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THE LEATHER CENTER GRAND
PRIX OF TEXAS
Sunday March 4, 2001 - PIT NOTES: Page 7
John Brzustowicz, Team Principle (GTS #44 & #45 American Viperacing,
Dodge Viper GTS-R) Note: Team name is American Viperacing (two words
with one "r" in Viperacing)
About the American Viperacing program: "The original team, Viper
Speed Racing, was formed back in 1998 when Neil Hanneman, who was the
former Viper GTS-R program manager, created it with driver Bobby Archer
and owner Ben Madey. The team successfully ran two Vipers in
Speedvision World Challenge against Corvettes, Porsches and NSXs. In
1998 we had podium finishes and the team won Crew of the Year honors.
The following season, we won the Driver's Championship with Bobby
Archer."
"Now that we have the sprint format down, we wanted to move on to
something more challenging, such as endurance racing. Now we're back as
American Viperacing, a team comprised of DaimlerChrysler engineers and
UAW mechanics. Even some of the crew are Dodge NASCAR team members.
We're an independent team with a passion for racing. That's why we're
here. The unpaid volunteers are highly skilled and valuable. Several of
our team members are members of the factory development GTS-R
effort."
"The cars that we're currently running were built by Team Oreca in
2000, and only ran a limited schedule. Our team has completely rebuilt
the cars. The #45 car is C-32 and the #44 car is C-33. The C-32 is the
car that raced at the 2000 Petit Le Mans. C-33 didn't run in the race.
They both have very little time on them."
About the team: "Our team is about enthusiasm for the Viper GTS-R.
That's why the guys come out here, why they spend weekends and
all-nighters working on the cars. Just for the love of it. That's what's
so great about the guys. American Viperacing as a team name truly
describes us. Viperacing to us is a word in itself. It's what we do.
We're out here racing Vipers. It wouldn't be the same if we were racing
something else. It really means a lot to us. The GTS-R belongs on a
racetrack, not in a museum."
"Several of the engineers on this program were paid by
Daimler-Chrysler to go to the track in support of Oreca. Now they are
doing it simply because they want to. Our team is based out of
Detroit. We have a great race shop around the corner from
DaimlerChrysler World Headquarters in Auburn Hills."
About this weekend: "We expect to finish. We recognize the fact
that you can't expect to move up to the American Le Mans Series and
expect to be on the podium, winning a race. The Corvettes are really
strong. We're not out here to beat the Corvettes. We're out here to make
a strong showing and let people know that the Viper GTS-R is a great car
and you can go racing with them. A victory for us will be having both
cars finish."
"It will take some time to grow this program. We just took delivery
of these cars three weeks ago. The first time we saw them was at a test
at Savannah. We prepped the cars properly at the track and fixed them to
make sure the cars were solid. They didn't have any problems, either
day. We took them to our shop, stripped them down and fixed a few minor
items. We put them back together and brought them here. The only problem
so far was a faulty fuel pump in qualifying, which still didn't prevent
a strong qualifying position. That speaks volumes about the competency
of our group." |
