Bryan Sellers: Like Picking Your Favorite Child

by Thomas Moore

Falken Tire Driver Instructs You Through the TUDOR Championship’s Best Corners

Braselton, Georgia, September 28, 2015 – Picking between your favorite things is never easy. That is certainly the case for Bryan Sellers when asked to describe his favorite corner on the 2.54-mile, 12-turn Road Atlanta race circuit in his hometown of Braselton, Georgia. On October 3, Sellers will join longtime teammate Wolf Henzler (Germany) and endurance race co-driver Patrick Long (Manhattan Beach, California) for the 18th Annual Petit Le Mans Powered by Mazda. The 10-hour endurance sports car race is the final round of the 2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. Sharing the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR, the trio will be racing for their third-consecutive victory in the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

Drive-Through Road Atlanta’s Turns 5 with Bryan Sellers: “Corners at your home track are kind of like your kids, you really can’t pick your favorite… and depending on the day, it can change. Turn 12 is by far the most famous corner at Road Atlanta and for good reason. Turn One has its own challenges too and the ‘Esses’ are another great ‘signature’ for my hometown track. But, like with kids, sometimes it is the biggest challenge that is the most satisfying when you get it right. My favorite corner at Road Atlanta – at least today – is Turn Five.

As you enter Turn Five, if you have gotten through the ‘Esses’ correctly, you are carrying a lot of speed. In the Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR we’ll bring it down to third-gear entering Turn Five so that is a significant drop. You are heading dramatically uphill from the entry of the corner all the way to the exit. This means that this is a very high grip corner and that the cornering speeds are very high. That puts a lot of strain on the car, the tires and the driver. You use a very light brake to keep the car from slowing to much on the way in, and because it is uphill on the exit it means you can be very aggressive when you get back to full power. It is very important to make sure you get back to full power when exiting Turn Five because it leads onto a straightaway and a great passing zone into Turn Six.

Five is a perfect example of a turn that can make or break a lap. In 2014, on our way to victory, the Falken Tire Porsche raced through Turn Five 391 times. Every time through, it is vital to get it as close to perfect as you can. Since a pass is impossible in the ‘Esses’, traffic stakes up entering Five. This makes for a great place to setup a pass. That also means you may be the target of the car behind you. Exiting Turn Five, assuming you got it right, positions you to make a move entering into Turn Six. So, Five is challenging for a driver both in car control and racecraft. Getting it right almost 400 times is very important. Getting it wrong just once, can mean the difference between another trip to the podium or just the short drive home.”

The 18th Annual Petit Le Mans will take the green flag at 11:10 a.m. Eastern Tire (ET) on Saturday, October 3. FOX Sports 2 will broadcast the majority of the 10-hour endurance race starting at 11 a.m. ET. The broadcast then turns to IMSA.com for the hours from noon until 2:30 p.m. before FOX 2 takes it back until 7:00 p.m. The network is pulled away then so the race will be on IMSA.com until 8:30 p.m. The final hour of the 2015 season will play out live on FOX Sports 2. IMSA.com will provide audio coverage of every on-track lap, including practice and qualifying while video streaming of qualifying will be available on the IMSA web site beginning at 3:15 p.m., Friday, September 18. The weekend’s activities can be followed on Twitter with the hash tag #PLM.

Want to learn more about the “behind the scenes” world of professional sports car racing? Be sure to check out Bryan’s blog at www.FlatSixes.com . The regular feature of the longtime Falken Tire factory driver shows various aspects of what it takes to succeed in endurance GT racing.

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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