SRT Motorsports Post-Qualifying Report - Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway

August 23, 2014 , Alton, Va. -  The SRT (Street and Racing Technology) Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GTS-Rs both qualified in the top five for the Oak Tree Grand Prix where team drivers Marc Goossens and Jonathan Bomarito each turned their top laps in the final two minutes of GTLM-class qualifying at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) on Saturday.

Goossens qualified third in the No. 91 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R with a top time of 1:44.072 (113.114 mph) in his seventh and final lap of the timed 20-minute session. Less than one minute later in the final 60 seconds of the session, Bomarito improved to fifth quickest in the No. 93 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R with a top lap time of 1:44.096 (113.088 mph). Bomarito’s fast time was also turned on his seventh lap of the qualifying session.

The Oak Tree Grand Prix is the third-straight IMSA TUDOR Championship event where both Vipers qualified in the top five and the fourth time SRT has done so in 2014. Bomarito qualified the No. 93 second and third, respectively, in the two most recent races at Road America and Indianapolis in addition to third in January’s season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona. Goossens qualified on the pole in the No. 91 at Daytona and third and fourth, respectively, at Road America and Indianapolis.

Both Vipers qualified ahead of the GTLM class championship leaders at VIR. Bomarito, co-driver Kuno Wittmer and the No. 93 team are just eight points out of first place – with 245 points to 237 – in both the GTLM driver and team championships. Goossens, co-driver Dominik Farnbacher and the No. 91 team are 21 points out of the lead and rank third in both championships with 224 points. 

With just three events remaining in 2014, the Oak Tree Grand Prix is the ninth-of-11 races for the GTLM class as the series enters its final stretch.

The Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway will be broadcast live tomorrow, Sunday, Aug. 24, at 4:00 p.m. EDT/1:00 p.m. PDT on FOX Sports 1. 

Marc Goossens, driver, No. 91 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R
How was your fast qualifying lap?
“It was a good lap, but unfortunately I locked it up going into Turn 14 just before the tires were up to temperature. When I was ultimately leaning on it to put a lap time down, I didn’t feel the same grip from the front tires. I think I just asked too much of them when they weren’t ready for it. Other than that, through the practice sessions we had some different feelings in the car and we made another setup change for qualifying. I think we’re getting close to where we want it. For now, I don’t think we need to change much. Just try it out in warmup to see how it is on the longer run. Like I said, I think maybe there was a little bit left in the car, but then I screwed up and overcooked the tires too soon.”

Dominik Farnbacher, driver, No. 91 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R
How was your teammate’s qualifying effort?
“First of all, I want to congratulate my team for doing such a great job in qualifying. Third-place is very good. We didn’t think we had that pace in the practice sessions. We struggled to get up-to speed like the others, but it looked like in qualifying mode we were even closer. Marc had a good few laps and at the end he threw down a really good lap that put us in third-place, which is usually pretty good starting point for the race.”

Jonathan Bomarito, driver, No. 93 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R 
How was your qualifying session?
“It was good and really close. I think there are five hundredths of a second between second and sixth, and we’re kind of right there in the middle in fifth. I would like to start a little bit closer to the front, but we have a good race car, the guys are doing a great job and we’ll be good from there.”

How did you improve your setup for qualifying?
“We have a good qualifying car in general. With new tires and light fuel, our car likes that. We’ve been working hard. The practice sessions didn’t go as well as we would have liked, but we really changed the setup between practice three and qualifying and we found something better on the car.”

Kuno Wittmer, driver, No. 93 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R
What did you think of your teammate’s qualifying session?
“I think it’s a very good starting position. It’s a track where we’ll be stronger in the long run. Looking at our setup, it’s probably more of a race setup than a qualifying setup compared to what you might expect others to be running. I think that we can just keep doing our thing, keep working on our game plan the rest of the season and this is just another event for us. The bigger picture is of course the championship. I’ll be taking the start of the race tomorrow and Jonathan did a great job putting the car in a really nice position.”

Bill Riley, lead engineer, No. 91 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R
How do you feel about today’s qualifying run for the No. 91 and for the team in total?
“I feel pretty good. We were fighting hard in practice and stuff. It came around in qualifying, which is good. We have both Vipers on the inside lane going into Turn 1 on the opening lap and that’s always good. It’s going to be an interesting race with GT cars only out there and without PC cars that would sometimes fall back. It’s going to be an exciting race to see how it all unfolds. I’m happy.”

Matt Bejnarowicz, lead engineer, No. 93 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R
What did you think of your qualifying run?
“I guess not too bad. You always want to be on the pole and you always want to be at the front to start the race, but when you take a step back and look at how close the field is – from two down to six is .05 seconds – that’s pretty close competition. We have a pretty good shot. We just have to make a few adjustments on the car and get a little more speed and hopefully work our way forward tomorrow.”

Gary Johnson, SRT racing manager, SRT Motorsports
How was the team’s qualifying effort?
“Things went okay. We were really hoping for another pole, but P3 is still pretty good. With P5 for the 93 Viper, we’ll be right behind each other and that might give us a little bit of an advantage on the inside there. I hope the opening of the race plays out well and with the two of them together we may be able to gain a position or two in Turn One and hold everybody off, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

SRT Motorsports Team Lineup for Virginia International Raceway 

No. 91 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R 
Driver: Dominik Farnbacher (Germany)
Driver: Marc Goossens (Belgium)
Lead Engineer: Bill Riley 

No. 93 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R 
Driver: Jonathan Bomarito (United States)
Driver: Kuno Wittmer (Canada) 
Lead Engineer: Matt Bejnarowicz 

Race Information
Name: Oak Tree Grand Prix (race nine of 11 for IMSA TUDOR Championship GTLM)
Date: Aug. 24, 2014
Time: 4:05 p.m. EDT for 2 hours and 45 minutes
Track: Virginia International Raceway, 3.27-miles, 17 turns
Broadcast Information: FOX Sports 1 live at 4:00 p.m. EDT