JaguarRSR Heads To Canada's Mosport

JaguarRSR Has Confidence And Experience For GT Battle North Of The Border

JaguarRSR is right back into the GT fight as the team heads north of the border for Round Four of the 2011 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron this weekend at Mosport International Raceway.

#98 JaguarRSR Jaguar XKR: PJ Jones, Rocky Moran, Jr.

Photo by: Darren Pierson

The multi-track facility located in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, less than an hour east of Toronto, is recognized as Canada's Home of Motorsports. It is more of a challenge compared to most other road courses; a track that is a dream and a nightmare to many drivers. The 2.459-mile track has a number of high-speed blind corners that go both up and down hill so the JaguarRSR XKR GT has to be ready to push the limits over hills and in banked corners. The team is confident heading into this weekend's event knowing last year they had a suitable car for this track and have taken lessons from Lime Rock to come back strong for a double top-ten GT finish.

"Mosport is a track where you have to have a lot of trust in the car," said John Gentilozzi, JaguarRSR Technical Director. "We need to spend a little bit of time with the drivers learning the layout of the circuit and the way you handle each corner behind the wheel of the JaguarRSR XKR GT. From the technical standpoint, Mosport puts focus on stability in high-speed corners as well as good braking at the end of the straightaway, which is fairly long relative to other some of the places we go. We know the Dunlop tires offer us an advantage and we want to maximize that over our stints."

Mosport veteran Ken Wilden will pair up with Bruno Junqueira behind the wheel of the #99 JaguarRSR XKR GT. The Oakville, Ontario native has been recognized as one of Canada's most accomplished road racers. The last time Wilden took to Mosport's historic track was in the SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am Series in 2010, where he set the track qualifying and race fast lap records on his way to a dominating victory. Mosport is Wilden's hometrack, where he devotes time as an instructor and coach for client track days. He has raced prototypes, showroom stock, endurance and Trans-Am cars there and been victorious. The team is honored to have him on board and he will be a huge asset because of his vast knowledge.

Returning behind the wheel of the #98 cat is the American duo of PJ Jones and Rocky Moran, Jr. Moran comments that "Lime Rock was a bittersweet weekend for the #98 JaguarRSR XKR GT, although we had issues in qualifying and did not finish the race, PJ was able to drive up to 7th place and I am confident that we would have had at least a 5th or 6th place finish had we been able to keep going. I feel that the #98 Jaguar has improved dramatically and it will be enjoyable to continue developing the car with the team. Everyone member of the team is working hard so I am looking forward to giving them a great result."

WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY

PJ Jones, co-driver of the #98 JaguarRSR XKR GT "I always enjoy going to Canada to race and have had some good success driving north of the border. The Canadians are true race fans, so it is always a great racing atmosphere. I like fast race tracks, and I know that is a specialty of Mosport, which will go good with our Jaguar XKR. I am hoping that we can have a good weekend. We saw a lot of encouraging signs at Lime Rock that show we are moving in the right direction and hopefully we can move up the grid this weekend and have a good, solid race."

Bruno Junqueira, co-driver of the #99 JaguarRSR XKR GT "I look forward to racing at Mosport because everybody tells me that it is a really, really fast track. I love fast corners, so I think it will fit my driving style. I enjoy racing in Canada. The fans are always wonderful so I can't wait to get back there to put on a good show for them and for Jaguar in the #99 JaguarRSR XKR GT."

Rocky Moran, Jr., co-driver of the #98 JaguarRSR XKR GT "I love driving at high speed, permanent road courses and Mosport stands out as a circuit that has really fast, flowing corners, elevation change and beautiful scenery. These are the types of tracks I live for, so I cannot wait to hit the track in the Jaguar."

Ken Wilden, co-driver of the #99 JaguarRSR XKR GT "I'm really looking forward to running at my home track with Jaguar. Mosport is a very demanding track and it we should have a good advantage there especially in terms of understanding how the track changes as the race goes on. I'm happy to have the opportunity to run again with RSR and Jaguar and look forward to a great weekend."

By: jaguarrsr