Team Seattle - The Heart of Racing to Start Fifth in GTD

jjomalley

Team Seattle-The Heart of Racing will start the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Brickyard Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from the third row in GTD.

Mario Farnbacher (Ansbach, Germany) had the wheel of the No. 23 Team Seattle-Heart of Racing Porsche for qualifying. The young German put in lap of 1:26.271 that will have them starting from the third row at the newly redesigned 2.4-mile, 14-turn road course that runs through the infield of the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The testing miles that the team put in at the end of June paid dividend's in qualifying as the duo boasted the fastest lap on the weekend among the Porsche GTD entries.

"The test that we had here at the end of June really helped our team," Farnbacher said. "The Indy road circuit is very technical. The set-up of the car is key to going fast. The team has the car handling really well. I am happy with our qualifying effort. We really emphasize race set-up not qualifying. A third row starting position is good, but we are focused on a good race car."

James also knows the test paid off.

"It was great that we tested here a few weeks back," James said. "The team was that much farther ahead and it showed as we were the fastest Porsche. The car is handling pretty good, we have a few more things to try for the warm-up to see if we can get it just a little better. I have a lot of confidence in the car and that is what you want when you take the green flag for the race."

Alex Job, team owner, likes the start to the weekend.

"That is a good start to the weekend for the Team Seattle-Heart of Racing Porsche," Job said. "That is our best qualifying effort and since we don't work too hard on that aspect of the weekend it was a good lap by Mario. We will try a few things in the warm-up and be ready to have a good race tomorrow night."

Team Seattle is accepting donations and pledges to support the Seattle Children's Hospital at teamseattle.com.

The TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Brickyard Grand Prix round six, July 24-25 will be broadcast live starting at 5:30 p.m. ET Friday. Live race streaming can be viewed at IMSA.com or on the FOX Sports GO mobile app. The live radio broadcast will air on the Motor Racing Network on IMSA.com, MRN.com, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).