ROCK HILL, S.C. (Aug. 5, 2021) – It’s been more than four weeks since the No. 54 Composite Resources / CrowdStrike Ligier JS P320 was on track, but that dry spell ends this week when the team heads to Road America for the latest round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
After a pair of podium finishes at Watkins Glen International, CORE hopes to continue the trend at the 4.048-mile track in Wisconsin. Road America has historically been a strong circuit for CORE, including 2018’s overall victory, when Jon Bennett and Colin Braun bested the all-pro lineups and factory teams in their ORECA 07 LM P2. No wonder it’s one of Jon Bennett and Colin Braun’s favorite tracks.
Road America is the Round Six of Eight on the LMP3 schedule. It will be the standard race format of two hours and 40 minutes.
Noteworthy
- CORE has earned six podiums at Road America, including two wins (2012 and 2018), one of which was an overall win (2018)
- Bennett and Braun are second in the LMP3 drivers’ championship, 96 points behind the leader
- Road America is where Bennett competed in his first professional IMSA race in 2010 with the Prototype Lites series
- Braun is back from Belgium where he finished sixth in class at the 24 Hours Spa with CrowdStrike Racing
Jon Bennett
Driver: No. 54 Composite Resources / CrowdStrike Ligier LM P320
“Road America is one of my favorite racetracks and the circuit holds many great memories, from my first ever IMSA race in an IMSA Lites car in 2010 to our dramatic overall win in 2018.
“As a driver, the long track length adds to the circuit’s charm. However, when it comes to setup and testing, the long lap time reduces the lap count whenever time is limited.
“We have tested our Ligier LMP3 at Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio. In the past, we have seen good correlation between Watkins Glen and Road America. I’m confident we will fine tune the setup and be competitive quickly at Road America.”
Colin Braun
Driver: No. 54 Composite Resources / CrowdStrike Ligier LM P320
“I’m really looking forward to Road America in the LMP3 car. Anytime you get to drive at Road America in a prototype car is a good day; it’s got such a good rhythm and flow. It’s got a good mix of corners from the super-fast, high-speed stuff to the slow, hairpin-style corners.
“We had great results in Watkins Glen and I feel like we’ve been able to take those setups and results and refine on them and take them to Road America. It’s nice coming off a good result from the events prior. For us, our typical deal at CORE is to try to improve and refine. We did exactly that after Watkins Glen.
“I know Road America is one of Jon’s favorite tracks. It’s one of my favorite tracks. We’re back to the conventional format of all the classes grouped back in, that will make it exciting. Road America is a great track for all the IMSA classes to be on at the same time. It seems you can make those passes and the faster class cars can pass a bit easier than other places, so it tends to be a good flow and rhythm race. The last couple years there haven’t been a ton of yellows, but we haven’t had this many classes together either. It’s going to be an exciting one from a fan standpoint and from a strategy standpoint.”