@IMSA • @RoadAtlanta • @Kuno Wittmer • @theracersgroup • Montréal (Québec), October 4, 2015.– This weekend, Montreal driver Kuno Wittmer participated in the “Petit Le Mans”, on the Road Atlanta track in Georgia. Considered as one of the three biggest motorsports Endurance events in North America, this race was pummeled by incessant rain and flooding at the track, forcing organizers to halt the event ahead of schedule.
This situation ended up eliminating any chance of victory for Kuno Wittmer and his team but by bringing the #007 Aston Martin to the finish line, it enabled his Danish teammate, Christina Nielsen, to capture the drivers’ runner-up title.
After having completed a successful preparatory test session two weeks ago for this eighteenth edition of the famous “Petit Le Mans”, Kuno Wittmer and the entire TRG-AMR North America team arrived to the Road Atlanta circuit with the hopes of winning the race in the GTD class.
Unfortunately, right from the start of the weekend, the weather conditions continued to deteriorate, as explained the Montreal driver, “it often happens in motorsports that one of the three event days is contested under rainy conditions. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen it happen that it’s all three,” he described. Kuno Wittmer specified, “my teammate Christina Nielsen qualified the car in eighth position on Friday and she has taken the start of the race.”
By the end of her stint, Christina Nielsen handed the wheel of the Aston Martin Vantage V12 over to Kuno Wittmer, who then jumped from ninth to second place.
“I pushed really hard to climb to the front of the pack, all the while paying attention not to compromise my teammate’s chances for the title by going off the track. The conditions were horrible; water being projected from the cars in front was making for zero visibility in some places. I like driving in the rain and I’ve often won in these conditions but I have to admit that it was pretty extreme throwing the car around at 160 miles per hour in these conditions,” explained Kuno.
To perform in these extremely demanding events, Kuno Wittmer receives help from Quebec nutritionist and trainer Jean-François Gaudreau, of JFG Fit Nutrition.
“For endurance racing , I work with Jean-François in order to have the maximum amount of energy and concentration in the car. Many people ignore this aspect but motorsports is a very physical sport. To be 100% concentrated on driving, you have to be 100% physically,” he specified.
The shift that Kuno Wittmer completed over more than two and a half hours was supposed to be his first of two in this race. Unfortunately, the rain doubled in intensity as evening fell and the organizers decided to stop the race after seven of its ten scheduled hours. At that time, American Brandon Davis, third driver for the TRG-AMR North America team, was entering the pits to hand the wheel back to Kuno.
“I already had my helmet on and was ready to take to the track but the organizers decided it was over,” shared the Quebec driver. “We were trapped by the situation, but honestly, I can’t blame them. They were right to stop the race, it was too dangerous to continue.”
“The whole track was starting to flood,” he added.
As a result, the Wittmer/Nielsen/Davis trio finished in ninth place, which gave Christina Nielsen the title of 2015 GTD Class Runner-Up for the IMSA United SportsCar series. Kuno Wittmer, who did not take part in the full season this year after being crowned GT Le Mans champion in 2014, was not eligible for the drivers title but he is nevertheless very satisfied to have helped the team in the second half of the season.
“I would’ve obviously wished for Christina to have been champion but finishing second in her first full season in Endurance is an excellent result. I am very happy to have contested these 2015 races with this team,” concluded Kuno Wittmer, who will be back on the North American tracks in 2016. More details on his programme for next season will be announced this fall.
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