Ethan Low VIR Pre-Race Report

Alton, VA (8-18-15) – Looking to build on their 12th place finish at Road America, Ethan Low, Jason Rabe and the Bodymotion Racing team head to Virginia International Raceway, hopeful for their season’s first podium finish.  The race starts this Saturday, August 22nd, at 1:25 pm EST.

The team looks to re-find its groove in the season’s three final races after a strong start to the season.   The #31 Visit St Petersburg/Clearwater Bodymotion Porsche Cayman piloted by Low and Rabe are still fifth in the point standings but know they need to get back to top form down the stretch to make a push towards the top.Low has been making a home at VIR the past two weeks.  Immediately following the Road America race, Low hopped on a plane for Raleigh, North Carolina and landed shortly before midnight where he headed straight to VIR for a night stint and another stint the next morning with Proformance Coaching in the CHUMPCAR World Series 24 hour endurance race.  Low remained at VIR, and last weekend he teamed with World Endurance Challenge pro Mike Skeen to win the nine hour American Endurance Racing (AER) series race at VIR.  Low posted the second fastest lap of the race behind only Skeen’s time and just ahead of the time posted by Porsche GT3 Cup season points leader Jesse Lazarre.  Low’s team also raced in Sunday’s AER nine hour race with Low posting the fastest lap of the race, but unfortunately, his team’s car was not able to finish the race. The 19 year old Low continues to make an impressive showing in his rookie season in the Continental Tire Series.  Through seven races, in the ST class he has made 79 passes on track, 48 for position in class and has been passed in class 33 times.LOW ON THE UPCOMING RACE AT VIR“I love racing here at VIR and this is where I got my start in race cars.  I was one of 22 invitees world wide to participate in the 2012 Skip Barber Shootout and at 16 years of age, it was quite an honor.  “The Shrew” (affectionate name for VIR) kept me humble that first time, but I have been back here numerous times for (SCCA) sprint races and (AER and ChumpCar) endurance races and it was special to get my first win here last weekend in the AER race.”“VIR has so many different configurations and I think I have ran most of them.  Our Conti race is on the Full Course which will be super fast for the cars in our series.  The fans should love it.  Personally I like the Grand West course the best as it introduces a highly technical portion of VIR to a race, but the Full Course is a great challenge in its own right with the long, high speed back straight and what driver doesn’t like to challenge himself going open throttle through the climbing esses?!!”“We need to get fully back on track here at VIR.  This team has been working so hard to get everything just right and I know we will be focused with great effort this weekend.  When I look around and see all the veteran teams with multiple cars and veteran drivers in this field and then I look at us as a single car, rookie team with two rookie drivers and see what we are accomplishing, it makes me proud to be a part of the Bodymotion team.”LOW ON THE RACE AT ROAD AMERICA“We were confident heading into the race week at Road America that we were going to fare well.  We had infused some new engineering and driver coach talent into the team and were ready to take advantage of that, but it was a weird, challenging manufacturer’s test day and official practice sessions.  We drove the test day to get Jason and I seat time and evaluate the car.  We went to make changes for the official practices and I went out the first session, but with multiple red flags during the session, I was never able to get the car out for more than two clean laps and while we gathered some information, it was not nearly enough green flag practicing to sort the car out.  We made some changes for Jason’s session in the afternoon but by then the rain had set in making that session useless from a set up information stand point.  Qualifying was cancelled so that took another on track opportunity away and on race day, we still just didn’t have the set up that we wanted to be able to run up front.  We did get a lot of useful data from the race, though and hope to use that information to make us better leading into VIR.”For more information on Ethan Low, please visit his website at www.ethanlowracing.com.  You can also follow Ethan on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube by looking for Ethan Low Racing.  For interviews, please contact Ethan’s manager, Troy Hansen at 319-551-7307.