SCC: Utah: DragonSpeed qualifying notes

DragonSpeed Primed for Pro Debut at Miller

20 September 2008 - With two days of practice and qualifying at Miller Motorsports Park under its belt, DragonSpeed is ready to make its professional racing debut in tomorrow's round of the Koni Challenge Series. Driver and DragonSpeed general manager Elton Julian qualified the team's 1999-vintage Porsche 24th out of 62 starters - the highest grid position for the older 996 model this season - with a time of 3m14.777s around the 4.486-mile circuit near Salt Lake City.

Co-driver and DragonSpeed team principal Pete Aronson, a partner in the Los Angeles-based Generate media production company, is enjoying his first weekend of Grand-Am professional racing. "This is more fun than making sitcoms, and making sitcoms is already a lot of fun. It's been busy getting to grips with such a long and demanding track and getting comfortable in traffic, but everything is going in the right direction."

"It's been a good weekend so far," reported Julian. "In qualifying, we couldn't show our full potential because of a misfire and a gear linkage problem. Both of those are fixed for the race, so we're looking forward to the race tomorrow."

"We're very happy with the performance of the team on DragonSpeed's first professional outing," Julian continued. "Pete's making excellent progress in the cockpit, while Glenn Yee, Mike Larson, and the rest of the crew have done a great job troubleshooting the few minor problems we've had. As for the Koni Challenge, being here has confirmed this series is the right place to develop our team."

-credit: www.dragon-speed.net