Lone Star Racing Takes Viper Back to Home Turf at COTA

Coming off back-to-back top-10 finishes in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition, Lone Star Racing is excited to be competing on its home turf once again. The team returns for the upcoming Lone Star Le Mans at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas on Saturday, Sept. 17 (live, FS2, 12:30 p.m. ET).

Dan Knox of Pilot Point (near Dallas), Texas will join Mike Skeen in the No. 80 ACS Manufacturing Dodge Viper GT3-R for the Dallas-based team.

“We’re excited to be racing in Austin,” said Knox, president of ACS Manufacturing, Inc. “It’s good to be racing at our home track in our home state, and a lot of people will be there to support us. My family will be there, and I will have a lot of customers as well.”

The team made its WeatherTech Championship debut at Circuit of The Americas in 2015, with Knox and Marc Goossens finishing seventh in the GT Daytona (GTD) class in the team’s lone IMSA outing of the season. That race was won by a fellow Texan, Tomball‘s Ben Keating, racing  with Jeroen Bleekemolen for the second straight year in the Houston-based Viper Exchange Dodge Viper GT3-R. Riley Technologies built both cars.

Lone Star’s first WeatherTech Championship appearance of 2016 was at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in May, where Knox and Skeen placed 14th. They’ve also run the past two events, finishing 10th at Road America and ninth at VIRginia International Raceway.

Now, the team is looking to build on that momentum at Circuit of The Americas.

“Texas does everything big, and we have one of the most beautiful and nicest facilities in the country,” Knox said. “It’s fairly low grip, so it’s a tough track to drive. It’s a very technical track, but it’s nice and wide with a lot of passing areas. It’s a fun course.”

The Circuit also poses challenges for car setup.

“From the engineering side, it’s pretty tough, because you not only have the really tight sections of the track, but you also have the very fast sections,” said team manager A.J. Peterson. “So you have to pick and choose your downforce levels, and the car stiffness to support it off the ground. But it’s fun; it’s also fun being around friends and family and we can show them what we do.”

Peterson worked with Knox at the club level in the past when they formed Lone Star Racing in 2014. They raced the Viper in World Challenge in 2014, moving up to IMSA competition last year. The team does much of its testing at its base at the MotorSport Ranch in Cresson, Texas (south of Fort Worth), although it also tested at COTA early last year.

Skeen, whose varied resume includes racing in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, Grand-Am Rolex Series, World Challenge and Trans-Am, looks forward to racing the Viper at Austin.  

“The Viper is very good,” Skeen said. “It’s a seasoned car, a lot of development has gone into it and we can’t develop it much further. It’s been good having back-to-back races, it allows us to stay fresh with the whole crew. I’m looking forward to returning to COTA – it’s a fun track, and Austin is a great city to visit.”