ELKHART LAKE, WI — With much discussion regarding the current state of the balance of performance in the Street Tuner class bubbling through the paddock over the course of the 2014 season, the series’ leading front-wheel-drive team is bringing everything it can to win by adding more all-star firepower to its driving line-up for the upcoming round at Road America.
Katherine Legge, who currently pilots the innovative DeltaWing in IMSA’s top Prototype class, will join team regular James Vance in the squad’s #74 ExpoSystems / Honda Performance Development Street-Tuner Civic Si. She’s subbing in for team driver Jon Miller, who has been tapped to drive one of Rebel Rock’s ST-class Porsche Caymans.
“There’s been a lot of talk over the year as to how strong the Caymans have been, especially compared to the normal front-wheel-drive Street Tuner stalwarts,” remarked Team Principal Karl Thomson. “The guys at Rebel Rock had an open seat, and since we’re all interested in just how good those cars are, it seemed like a good idea to have Jon go and see for himself.”
When it came time to find a replacement shoe, the team worked with long-time partners at Honda Performance Development. “We wanted to have a Platinum-rated driver behind the wheel of a Honda to demonstrate to the series that our teams are working at the absolute top level of performance that the Civics can give,” continued Thomson. “This means that we’ll have a Platinum driver (Legge) and two Golds (C360R’s Ryan Eversley and HART pilot Michael Valiente). If they can’t beat a collection of guys that haven’t even been rated as Bronze, we’ll contend that the series needs to continue to work on the balance of performance, especially for the front-wheel-drive cars.”
“I’m tremendously excited to have the opportunity to drive with Katherine,” enthused Vance. “She’s got such varied experience, in everything from Indycar to DTM. It’s great for a driver like me who’s working hard to get into the pro driver ranks to have a chance to work with her and see how she approaches a race in an unfamiliar car.”
Vance and Legge join team regulars Kyle Gimple and Eversley in the #75 Children’s Tumor Foundation / HPD / Racing4Research.org Honda, who are looking to get back into the winner’s circle after a strong victory earlier this year at Watkins Glen. Ray Mason and Pierre Kleinubing will once again drive together in the team’s GS-class #76 Children’s Tumor Foundation / Touge Tuning / Racing4Research.org Subaru WRX STi, hoping to build on the increasingly strong performance of the car that finished second at Lime Rock and ran as high as second-place at the last event, Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“It’s great to have such a really strong driver line-up in each of our cars for Road America,” said Technical Director Ray Lee. “The track should really suit the Hondas, and we feel all of the cars have a shot at the podium. But we’ll have to wait until the race to find out.”
The CTSCC Road America event gets underway on Thursday morning, with the 2.5-hour race scheduled for Saturday at Noon. Streaming video and live timing will be available at http://IMSA.com, and will be aired tape-delayed on Fox Sports 1. Details are available at http://www.imsa.com/races/kansas-speedway-0?invalidate-cache=1397756652
About ExpoSystems: With operations across North America, ExpoSystems is one of the largest modular tradeshow display manufacturers in the industry. With more than 40 years of experience, ExpoSystems offers a complete range of tradeshow displays solutions and services. For details please visit http://www.exposystems.com, and Follow https://twitter.com/Exposystms on Twitter.
About Compass360 Racing: Compass360 Racing (C360R) is the motorsports division of Compass360 Brand Architects, a Toronto-based firm offering marketing expertise to clients in diverse industries across North America. The team, with support from Honda Performance Development (HPD), fields front-running Honda Civic Si’s in IMSA’s Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, winning series Championships in 2010, 2009, 2007, and 2006. C360R also won Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car Championships in 2013, 2012, and 2011, and the Canadian Touring Car Championship in 2010. It adds a two-car Subaru WRX STi effort to its programs for 2014, one each in CTSCC GS-class and PWC GTS-class. For details please visit http://C360R.com, “Like” on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/C360R, and follow on Twitter https://twitter.com/C360R.
ExpoSystems PR inquiries should be directed James Vance. +1 (647) 881-1658 or james@jamesvanceracing.com
C360R PR inquiries should be directed to Karl Thomson. +1.416.465.2299 x21 or karl@compass360.com.
From: Compass 360 Racing
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