7th place finish @ Daytona
Seventh Top-10 for Gué and Keen; No. 40 Share a Little Sunshine Mazda Knocked Out of Race
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 3, 2010) – A tough day for Dempsey Racing on the high-banked 3.56-mile road course at Daytona International Speedway saw James Gué and Leh Keen fight to a seventh-place finish in the No. 41 Team Seattle/Global Diving/Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8 GT while the No. 40 Share a Little Sunshine/Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8 GT was knocked out of the race by a Daytona Prototype (DP) while contending for a possible top-five finish in Saturday’s Brumos Porsche 250 At Daytona.
“Overall the car was pretty good,” said Gué, who joined co-driver Keen for their seventh consecutive top-10 finish. “We were one of the better Mazdas today but we are sort of racing in a different group of cars there with some of the others being faster right now. We got off to a good start there but kind of got shuffled a little bit near the end of the first stint. It is just kind of the nature of how things are going, the restarts and the tire wear you have late in a stint, with them going off a little bit. I didn’t hand the car off in as good a position as I usually do with Leh, but the car was strong. We had a solid run but this is a tough series.”
The No. 41 ran as low as 12th early in the race’s second hour but Keen managed to gain a few spots despite a late-race spin.
“We were pushing, and maybe pushing a little bit too hard and I kind of got tangled up with another GT car and had a spin,” Keen said. “That costs us some positions and little bit of time and I am bummed out about that and feel sorry for the guys. The car was actually pretty good there at the end and we were running a pretty good pace. It looks like the Porsches and the Turner BMW M6 are kind of in a different class, especially at this track. It kind of shines and you can see it easier. So we just ran our race, ran tough and ran as hard as we could and it all didn’t really go our way, or the way we wanted it too, but the car is still in one piece.”
Patrick Dempsey, who is wrapping up his latest filming commitments commented on his abscense and the progress being made by the team. “I had a great opportunity to do four races in a row at the start of the season and I am sure to be back for at least a couple more before the season is out,” Dempsey said. “In the meantime, I am very pleased with the progress of the team and the speed that both of our cars are showing. The No. 41 Team Seattle/Global Diving Mazda, as one of the new-spec RX-8 GT chassis, has shown its speed and I am sure Leh and James will win a race at some point when the breaks fall their way. Joe and Charles also continue to impress in the older No. 40 car as we work hard on the sponsorship partnerships we need to get that car updated or replaced. Overall, the team is moving in a great direction toward the front and I look forward to getting back in the No. 40 as soon as possible!”
Next up for Dempsey Racing/Team Seattle and the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series is the New Jersey Motorsports Park 250 presented by Crown Royal on NJMP’s Thunderbolt Raceway, July 16 – 18. The race can be seen live on SPEED, Sunday, July 18 at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.
If you’ve not done so already, be sure to keep up to date with Team Seattle via Facebook and Twitter where you’ll often find more recent and up to date information on the team throughout the season.
