Team’s Rolex Series and CTSCC Squads are Back with Alex Popow and Hector Guerrero Moving to GS-class Audi S4
June 7, 2012 (Opelika, Ala.) – The APR Motorsport team reached a milestone in last weekend’s Chevrolet Grand-Am Detroit 200, when Dion von Moltke led the first laps for the Audi R8 Grand-Am in Rolex Series competition. The day before, when von Moltke recorded the team’s best qualifying effort of 4th, his teammate Dr. Jim Norman topped the practice charts for the first time in the Audi.
Although the car would ultimately finish eleventh in the race after von Moltke slid into the tire wall during a brief rain shower, the team was enthused by its breakthrough performance and now looks forward to the different challenge of the permanent circuit at Mid-Ohio.
“Our APR Audi R8 Grand-Am has been really improving, thanks to the support of Parathyroid.com, PR Newswire, and South African Airways, and I hope that trend will continue this weekend,” said von Moltke. “Mid-Ohio is about as opposite as possible from Belle Isle. There are a lot of elevation changes and the track is relatively smooth, so it will challenge the engineers as well as the drivers this weekend to adapt with only a few days’ break. There is always a lot of really tight battling around Mid-Ohio so I cannot wait to get back to racing this weekend.”
After what can only be described as a ‘hectic’ CTSCC race at New Jersey Motorsports Park, APR Motorsport is looking for strong results in Mid-Ohio that eluded them in New Jersey. The team’s GS-class Audi S4 returns this weekend, with a new driver lineup. Alex Popow and Hector Guerrero will partner in the four-wheel-drive machine for the first time this season, and are scheduled to compete in the car for the rest of the CTSCC season.
After having a car land on top of him at the start of the New Jersey race, Nate Norenberg will return with co-driver Josh Hurley in the no. 161 APR VW GTI. Consistently the fastest of the APR VW’s throughout the 2012 season, Norenberg and Hurley were fast even after the heavy impact at the start of the New Jersey race – running as high as eighth in the race’s second hour – before being slowed by damage caused in the crash, causing Hurley to fade to 22nd by the end of the race.
Their teammates, Juan Pablo Sierra and Juan Alvarez, in the no. 131 APR VW Jetta GLI, are coming off of their best CTSCC race of the season after finishing 11th in New Jersey. A strong run was enjoyed by the sister Jetta, the no. 191 APR Jetta GLI of Christian LaRiva and Daniel Perez, which ran as high as third until a late-race stop for fuel.
In the no. 171 APR VW GTI, drivers David Cheng and Aleks Altberg were forced into retirement with an electrical problem. The duo has had numerous top-10 finishes thwarted by bad luck, and are looking to reverse that trend in Mid-Ohio.
“The results that we’ve had this season don’t really represent the job that all of the drivers and the team have done,” said Hurley. “All of the rookies have come on very strong and are improving with each event. We’re hoping that this is the weekend that everything comes together and we finally break through to get in the top-five or get on the podium.”
The EMCO Gears Classic Rolex Series race will be shown live on SPEED Channel on Saturday, June 9th, at 4:30 PM ET on SPEED Channel. The EMCO Gears Classic CTSCC race will be shown on Sunday, June 17th at 12:00 PM ET on SPEED.
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Parathyroid.com is an educational website discussing the adverse health issues associated with high blood calcium. It is recognized as the leading authority on hyperparathyroidism caused by parathyroid tumors located in the neck which affect one in 1000 people causing high blood calcium, osteoporosis, chronic fatigue, depression, and kidney stones, among other conditions. For more information, visit www.parathyroid.com.
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ABOUT MOTUL USA
Motul USA is a world-class company specialized in distribution of high-tech synthetic lubricants formulated for powersports and automotive applications. Motul is a partner to many manufacturers and racing teams in order to further their technological development in motorsports. It has invested in many international competitions as an official supplier for teams in: 24 Hours of Le Mans, GT1 World Championship, MotoGP, World Rally Car (WRC), Dakar® and others. For more information, log on to www.motul.com.
About RAYS
Established in 1973, motor sports culture is the basis of RAYS corporate identity. Our commitment to process from concept, design, r&d, manufacture, and logistics are done in-house and in Japan. Currently RAYS racing wheels feature prominently in the Grand-Am series as well as F-1, WTCC, BTCC, Super GT, ALMS, and many other competitions. For more information, visit www.rays-msc.com.
ABOUT APR
APR LLC is an automotive engineering firm operating a 36,000 sq. ft. performance campus in Opelika, Ala. APR was founded in 1997 with a corporate philosophy of Integrity, Excellence and Innovation. APR’s sole mission is to provide the highest quality and most highly engineered aftermarket performance parts available for Audi, Volkswagen, SEAT and Skoda vehicles. Learn more at www.goapr.com, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/APRMotorsport, and on twitter (@GoAPR).