SRT Motorsports - ALMS Post-Race Quotes - VIR

October 5, 2013 , Alton, Va. -  Russ Ruedisueli – Director of Motorsports Engineering Group, Chrysler
“It (the finish) was disappointing for us. The cars were fast and the drivers really did a good job. We got caught out on that big long pit stop. We’ll go back to the drawing boards and see what we can do a little bit different.”
 
THE 93 CAR RAN WELL TODAY AND IT SEEMS LIKE JUST A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THEY WIN A RACE. “That’s absolutely for sure. We’re knocking right at the door. The team is continuing to work better together and it’s all gelling. People sometimes forget we’ve only been together a little more than a year and to see the progress the team’s made is just fantastic. I’m really, really proud of the team. We’ll keep working on it.”       
 
Gary Johnson – SRT Motorsports Racing Manager
BOTH CARS SHOWED SPEED TODAY BUT BOTH EXPERIENCED MISFORTUNE.  “The 91 car was saddled with a stop-and-go penalty which really put us behind the eight-ball. The car was running well but had the misfortune of a penalty late in the race.  Once we got back that far, without another yellow, we really didn’t have a chance. 
 
“The 93 car was doing well. We had a little bit of an issue near the end of the race where Jonathan (Bomarito) bumped a GTC Porsche and it popped the hood. On this track which is so fast, air got under the hood and pulled it up. Unfortunately he couldn’t see over the hood at that point and he missed an apex on the right-hand side. He couldn’t see anything, tracked out to the left and brought a bunch of grass into the radiator. That overheated the engine. He shut it down early rather than destroy the engine, which was a good decision. We’ll go get ‘em at Petit Le Mans. We think we’re going to be pretty good there.”
 
THERE WERE TWO CAUTIONS WITH ABOUT AN HOUR TO GO IN THE RACE.  WAS THAT THE TURNING POINT OF THE RACE? “We split the strategy again on the cautions. It kind of worked in our favor. We ended up coming out in the lead after the first one. I think the strategy was right but the late cautions changed everything.”
 
Marc Goossens – No. 91 Rush SRT Viper GTS-R (Finished 7th)
“My teammate (Dominik Farnbacher) had an awesome start, putting the car in P2. We kind of gambled on having an early driver change. The race didn’t go our way with the yellows and everything else. Our car was a handful to drive but more consistent than what we had in all the practice sessions. We made quite a big setup change prior to the race, kind of into the unknown. I think it was a good decision that we did that. For some reason, we kept killing the rear tires much too soon. We got the maximum out of the race. I was pushing it as hard as I could. That’s all that was in the car. Unfortunately we had a wheel nut that we lost on one of the pit stops and had a stop-and-go penalty. A lot of things didn’t go our way but all-in-all I think we had a consistent pace. I think it’s another one of these races where we can go away and say hey, we were very competitive as we rolled off the trailer. There is still a lot of work to do in order to remain competitive from the first minute right to the checkered flag. I think that we deserve better than the position that we finished. We have to take all the data of this track and this race and build on Petit Le Mans. I think there’s only one objective left and that’s to win that race in Atlanta.”
 
Dominik Farnbacher – No. 91 Rush SRT Viper GTS-R (Finished 7th)
YOU HAD A GOOD OPENING STINT TO THE RACE. “First of all, I want to thank my team. This was a race where we had a bit of bad luck but that sometimes happens. In racing, you have good sides and bad sides but my team did a really good job and so did my teammate. I think Marc did an outstanding job. He went two hours in the car in that heat. My teammate Kuno did an outstanding job. He was leading the race for quite a while. It was an unlucky race for us but now we are looking forward to the last race of the season and we’ll try to have a good finish there. 
 
“At the start, I just drove where there was a gap (smiles). There was nobody driving on the outside, so I took the outside line. It looked like there was a little traffic jam and all of a sudden I was second.”   
 
Jonathan Bomarito – No. 93 Pennzoil Ultra SRT Viper GTS-R (Finished 9th)
“It was a hard race; everybody was racing really hard. Everybody on the team did a great job. You know it’s hard to pass and we were battling hard. The last 20 minutes of the race, the hood was lifting and I could see it. It was making the front fly in the esses, making more understeer and it got to the point where it just buckled and I couldn’t see anything.”
 
DID THE TWO CAUTIONS BACK-TO-BACK WITH ABOUT AN HOUR TO GO WORK TO YOUR DISADVANTAGE? “I think we were running second but we lost some spots somewhere in the pit stop or strategy, I’m not sure. After that second restart, I think we were starting sixth and we still had a good car. We did everything we needed to do to be there at the end, just unfortunate with the hood. These guys are awesome. They’ll go back to the shop and it won’t happen again.” 
  
Kuno Wittmer – No. 93 Pennzoil Ultra SRT Viper GTS-R (Finished 9th)
YOU HAD AN EXCELLENT START TO THE RACE, LEADING NEARLY ALL OF THE FIRST HOUR. WAS THAT YOUR BEST STINT IN THE CAR THIS SEASON? “I think as a starting stint that’s probably the best one, from fifth to first. The car was really, really good in the beginning. It proves that the Pennzoil Ultra Viper is very competitive and the whole SRT team is very capable of putting together a very good car. It’s really thanks to the entire team, thanks to the engineering staff. It’s not easy in this temperature to keep your tires under you.”