Happy Anniversary Bryan Sellers!

Factory Driver Plans a Long Beach Street Party to Celebrate Five Years with Falken Tire

LONG BEACH, Calif., April 15, 2013 – The Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach is always one of the biggest street parties on the motorsports calendar. This year, for Bryan Sellers, the second-round of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón could become a two-hour anniversary celebration. The race marks the Braselton, Ga.-resident’s fifth year as a Falken Tire factory driver. The half-decade relationship has garnered three ALMS race victories and the 2012 ALMS Most Popular Driver Award for Sellers. As he has done since 2010, Wolf Henzler (Germany) joins Sellers in the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR for the Saturday, April 20 race in Southern California.

In 2009, Sellers opened a three-race season to launch Falken Tire’s in-house sports car effort on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit. Then, as now, the team used Porsche’s 911 GT3 RSR while the former open-wheel racing champion teamed with Dominic Cicero instead of Porsche factory driver Henzler. The inaugural year also included the Petit Le Mans and the season-closing race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The pairing enjoyed a best result of eighth that first limited schedule.

Since that first race at Long Beach, Sellers’ skill as a race driver and tire developer has helped the Japanese-company earn two wins on the streets of Baltimore (2011, 2012) as well as its maiden victory at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2011. While multiple trips to Japan and extensive testing in the United States has helped progress the product even further, that race-winning tire is at the core of the present Falken street racing tire. The success on temporary circuits has the team feeling confident entering the ‘Grandfather of North American Street Races.’

Additional faith stems from the performance of Sellers and his teammates at the season-opening Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Currently, Sellers and Henzler are tied for third in the driver point standings after a podium result in Florida. That success at the Series’ longest race has helped create momentum entering its shortest. When coupled with the strength of Falken’s street racing slick, the team is among the favorites in the highly competitive GT class this weekend. And what if it rains, as it did in practice last year at Long Beach? Falken is widely recognized as having the best rain tire in the paddock having taken the team’s first win at a rain-soaked Mid-Ohio.

ABC will air the race on tape-delay, Sunday, April 21 at 1 p.m. Eastern. Live race streaming coverage begins at 7:15 p.m. ET on Saturday. Full international coverage will be available real time at www.ALMS.com .

Live coverage of qualifying in all classes can also be found at the Series web site beginning with the GTC class at 8:05 p.m. ET Friday, April 19. The lone practice at Long Beach will take place at 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ET/7:30 a.m. Pacific, Friday morning. Live timing and scoring of all sessions, including qualifying and the race, is offered at www.ALMS.com .

Quotes

Bryan Sellers:

On the anniversary of his start with Team Falken Tire: “It has been a great five years with Team Falken Tire. I have been privileged to spend this time driving for Falken and I can only hope our relationship continues for many more years to come. In a world full of short lived partnerships it is a great feeling to have been at one place for so long. They have become my family. Every year Long Beach brings a new memory, and while we have had a few high moments, we have a lot of unfinished business here as well. I hope this year can be the year that we really make the memory.”

On the greatest Team Falken Tire accomplishment since 2009: “Our greatest accomplishment has been our raising of the brand awareness coupled with the loyalty of our fans. One thing that can always be a marker for your performance is the people that surround you and the people you surround yourself with and our fans are the best. They love and support the team and the Falken Tire brand and that to me says everything.”

On his favorite part of racing at Long Beach: “There is nothing I don’t like about racing at Long Beach! There are so many reasons that Long Beach is fantastic but a few of them would be the history, the fans and the fact that it is the home race for us at Team Falken Tire and so many of our partners like HPI Racing and Porsche Motorsports North America.”

On his best memory from Long Beach: “One of my fondest memories was when I first ran Long Beach in Toyota Atlantic. I was able to finish on the podium in my first visit to the track. It was a great experience.”

On the mental and physical aspects of driving at Long Beach: “The race being shorter allows you to give so much energy in your stint. There is no need to save any physical or mental capacity so you drain yourself trying to get every last tenth out of the racecar.”

On the feeling of momentum carried through from Sebring: “The confidence and momentum is huge coming out of Sebring. It feels great to be able to stand on the podium and with the ups and downs of racing it is very easy to forget how that feels. But when you get the taste of it, it is something you want to continue to taste. Everyone at Team Falken Tire wants to repeat a good result and I hope we are able to do so.”

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 . Tune-in to Bryan’s YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/BryanSellersRacing .

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

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

Stayed charged with Batter Tender at www.BatteryTender.com .

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