Tudor Series teams strike out at LeMans
DRIVING DUO OF BLEEKEMOLEN AND MACNEIL TAKE FIFTH IN GTE PRO
As teammates, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Cooper MacNeil have enjoyed considerable success, as their Twelve Hours of Sebring class victory and American Le Mans Series GT Challenge championship in 2013 will attest.
The full-time TUDOR United SportsCar Championship drivers added another significant accomplishment at the 82nd 24 Hours of Le Mans by finishing the race in fifth place as a two-driver lineup in the No. 79 Porsche. What’s more, they did it against mostly factory-supported teams in the GTE Pro class when they could not secure an approved third driver to replace injured teammate Bret Curtis.
“It’s something unique," Bleekemolen said. “It never happens anymore that people go out here with just two drivers. We decided to go for it and it worked, luckily.
“At one point, we thought we weren’t going to race at all, then we thought we were going to get a new teammate and in the end we were stuck with just the two of us in a car being, basically, built until we went to the grid. They were still finishing it. The team has done a great job there."
QUICK TURNAROUND FOR TEAMS FROM LE MANS TO WATKINS GLEN
After completing the 82nd 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Corvette Racing and Krohn Racing teams face a quick turnaround to get their cars back to the United States in time for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in two weeks.
It’s relatively easy for the drivers and team members who will participate in both races. The process is somewhat more involved to get the two Corvette C7.Rs that finished second and fourth in the GTE Pro class and the No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 458 Italia that finished 10th in the GTE Am class.
The Krohn team will spend three days in its garage at the track to convert the bright green Ferrari into its Watkins Glen trim. On Thursday, team members will return to their Houston race shop, while the race car is shipped from London to New York City’s JFK airport. The team expects to meet back up with the car at Watkins Glen on Tuesday, June 24.
The procedure for Corvette Racing will be somewhat different. The team will clean and prep both cars before leaving their garage at Le Mans tonight. On Monday, the crew will pack up all of its equipment, load it into crates and then onto its transporter, which will travel to London.
The cars and equipment arrive in London on Tuesday morning and are expected to be air freighted to Chicago on Wednesday evening. If all goes according to plan, everything should be back in the team’s suburban Detroit race shop by Friday morning and on its way to Watkins Glen on Tuesday.
TAYLOR’S MULLET TAKES LAST RIDE
Just before the 2013 Rolex 24 At Daytona, Jordan Taylor declared his intentions to grow a “mullet" hairstyle in an effort to grow his Twitter following.
Since that time, Taylor and his mullet have won five GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series races and a the series’ final Daytona Prototype championship, earned four TUDOR United SportsCar Championship podium finishes – including a victory at Detroit last month – and made two trips to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
There’s been plenty of business in the front and partying in the back for the last 18 months, but the ride is coming to an end. Taylor recently announced that the mullet will be coming off at the next TUDOR Championship round, the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, which also serves as the third round of the four-race Tequila Patr¢n North American Endurance Cup.
“In one sense, I can’t wait to get it off, and in another one, I’ll miss it a bit," said Taylor, who earned a second place finish in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. “It’s had a good run. Hopefully, we can raise a lot of money for charity."
Taylor launched the “Taming the Mullet" online raffle in support of Camp Boggy Creek and Camp Anokijig. Camp Boggy Creek, in Eustis, Fla., is a camp for seriously ill children and is a proud charity of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). Camp Anokijig is located in Plymouth, Wis. near the Road America circuit, which hosts the TUDOR Championship on Aug. 8-10.