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Bryan Sellers Hard Charge at Canadian ALMS GT Race Rewarded with Fourth

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&car; Factory Driver Helps Give Team Falken Tire Best Finish of Season

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&car; BOWMANVILLE, ONT., Canada, July 23, 2012 – Bryan Sellers took over driving chores in the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with less than an hour remaining in the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport. In the few laps of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón (ALMS) race left, the Braselton, Ga.-resident put in one of his best stints of the racing season. Sellers is always aggressive in the car – a shocking alter-ego to his easygoing personality in the paddock – but the fast pace nature of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) and intense competition of the GT class brought out even more from the former open-wheel racing champion when he took the wheel from starting driver Wolf Henzler (Germany). Sellers set the car’s fastest race lap and gained three-positions in the closing stages of the two-hour and 45-minute race to finish fifth on-track. The Falken machine would move up to fourth-place following a post-race technical inspection failure for the winning GT car. It was Team Falken Tire’s best result of the 2012 ALMS season. &car;

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&car; Henzler started the Team Falken Tire Porsche eighth in GT class. During the first one-hour and 45-minutes, the Porsche factory driver raced the car as high as third. When Sellers took the wheel of the No. 17 under green flag conditions on its third pit stop, he was eighth with one hour remaining. Pit strategy meant that it would be an all-out push to the finish for Sellers on the 2.459-mile, 10-turn track formerly known as Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario. &car;

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&car; Sellers began picking-up positions within minutes of sliding into the sole Falken-shod entry. He moved into the top-five with 30-minutes remaining. A full-course caution with 14 minutes remaining allowed the Falken operation to make a final pit stop for four new Azenis racing slicks. That gave Sellers the tools he needed to make a determined run for the checkered flag. In the chase for positions, Sellers set the car’s fastest race lap just four minutes before the race ended – a time of 1:18.159 on lap 106 of 111. The great charge would come-up just short of fourth but again showed Sellers impressive racecraft. At one point, Sellers was over 13-seconds behind fourth-place. He closed the gap to just a second in the closing stages and would cross the finish line just 1.5-seconds behind. However, after post-race technical inspection, the No. 17 was moved up to fourth when it was found that the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche, the winner “on-track”, was disallowed due to the failure of the required “stall test”. Each GT team was gifted an additional spot in the final standings. &car;

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&car; The performance in the July 22nd race comes at an opportune time for Sellers and Team Falken Tire. The team won twice in 2011 – once in the rain at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and once on the dry streets of Baltimore – and both tracks are coming-up in the second-half of the ALMS season. In two weeks, Sellers will be back in the No. 17 Porsche. On August 4th, the native Ohioan will look to defend his ALMS GT class victory at Mid-Ohio on a track that should suit the car better than CTMP. This, and the progress the team is making in fine-tuning the set-up of the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and Falken tires gives hope that an early season of misfortune and frustration is being reversed. Learn more at www.ALMS.com . &car;

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&car; Bryan Sellers: &car;

&car; On the Grand Prix of Mosport: “We lacked overall speed through the weekend so we knew we had to do something different. We decided to take an alternative strategy with the Team Falken Tire Porsche. It was our only option to make the weekend into something. This is a very difficult track to pass on, which is why the crew played such a big role in the race. They gained us spots in the pits and executed very well. When I got into the car, my only mindset was to go as fast as I could for as long as I could. I could see the race unfolding and also see the chance of us having a top-five finish. I wanted to make sure I did my part to make that happen.”&car;

&car; On what was learned that could benefit the rest of the season: “We needed to come to Mosport and execute our plan well and that was our best chance at a good result. I am not sure that we can take too much from our result here and move it forward because it is such a different track. However, what we can use is the motivation. It was our best weekend of the season and we have the wheels moving in the right direction again. That bodes well for the rest of the season.”&car;

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&car; On the key moments of the race: “We had a ton of key moments in our race. Because of the amount of stops we did with our alternate strategy, every stop needed to be executed with extreme precision and I would say those were some of the biggest moments we had. The guys on Team Falken Tire made all the difference today. We did a quick stop at the end to take tires only in the hopes of being able to chase down the BMW. It was a great call. We were faster but didn't have enough time to get there. There would have been a chance to pass him for sure; the tire call was the right decision. We just ran out of time.”&car;

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&car; On his final push to the checkered flag: “I was in full-attack to try and catch the BMW after the last stop. Wolf had a couple great runs before he handed the car over and I was doing everything I could to make sure I did my part. The last 10 minutes were as hard as I could go. It’s a great feeling being told ‘here's tires, try your best to track down the car ahead of you.’”&car;

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&car; On the greatest benefit from the fourth-place result: “I would say the biggest gain we will have moving forward will be to team morale. The Falken Tire guys deserved a good finish. They work so hard and it’s nice to finally get a decent finish for them. We have a direction on setup and in momentum and it will be better!”&car;

&car; For more on Bryan Sellers, please visit him on the web at "> www.BryanSellersRacing.com . Follow Bryan on Twitter ("> www.Twitter.com/BryanSellers ) and LIKE him on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/BryanSellersRacing . &car;

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&car; Visit www.FalkenTire.com for more on Team Falken Tire. Learn more about the American Le Mans Series at www.ALMS.com . &car;

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&car; Go R/C racing with Bryan at www.HPIRACING.com .&car;

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