ROCK HILL, S.C. (July 31, 2018) – CORE autosport arrives at Road America with a swell of confidence as the most recent winner in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Jon Bennett and Colin Braun hope to continue their hot streak in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, after their win in Canada and runner-up finish at Watkins Glen.
Road America’s 4.048-mile track is similar to that of The Glen and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, with a mix of fast and slow corners, but with extra long straightaways that will push the ORECA 07 LM P2’s Gibson engine to its limits. Bennett and Braun had a chance to test at Road America shortly after their win in Canada.
Beginning at Road America, the team welcomes a new partner: Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence. Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence develops technologies that enable industrial manufacturers to improve output quality, process efficiency and production speed.
Noteworthy
- Jon Bennett and Colin Braun are currently fourth in the Prototype Championship, 15 points out of the lead.
- Bennett is second in the Trueman Award point standings, two points out of first.
- Bennett and Braun have not won at Road America, but have earned three podiums in the Prototype Challenge class.
- Braun’s parents are from the Milwaukee area. Father and race engineer Jeff Braun is a Milwaukee School of Engineering graduate.
JON BENNETT
Driver: No. 54 ORECA 07 LM P2
“Our ORECA 07 was new to us just seven races ago. We continue to learn as a team how to improve performance with each session. Our positive results at Watkins Glen and Mosport give us confidence we are moving in the right direction.
“We will certainly repeat our approach to executing the event as we did at CTMP. We control our approach to a successful finish, but the race result relies on many factors – some outside our control.
“We had a reasonable test at Road America. In typical fashion, our testing will point us in a good direction as we unload for the event. The ORECA performed great at one of my favorite tracks of the season.”
COLIN BRAUN
Driver: ORECA 07 LM P2“It’s still business as usual at CORE autosport. We’ve had a great couple of races, but we haven’t changed our approach. We’re following our normal processes. We had a great test at Road America and that helped us understand what we’re going to need for the race.
“We were rain shortened on the first day of our test, but we got a full second day in. Jon turned lots of laps. We ran through a bunch of setup changes and answered some big questions we had. It was really productive. The ORECA is still new to us, so it’s a big help to be able to test.
“We had a really good car right away at Mosport. You don’t have weekends like that too often, where you’re totally happy with the car right away. I’m going to assume that Road America won’t be that way, but we have all the same pieces of the puzzle, so I don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to contend at the front.”