Podium Finish at Miami / Homestead

Team Seattle driver’s James Gue and Leh Keen brought the Dempsey Racing/Team Seattle/JG Sport Mazda RX8 (Car No.41) home in 3rd place at the Grand Prix of Miami.

The 2 hour and 45min race saw Gue run a double stint in the car after qualifying in 7th place on Friday. He ran a fast and consistent race getting the car as high as 6th before handing over to Keen for the remaining segment of the race. Surprisingly, the race ran caution free for the first 2 or so hours, a stark contrast from the previous running at Miami where cautions hit double figures, but with just under 30mins to go the first ‘full course yellow’ caution came. This gave Keen the opportunity to fight for the podium and with only a few laps of the race remaining he passed the No.70 SpeedSource Mazda to take the 3rd and final place on the podium.

“I knew the time was counting down pretty fast,” said Keen, who is the reigning Rolex Series GT Champion.  “We really caught a break with a late caution, that really jumbled things up and we were able to run down the front guys up there. We got through traffic pretty good, and it was a little hectic, but I was able to pass the No. 70 Mazda with two laps to go.  I actually wanted the race to keep going because I wanted to try to catch second-place too.  It was a great result for Team Seattle.”

“I am absolutely thrilled with the podium,” Gué said. “We fully expected that the first third of the year would be sort of working out problems and we thought we would be in this sort of position a little bit later in the year.  So it is a little bit of surprise to be on the podium but we know all of the ingredients are here.  Everything just came together a little sooner than we anticipated and I am just thrilled for John and Jeri Graham of JG Sport and Team Seattle.  It is great to do this with Dempsey Racing and with such a good teammate like Leh.”

To read the entire Dempsey Racing press release and to see photographs from the event, visit Team Seattle’s Facebook page.