Bryan Sellers Secures Fifth-Place ALMS Finish at Mosport

BRYAN SELLERS SECURES FIFTH-PLACE ALMS FINISH AT MOSPORT

American Talent Scores Third Top-Five Finish of GT Season

BOWMANVILLE, ONT, CAN, July 25, 2011 – Bryan Sellers brought the No.17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR across the Mosport International Raceway finish line fifth in Sunday’s Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport. The result secured the Braselton, GA-resident, and his Falken Tire teammate Wolf Henzler (Germany), the program’s third consecutive, GT class, top-five of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón (ALMS) season. The duo of the young, American and the German held the class lead with one hour remaining in the two-hour, 45-minute race prior to the final pit stop sequence. The finish at the Bowmanville, ONT, CAN-track matched the team’s result at the most recent round at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut and fell one short of their season-best fourth-place at Long Beach, CA. The performance did rank as the highest finishing Porsche entry for the day in Canada.

As part of the team’s qualifying and race-start rotation, Henzler took the green flag at the 2.459-mile, 10-turn facility from seventh on the grid. The Porsche factory driver took the No.17 up to sixth when a full course yellow brought the team in for its first of two pit stops 45-minutes into the race. Team Falken Tire did a spectacular stop returning Henzler to the track in third-place with fuel and four, new Falken Tires. However, race officials determined that Henzler had passed a car under the full course caution and, therefore, had to serve a “stop-and-go” penalty with one hour, 51-minutes remaining. Despite falling back to seventh, Henzler worked the car back to fourth-place when the second round of pit stops began. Although finding themselves in the lead, the team had to stop for service. The Falken Porsche returned to the track fifth in class with Sellers now in the cockpit. The former open wheel champion began his attack but with less than one hour remaining he was only able to close the distance to fourth-place, not overtake it. He would be forced to settle for fifth in the 16-car class.

Sellers’ stint was not without its own drama. With less than 30-minutes remaining he exited “Corner Nine” - just prior to the track’s main straight - to find a GTC class competitor facing him on the racing line. Sellers made an emergency move to the left to avoid a head-on impact with the stationary car. Both Porsches were able to proceed undamaged thanks to Sellers’ quick hand.

The event gave further evidence of the strength of the team and the tire development that Falken Tire has been undergoing. Sellers has been involved in several tests including one at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course where the next round of the ALMS championship will take place, at Road America - Round Six of the nine race season - and in the company’s home country of Japan. Complementing the tire development are recent developments with the Porsche RSR. The Derrick Walker-led operation installed a new iteration of Porsche’s venerable “boxer”, flat-six engine and a steering wheel-mounted, paddle-gearshift system this weekend. The advancements should prove beneficial at the final five races.

The ALMS has one week off before going to Mid-Ohio in Lexington, OH on August 6. As a native of the state, and with the tire testing done there, the track should be an excellent venue for Sellers to challenge for his first ALMS podium.

Quotes

Bryan Sellers:

About the race at Mosport: “My stint, in all reality, was very uneventful. Wolf had done a stellar job in his stint but we had a gap to fourth-place ahead and a big gap to fifth-place behind. So, my job went into preserving a fifth-place finish for Team Falken Tire because we did not have the pace to catch the cars ahead. ** I would say a top-five for us was an okay day. We were hoping for more but incurred some problems along the way that prohibited that. We are getting better. In all honesty, we thought we would struggle more here but we held on.”

About missing the spinning No.66: “It was a crazy race. Both Wolf and I had cars spinning in front of us on numerous occasions. When the TRG car spun in front of me it was near the end of the race. At first I thought there was no way we were going to avoid it and we’d be caught in someone else's incident. Luckily, it was Spencer [Pumpelly] and he is a smart driver. He was able to keep the brakes locked up and spin very predictably. That helped us both avoid contact.”

About the car upgrades: “I feel like the new upgrades really did help. However, I think it is one of those things that you see instant results with so, this weekend, we’ve probably seen the greatest gains we’ll get from it. Porsche hands things to you in such good condition that it makes it difficult to improve on what they have already done.”

About the ongoing progress of the Falken Tire: “I would say we are really close on time over the duration of a stint which is a great feeling. It’s nice to know we will have something to fight with at the end of a race. We do need to search for a little bit of speed in our overall fast lap and it is a work in progress. Everyone at Falken and at Team Falken Tire is really committed to making this a success. We’re all working at it everyday. It’s really pretty exciting to be a part of. I think we’re starting to surprise some people and we’re making the other guys look over their shoulder. We’re not done yet!”

Miss the live coverage of the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport on www.ESPN3.com? Visit the ESPN3 archives to view the race in its entirety. More on the event and the ALMS can be found at www.AmericanLeMans.com.

For more on Bryan Sellers, please visit him on the web at www.BryanSellersRacing.com. Follow Bryan on Twitter (www.Twitter.com/BryanSellers) and Facebook.

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