SCC: Burrows, Hopwood preview

Burrows and Hopwood Ready for Kia 200 at Homestead

#12 Kinetic Motorsports KIA Forte Koup: Adam Burrows, Trevor Hopwood

Alexander Trienitz

Round one of the championship saw the former champions effort thwarted as contact from behind early in the race weekend compromised the capabilities of the Koup at race time. But in the closing laps of the race, Burrows helped to make some lemonade with those lemons as he pushed his fellow Kinetic Motorsports teammate to a dramatic debut podium for Kia's best-ever GRAND-AM race result to date.

The trip south is the second in as many weeks for Hopwood, as the high school teacher spent his winter break enjoying the warm climate of South Florida recently.

"Daytona was of course a disappointing outcome for Adam and I, but then getting to see the Kinetic guys enjoy celebrating the podium and being a part of that accomplishment for Kia was as good a way to feel better about the weekend as I could picture," said Hopwood. "Now we're all focused on Homestead and hopefully we can bring some new success for Kia.

"It's going to be exciting to meet all of the Kia dealers that will be on hand this weekend--they have so much enthusiasm for this program and it's great to see how what we are doing is translating into excitement about the products in the showroom. Hopefully we can put on a good show for them. I'm also looking forward to meeting our new teammate Michael (Galati) and we of course will be rooting Andy (Lally) on this weekend in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race."

This weekend, the Kia Optima has been selected as Pace Car for the race as Kia has grown the support of the sport beyond utilizing the Kinetic Motorsports racing platform to promote the capabilities of the Kia Forte Koup, as the brand looks to also harvest the marketing potential that teaming with Homestead-Miami Speedway and securing naming rights for the race can offer.

"Two years ago, you would have never believed that Kia would have this much commitment to the sport and be making such a statement not only with the result that Kinetic achieved at Daytona, but also with this level of support for a race event," offered Burrows. "So we're of course tremendously motivated this weekend, as ever. There is going to be such a large contingent of Kia dealers and associates and I'm really looking forward to showing them the No. 12 up close.

"Every track we visit is naturally different in terms of suiting the characteristics of our Kia Forte Koups, and we should be reasonably competitive at Homestead," offered Adam Burrows. "We might not have the top end speed that a lot of the turbo and larger displacement machines do on the oval, but this car always handles well and has outstanding braking. It's also a very abrasive surface, so the fact that the Koup's handling is pretty easy on the tires will hopefully also help us on the long runs."

-source: sgm