Bryan Sellers' Love Affair with Road America Starts at Turn Five
American Ace Instructs You Through the Tudor Championship’s Best Corners
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 4, 2014 – Every track has its “signature turn”. Often it is not that turn that speaks to the drivers the most. At Road America, site of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s Road Race Showcase on Sunday, Bryan Sellers’ favorite turn just might surprise. The Braselton, Georgia-resident takes you through Turn Five, of 14, of the 4.048-mile circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. It is one of the slowest corners on a track renown for speed but getting it right upwards of 65 times during the two-hour, 45-minute race will be critical to success for Sellers and No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR teammate Wolf Henzler (Germany).
Drive-Through Road America’s Turn-Five with Bryan Sellers: “Turn Five at Road America is possibly one of the most understated and underrated corners not only at Road America but also in the country. It’s not high speed, it’s not flashy and it doesn’t look like anything special. However, it does take a special commitment and technique to get it correct. The brake zone is very difficult and it is very important to the overall sector time of the corner. It’s a high-speed approach to the corner and a low apex speed which means heavy braking. The difficult part is that it is not a straight or flat braking zone. The approach is curved and downhill. You have to really focus on getting the car as straight as possible so you can brake as late and hard as possible. When you start braking you are heading downhill significantly which means you can’t hit the brake pedal hard at first but the further into the brake zone you get the more pressure you can apply. Once you have gotten to that point, the next challenge is beginning to release the brake so you don’t overflow the corner. Also, because it is downhill, your car placement is particularly important. If you are off a little bit you will find that you are too slow at the apex. Now, to cap it off, putting the power down out of the second gear corner is very difficult yet extremely important. You have to find the right balance of enough power and too much throttle. Otherwise, you will produce too much oversteer and sacrifice the exit. If you surrender the exit, you lose speed and momentum up the straight to Turn Six.
There are the famous corners, there are the fast corners and the long uphill front straight. But, for me, it is a turn like Five that is the biggest challenge. If you can get it right, you really feel like you have accomplished something. I’d call it a driver’s corner. That’s why Turn Five is my favorite at Road America.”
The Road Race Showcase can be seen on FOX Sports 1 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time, August 10. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) will carry the race live on its network of stations beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET. The two-hour and 45-minute race will also have live timing and scoring available at IMSA.com . Streaming of the qualifying show is available on the IMSA web site beginning at 4:20 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 9.
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 TUDOR SportsCar Championship, please visit www.IMSA.com .
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