Though this weekend’s Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) race at Road Atlanta may be part of the Grand-Am package’s historic first visit to the track for CJ Wilson Racing the trip to Braselton will be a return to a site of past victories.
Both drivers of the team’s #5 Mazda MX-5 have previously won at the track with Stevan McAleer having ended his championship winning 2012 season in the MX-5 Cup with a four-wide pass for victory at the 2.54 mile track.
“It was a huge accomplishment by the team last year,” said the Glasgow born McAleer, “to win the first Championship for CJ Wilson Racing was especially memorable for me as CJ was there to watch me seal the deal. Our Continental Tire Series team will have its work cut out as some of the other manufacturers have a significant horse power advantage over our ST class MX-5s. The fast back straight could feel very long indeed.”
“It might be tough to fight for track position given the long back straightaway,” echoed McAleer’s co-driver Marc Miller, who has also won at the track, “but with good strategy I believe we will be fighting for a podium result.”
The team will be aiming to add to their haul of Street Tuner (ST) class podiums this weekend. After taking a 1-2 result for Austin – with McAleer and Miller scoring the victory – teammates Jason Saini and Chad McCumbee finished third at Barber Motorsports Park in the series’ most recent event.
McCumbee is the only quarter of the driving line-up not to have driven at Road Atlanta before, though the South Carolina driver claims this weekend as his home race in the CTSCC season. Saini meanwhile echoes the optimistic, but realistic, outlook of Miller and McAleer.
“Despite that fact that Road Atlanta might not be our best chance to do well this year, you never know what will happen until we all get on track and qualifying rolls around,” he said. “In the meantime, we’re just looking forward to a trouble free weekend to keep our noses in the championship fight for ModSpace, Mazda, Head and Shoulders for Men and all our great partners.”
That qualifying session is scheduled to take place at 3pm local time (8pm UK) on Friday, with the 150 minute race due to start at 11:30am local time the following day.
