After a 10-year absence, Alex Job Racing is returning Daytona for the 50th Anniversary Rolex 24 at Daytona with a pair of Porsche GT3 Cup cars.
AJR, which won its class in 1999, has lined up two teams of highly experienced endurance drivers for its two entries.
The Florida-based team has entered the No. 23 WeatherTech/Battery Tender/AJR Porsche for drivers Cooper MacNeil, Butch Leitzinger, Emmanuel Collard, and Porsche factory driver Marco Holzer.
The No. 24 McKenna Porsche/Battery Tender/AJR Porsche will be piloted by Michael Avenatti, Bob Faieta, Bill Sweedler, Fred Poordad, and 2003 GT champion and 1999 Rolex 24 Hour GT3 class winner Cort Wagner. The No. 24 car will run in cooperation with Competition Motorsports of Southern California, Michael Avenatti’s regular racing team.
AJR has to modify its ALMS-spec GTC cars to Grand Am’s GT regulations; the rebuilt No. 23 car worked well at the Dec. 6–7 tests at Daytona International Speedway. The team will have to take what it learned back to the garage to alter the No. 24 car in time for the next round of tests in January.
“Our goal was to confirm our work on the transformation of our Porsche GT3 Cup car to the Grand-Am specifications, and we accomplished that goal,” Job said in a press release. “Cooper [MacNeil] and Butch [Leitzinger] gave great feedback to the team, and we were able to get a good baseline setup that we can transfer to the No. 24 car when we come back for the test in early January.”
“The WeatherTech/AJR Porsche was great on both test days,” MacNeil said on the AJR website. “The transformation of the car to Grand-Am spec was huge. It was like driving a brand new car.
“Alex’s team put in a lot of work to get the car switched over to Grand-Am spec for the test, and the car ran great throughout the two days,” added Leitzinger.
“We improved each time that we went out, discovering what the Porsche liked. Fortunately, Alex’s group is so familiar with the Porsche and with Daytona, that they were able to zero in on a setup very quickly. Our goal for the test was to get a comfortable, quick setup on the car, and we achieved that. We can go into the holidays confident that we will be competitive for the race.”
Michael Avenatti of Competition Motorsports of Southern California, working with AJR, has an equally strong lineup. “With the experienced team that we have assembled and the approach we are taking, our expectations for the race are running very high,” Avenatti said. “There is no doubt that AJR and Competition Motorsports will have the No. 24 ready to run at the front. It will be on the drivers to make that happen.”
AJR will bring both its rebuilt cars to the Roar Before the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway on Jan. 6–8 for final testing.
The 50th Anniversary Grand Am Rolex 24 at Daytona starts at 3 p.m. on Jan. 28, 2012.
