Balzan and Nielsen Take Championship Lead to Challenging Lime Rock

Scuderia Corsa and drivers Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan will be in full attack at this weekend’s race at Lime Rock Park to continue maintaining a healthy lead in the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s GT-Daytona class.

Located in Lakeville, Connecticut, the 1.5-mile Lime Rock Park presents a unique challenge for the drivers as well as the cars in the IMSA championship. Despite the relatively short length of the lap, the circuit serves up numerous challenging corners with minimal opportunities to pass: with three classes on track this weekend – Prototype, GT-LeMans and GT-Daytona – traffic will prove to be a key factor not only to avoid contact but to utilize it to gain positions.

“Lime Rock will be a challenge,” said Nielsen. “It’s always a very warm event so it’s going to be about maintaining tires and finding a good setup for a slick track. Lime Rock is tough both physically and mentally because it is so short that you have to do a lot of laps. For drivers, that seems worse than doing the same amount of time on a longer track. There’s no long straights at Lime Rock so you don’t have time to relax. There’s also a number of technical corners, and I’m looking forward to going back there with the Ferrari 488 GTE and seeing what we can do with it!”

With six eleven races in the 2016 IMSA GT-Daytona season completed, Nielsen and Balzan have extended a 22 point lead in the championship. Ferrari’s new racer, the 488 GT3, is expected to perform well at Lime Rock Park which was the track where Scuderia Corsa claimed its first professional racing championship in 2013 when Balzan won the GRAND-AM GT class championship.

“The team and drivers have done an incredible job to date in the championship,” said Giacomo Mattioli, Scuderia Corsa team Owner. “We’ve experienced success and have happy memories at Lime Rock. Would be amazing toast a podium with our sponsor, Zonin, which will be Lime Rock Prosecco partner at the Northeast Grand Prix this weekend!”

The IMSA Northeast Grand Prix will be shown live on Saturday, July 23 at 3:00 PM ET on FOX. Qualifying will be streamed live on Friday, July 22 at 4:25 PM ET.