(March 2, 2010) — Miller Barrett Racing will take advantage of its 2009 test program this week, returning to Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla., for a race in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16. Luke Hines of Essex, England, and Bryce Miller of Summit, N.J., will drive the No. 48 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, carrying the colors of team sponsors Marquis Jet, Grand Prix Racewear, IPC Systems and TOTAL Petroleum.
The young team wrapped up a four-race test program in Homestead last October, giving the crew valuable data for the 2010 race. Miller was just six minutes from a fifth-place GT finish last year when a spinning Daytona Prototype car took him out of the race. Despite the frustrating finish, Miller believes the data acquired during the strong run, together with cooler conditions expected for this week’s race, will give the team a good start on car setup.
“I am looking forward to Homestead,” he said. “It was part of the new team’s four-race launch in 2009 so we have data that will help us to roll out a good baseline setup. Also, the setup we had in ’09 was aggressive and we struggled with some tire wear issues, but with conditions being cooler this year, we should have a good starting point to work from.”
Hines is a rookie on the 2.3-mile Homestead infield road course, so he will use every opportunity to learn the track.
“Obviously, I know the car but I am going into the race blind, not knowing the track itself. All different tracks require different approaches. It’s going to be crucial for me to be there, walk ’round the track, study the track, working with Bryce closely on data,” Hines said.
“I’m confident in the car. The team has done a lot of work in the last few weeks since Daytona and I believe they’ve found time in the car. We’ll see when we get there how we are compared to the Mazda and the Camaro. Hopefully, we’ll be faster! We’ve got the car as fast as we can go so far, but we’re working on a few little enhancements to find more time again.”
details
The 2.75-hour GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series race is scheduled for Saturday, March 6, from 5 pm to 7:45 pm ET on the 2.3-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway infield road course in Homestead, Fla. The race will be telecast live on SPEED at 5 pm ET. Live timing/scoring will be available at grand-am.com.
partners
Miller Barrett Racing competes with the support of four international sponsors. Marquis Jet is the recognized leader in private jet cards because it’s the only program that offers exclusive access to NetJets – the gold standard in private aviation – 25 hours at a time. Grand Prix Racewear is a respected supplier of motorsport protective clothing and driver accessories, based at Silverstone Circuit in England. The company offers worldwide delivery of 15,000 product lines. IPC Information Systems is a leading provider of mission-critical communications solutions to financial services firms. TOTAL Lubricants is the world’s fourth-largest publicly traded integrated international oil and gas company.
