(March 30, 2010) — Miller Barrett Racing will not compete in the next GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 race, scheduled for April 10 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala. The team has withdrawn its entry of the No. 48 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car driven by Luke Hines of Essex, England, and Bryce Miller of Summit, N.J.
The Rolex Series GT class features competition among unibody production cars like the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (designated as Prep 1) and modified production or tube-frame chassis like the BMW M6 and Mazda RX8 (Prep 2). Although series rules attempt to equalize the different manufacturers’ cars, the Porsche has been uncompetitive against the new Prep 2 cars – the highest-finishing Porsche was three laps behind the class-winning Mazda in the last series race. GRAND-AM announced incremental rule changes to balance the field, but the Miller Barrett Racing team owners do not believe the changes will be sufficient to achieve parity.
“We have thoroughly analyzed the impact of the rules changes,” team owner Paul Miller said. “We appreciate the steps GRAND-AM has taken toward making us competitive, but we don’t believe the new rules will allow the Porsche GT3 Cup to compete on equal footing with the new Prep 2 cars in the GT class. We owe it to our partners and sponsors to field a competitive car. We understand that other rule adjustments are under consideration, and we respectfully await those decisions.”
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.
