese finished just outside the top 10 in GTC4 for 997 cup cars and Robichaud finished 3rd overall and second in GTA. On Saturday Schriber and Frese ran the sprint races with both drivers setting their fastest times ever at the Sebring track. An incident involving Frese's 997 Gt3 cup car after a kind person behind him used him as a brake marker....placing him of track and in the tire wall during qualifying. The Wright Motorsports crew went to work getting the car back and ready for the afternoons sprint race. Alan Scriber and Greg Frese were once again booth able to finish just outside the top ten in there classes. Congrats and thanks to all!

The next PCA event is Road Atlanta March 28th through the 30th. So far we have 2-3 interested parties for this event. We are in the process of confirming plans for this event so anyone interested please let us know ASAP. So far signed up are Rene Robichaud, John Ellis and Greg Frese. Also anyone looking to run this event and need service work performed on their car please contact Randy@wrighttuning.com to help the scheduling in the shop.

Other upcoming activities are the Auto Expo down at the Cincinnati Convention center next week. The Motorsports Country Club of Cincinnati is setting up a booth in the outer hallway of the main floor. We are looking to gain more exposure and help attract attention for membership and corporate events for the 2008 year. Anyone attending should stop by and say hello.

Wright Motorsports - Daytona Koni Race

Cincinnati, OH, Jan 28, 2008 - We have returned home from the 1st Koni Challenge race of 2008 down at Daytona. The crew worked relentlessly to get the car prepped in time for the race. Limited track time and lots of black flags during the practice sessions didn't help matters but when it came time for qualifying the team was ready. The Wright Motorsports crew were able to have the car ready early and get it up to the grid and in line......looking at the skies....we determined there would be limited track time once it went green which meant going fast...right away. The car came around the first time and took the green flag...as soon as we dove into turn one...the track began to get damp. The #23 Wright Motorsports Porsche 997 was able to put down a 2:05.7 in one lap which put us on the front row.

"First of all, it was really wet," Hauck explained. "We got lucky. We got the car together after we had a pretty big incident on the last day of the test session a few weeks ago. The crew worked hard the last two weeks to get it back together. We're just happy to be here, and we took advantage of the situation." As the green flag fell...we moved back to third place and we looking to settle in for the first stint. Going back to throttle coming out of the first horseshoe....we only had 5 cylinders. It took a bit to diagnose the issue and we came and went out of the pits trying to stay on the lead lap. It was them determined to fix the issue we needed to get back to the garage.
The culprit was a broken fuel injector harness wire ....which couldn't have been located in a more inconvenient location. The crew was able to get the car back out and join the race but we found ourselves about 28 laps down and 2 hours to go. The car ended up way down the list and 32 in class. The next race is at Lime Rock Park in May.

Wright Motorsports January News

Cincinnati, OH, Jan 1, 2008 - KONI CHALLENGE / 24 HOURS OF DAYTONA
Last week the Wright Motorsports crew ventured down to Daytona for the Grand Am Koni Challenge test days for the upcoming season. Andy Hauck and BJ Zacharias shook down the teams #23 Wright Motorsport GS class Porsche 997. Over the course of the 3 day test.... the team worked on set up and adjustments.... testing inside the top 10. Andy Hauck made his maiden voyage to the facility and seemed to take it in quickly. Its definitely a different place.
John Wright and the rest of the crew did a great job in a short amount of time with the car and I believe we will have a great car the the seasons first race.
Speaking of which...the 3 hour race is right around the corner on January 25th starting at 2:15 PM www.grandamerican.com. The crew will then be helping the Doran race team during the 24 hours of Daytona on the #77 Doran Dallara DP.
This years 24 hour Rolex will again be airing on Fox Sports.

PCA / SEBRING EVENT
We are only 3 1/2 weeks away from the years first PCA club race at Sebring. The 48 hours of Sebring this year will also feature a night event. For those that haven't experienced this...all I can say is that..."ITS DARK!" For those planning on having Wright Tuning support for this event we will be requiring a $900 deposit prior to us leaving. Those that are signed up for support will be receiving an invoice for this deposit shortly so please be aware.
This significantly will help keeping the ball rolling. Anyone needing tires or other special needs please contact BJ@wrighttuning.com or Randy@wrighttuning.com
We are currently working out final details for this years PCA supported events and our pricing structure and rates.

Wright Motorsports ventures into '08 competing in Grand-Am Koni Challenge

Cincinnati, OH, Jan 1, 2008 - John Wright and the Wright Motorsports crew will be campaigning a Porsche 997 in one of the country's hardest fought endurance series - the Grand American Koni Challenge (www.konichallenge.com). They will be battling it out in 3 to 6 hour races against BWM M3's, Ford Mustangs FR500's, Pontiac GTO's , and Nissan 350Z's competing in the Grand Sport (GS) class on some of the most challenging road courses in the US.
In 2003 - 2004 the Wright Motorsports crew had good success as North Americas first team to build, develop and campaign the Nissan 350Z's in this same class with Schuitemaker Motorsports...finishing both seasons in the top 5 in driver and team points.
This year’s drivers are Andy Hauck and BJ Zacharias.
AndyHauck brings a vast range of experience in PCA club racing, SCCA, and HSR historic racing. This will be Andy’s first full year in the Grand Am Koni series. Look for the Wright Motorsports Team to be running up front this season.

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