Monday, February 27, 2017 – Fresno, CA – The PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports team completed a successful two-day test at Sebring International Raceway late last week. Although the team still struggled early on with some mechanical issues, and had to replace the engine from the Rolex 24 overnight on Thursday, they were still able to make great progress on Friday in preparation for the 12 Hours of Sebring.
“I am very pleased with the progress we made with our Ligier JS P217 during the test at Sebring. Olivier Pla from Onroak was here to help us better understand the car and work through some of the issues we were having at the Rolex 24,” explained driver José Gutierrez.
“The entire PR1 crew did a fantastic job with the car and making adjustments throughout the week. We worked a lot on the suspension and making the car more aerodynamically efficient. We finished P4 on Thursday and P5 on Friday, so I feel very positive for the race.”
Onroak test and development driver Olivier Pla completed several laps behind the wheel of the #52 P2 machine during the two-day test.
“The was the first time for me with the PR1 team. The main objective from this test was to see how the car behaves at Sebring,” said Pla.
“We had a very productive test and we learned a lot of things about what the car likes and what it needs for this particular circuit, which is the most important thing for the team going forward for the 12 Hours.”
Tequila Patron Endurance Cup driver Mike Guasch was also able to take part of the two-day test and accrue valuable time behind the wheel of the Ligier.
“The test started out a bit tough for us. We had some electrical gremlins and some other small issues that hindered our progress, but we were able to get those sorted during the Thursday morning session, and then we were able to make improvements to the car in the afternoon,” stated Guasch.
“We replaced the motor overnight, because that was the motor we ran at the 24 Hours. The guys were here till 3:30 in the morning, but they did an incredible job to get the new motor in and get us going the next morning. With a new motor comes its own set of bugs, but again, we were able to work through all of that in the morning session, and started making positive gains during the afternoon. We finished the day strong, and I think we’re going to be ready to go for the race in two weeks.”
The 12 Hours of Sebring Presented by Fresh from Florida kicks off March 15-18. Stay tuned to for pre race news and updates and to find out when and on what channels you can watch the race LIVE! Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for all of the team and driver updates.