Road America: Johnny Mowlem preview

MOWLEM RETURNS TO THE TOP CLASS IN THE AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES

American Le Mans Series GT star Johnny Mowlem has enjoyed the last two seasons in the ALMS, having graduated to the LMP ranks, campaigning an LMP1 Ginetta Zytek through 2008-2009.

Mowlem raced at the forefront of the Hybrid revolution, driving alongside Stefan Johansson in the first ever hybrid prototype to compete in the "Green" series.

With the Corsa Motorsport Hybrid program on hold, Mowlem found rides in the burgeoning LMPC class for Long Beach and Laguna Seca, enjoying a good run at Laguna to place the PR1 Mathiasen Oreca on pole position.

Now the popular Brit has inked a deal to compete at Road America and Mosport with the longstanding AutoCon team in their P1 Lola.

Mowlem will team with Bryan Wilman and Tony Burgess at this weekend's Road America race and is then slated to drive just with Burgess at the latter's hometown race in Mosport, Canada.

"Tony approached me at this year's Le Mans 24 hours to ask me if I would be interested in driving with him at Mosport", said Mowlem.

"Tony and I have driven together before, back in the days when the ALMS had races in the UK. In fact, we drove a GT Porsche together at Donington in 2001. I remember him being really quick, so I'm looking forward to joining him at Mosport, along with Bryan Willman at Road America, and having a crack at a top result, especially given AutoCon's fine podium result at their last race at Mid Ohio".

AutoCon team owner Mike Lewis said, "Coming off a podium finish at Mid Ohio it's very important to keep the momentum going as we enter the busiest part of the season. In that respect we are looking forward to having Johnny in the car. He brings a wealth of experience as well as pace. As a team we know Johnny has the speed and it's up to us to put the best possible car under him. Tony and Bryan will definitely be motivated to keep up with the 'new' guy! And they are both excited about the opportunity."

Lewis said adding Mowlem to his team's driver line-up will make a difference for his team in terms of the 2010 season as a whole.

"The next three races will determine how the season turns out," Lewis explained. "We have to be at our best and Johnny will greatly add to that effort. We are really looking forward to seeing what he can do in our car. He's a world class talent and we know this is a great opportunity to show what AutoCon can do as a team. Everyone is very motivated to put out max effort. We're definitely looking to move up the podium."

Mowlem globe-hopping schedule has been very busy recently, as he has only just returned to the UK following testing at Laguna Seca for a factory sports car team, with more details of that to follow soon.

After the back-to-back weekends in Wisconsin and Toronto that see him out of the UK until the beginning of September, Mowlem will be back in England just in time for a shakedown test prior to competing in the Le Mans Series and first round of the Intercontinental Cup, at Silverstone, this time driving a car well known to him, the Team LNT Ginetta Zytek.

He will race the car again with Tony Burgess and they will be joined this time by Chris McMurry.

"I'm so happy to be back racing in the UK, especially at Silverstone" commented Mowlem. "Lawrence Tomlinson has bent over backwards to make this all happen, and with him obviously comes the full support of the whole Ginetta Zytek factory. I'm under no illusions that the LMS is still Audi and Peugeot diesel territory, but I know from the last two years how good the car is, so if we have a strong reliable run, as I'm sure we will, there is no reason why we can't have a strong top eight finish, and hopefully even better!"

-source: www.johnnymowlem.com.