Falken Tire Factory Ace Ready to Start 2015 TUDOR Season with Daytona Debut
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida, January 7, 2015 - A year ago Bryan Sellers sat through one of the hardest 24-hour periods of his career. The Braselton, Georgia-resident and his longtime teammate Wolf Henzler (Germany) watched the pre-season ROAR Before the Rolex 24 and the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona awaiting their then new No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR. It would be one race later that the pairing made their debut with a top-five performance in the only-privately entered Porsche 911 RSR in North America. Now, a year later, Sellers will finally have his chance to put the familiar Falken Tire colors onto the even more familiar banking of Daytona International Speedway (DIS) as the 2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship gets its start with official testing on January 9-11.
Bryan Sellers in the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR.
Image courtesty of PCNA
As the first privateer entrant to race the Porsche 911 RSR, Team Falken Tire's car did not arrive in time for the 2014 season-opening round here at Daytona. Therefore, Sellers - who is starting his seventh season as a factory driver for the Japanese tire manufacturer in 2015 - had his first chance to test the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class entry on the 3.56-mile, 12-turn race course during testing in December. This weekend's three-day test will be the first for the team to go head-to-head with the other entries in the intensely competitive and manufacturer-laden class at the oval/infield road course.
Sellers and Henzler will campaign the full 10-race GTLM schedule on the TUDOR Championship trail. The pairing will be joined by North America's only Porsche factory driver, Patrick Long (Manhattan Beach, California) at the endurance races and this weekend's ROAR as the trio prepares for the January 24-25 Rolex 24 At Daytona. The test is also the first officially sanctioned activity for Team Falken Tire and Sellers since their 2014 season-closing victory in the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. That finish continued a four-year run of at least one major race victory for Sellers and the team.
While there will be no television or radio coverage of this weekend's testing activities, you can visit the official web site of IMSA for timing and scoring of each session beginning with Friday's first practice session at 8:15 a.m. EST.
Quotes
Bryan Sellers
Image Courtesy of Falken Tire
On running the Porsche 911 RSR at Daytona International Speedway: "It's a pretty amazing experience. Daytona offers many challenges that we have not experienced with the Falken Tire Porsche before. It is pretty eye opening. Daytona is one of the greatest endurance races in the world, pair that with one of the world's greatest racecars and you have a great experience in the making."
On the Strategy of the ROAR Test: "It will be difficult to tell where we really stack up in this test. I think everyone will be running through their processes and trying to evaluate their programs. With that being said, all we need to do is be happy with the balance of the Falken Tire Porsche when we leave on Sunday. If we are able to accomplish that, I feel with Porsche's proven track record at Daytona we will have a competitive race."
On Team Falken Tire's Previous Test at Daytona: "We learned a significant amount in our previous test here at Daytona. I would say we will look at what we viewed to be our area of greatest weakness and try and improve from there. Hopefully after the test this weekend we will have new areas of both strengths and weaknesses and will be able to expand a little further into maximizing those just before the race."
