Extreme Speed Motorsports scores best 2012 qualifying effort at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, OH – August 3, 2012 – Extreme Speed Motorsports’ Guy Cosmo scored the team’s best qualifying position of the year today, placing the No. 02 Tequila Patrón Ferrari Italia 458 on the GT front row for tomorrow’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge.

#02 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari F458 Italia: Ed Brown, Guy Cosmo

Photo by: Richard Sloop

No stranger to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Cosmo spent many of his early racing years at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn track, setting multiple track records. During today’s session he recorded the second quickest time with a 1:19.329 (102.469 mph) in preparation for the sixth round of competition for the 2012 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) presented by Tequila Patrón.

Cosmo’s co-driver, Ed Brown spent a good portion of Thursday’s test session and Friday’s practice aboard the No. 02 and helped tune the car for its second-place qualifying run.

Overall the Ferrari team exhibited an outstanding pace in the 15-minute qualifying session. At the midpoint of the session, Cosmo’s No. 02 machine and teammate Johannes van Overbeek, in the No. 01 Tequila Patrón car were one-two on the time sheet.

van Overbeek set a best lap of 1:19.471 (102.286 mph) during the qualifying session, good for a fourth-place grid spot. van Overbeek and co-driver Scott Sharp were fixtures atop the timing sheets in both Thursday’s test session and Friday’s final practice session.

The No. 01 machine is coming off of a win at the most recent ALMS event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, where they also started in fourth. They expect the same result tomorrow.

Johannes van Overbeek

“Qualifying was good. We were quickest the practice before, so we thought we had something. We missed it by just a little bit. But we’re in a great spot to start the race. In the last race where we qualified fourth we won, so hopefully it will be the same here.”

“This is the best ESM/Patrón team qualifying effort this season. Guy did a great job in the No. 02 Ferrari and Ed is going as fast as he’s ever gone, relative to us.

“I think it speaks to how much hard work ESM/Patrón has put into these Ferraris. Both of the Patrón Ferraris are working really well here at Mid-Ohio.”

Guy Cosmo

“It was great. I really didn’t think we were going do too well in qualifying because we were struggling a little bit with the setup all throughout practice. We showed signs of being relatively quick but we just had some issues with the car that we weren’t able to dial out.

“As always, my engineer Jim Malicki, was stellar. The Tequila Patrón Ferrari was really good. We made a change just before qualifying, right after that last practice. We made some improvements. The car is not where I’d like it to be yet, but that was about all we had. That was 100% trying to go as fast as we could. Fortunately it netted us a solid qualifying position.

“The front row is a great place to start, which just need to keep it clean and try to get a good result.

“Mid-Ohio is one of my favorite tracks. I’ve had so many races here, so many breakthrough moments as a driver. Everything that has brought me to be the driver that I am today, I feel like the majority of it took place learning with different people, teams and cars but always here at Mid-Ohio. It’s just really special for me.

“This weekend Ed is doing really well. He’s probably driven the best he’s ever driven and being that we’re starting up front, I think we have a shot at a good finish, which we definitely deserve at this point.”

Source: Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM)