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GRAND-AM
GRAND-AM: Fittipaldi Signs With Action Express For 2013
“I’m back in the game,” says Christian Fittipaldi, after signing with Action Express for full 2013 Rolex campaign...
Christian Fittipaldi has signed for Action Express for 2013. (Photo: LAT)
There were hundreds of interested and involved attendees at the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Banquet on Monday evening celebrating a successful 2012 season, but there was one guest on hand who was really only thinking about 2013 and beyond.
SPEED.com can report that former open wheel racer and two-time Rolex Sports Car Series race winner Christian Fittipaldi has signed with Action Express for the full 2013 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car season campaign.
Fittipaldi won the 2004 Rolex 24 At Daytona, and has made at least one Rolex Series start every year since, including his two full-time campaigns in 2006 and 2007. Most recently, Fittipaldi finished fifth in the 2012 Rolex 24 At Daytona with Action Express, and it was that working relationship that led to the Biscayne Bay-based Brazilian being brought into the conversation for 2013.
“I know a lot of the guys who work with the team and have for many, many years, and a lot of the guys I’ve also worked with in other series, so it’s very natural for me to be joining them full time,” said Fittipaldi. “I ran GRAND-AM on and off for a couple of years and have done Daytona six or seven times, so it was a natural thing for this opportunity to come together. They called me and we put something together and so now its, ‘lets go racing!”
The full-time call-up not only sees the former open-wheeler reunited with a group that he is familiar with, but he is also opening up another chapter in his relationship with what was originally the Coyote chassis.
Those mechanical underpinnings, which received extensive development and upgrading ahead of the 2012 DPG3 rules implementations, served as the developmental backbone of the Corvette chassis that Fittipaldi will campaign starting at Daytona in 2013.
“I remember working with the Coyote and going to Mexico City with the car and we saw the potential there,” said Fittipaldi, who came within just inches of bringing the car a maiden victory at Montreal in 2008. “Ian Watt told me last year--this is an entirely different Coyote-a different beast so we are starting fresh”
When asked if the sports car merger was a motivation for his return, Fittipaldi jumps in with an eager “Absolutely!” before the question is even finished.
“There is no doubt about it,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the same result that everyone else is--that sports car racing gets bigger and bigger and that it generates a lot more opportunities for drivers, teams, sponsors, and manufacturers. Right now is an important period of time, very critical to be back in the game again. With this opportunity, I’m back in the game --so lets get going!”
Since bringing in Elton Sawyer as Director of Team Operations under canny Team Manager Gary Nelson and shaking up the driver roster, Action Express has marked itself as a team on the brink of breakthrough, closing the year out fourth and sixth in the GRAND AM Team Championship standings.
“People are impressed with this team, and I think that this group has everything--all the right ingredients-to be very successful,” offered Fittipaldi. “It will just be a question of time for everything to click. We don’t know when that will happen or how long it will take, but we will try our very best. At some point--it will click. Hopefully we can put the package together and be competitive right from the start next year.
Action Express has not confirmed its full driver line up for the 2013 season, but it is expected that the two-car Corvette organization will have a significantly different look next year. The team won two races with the No. 9 machine, which finished sixth in the Team Championship standings.
With experience at Skip Barber Racing School, Lime Rock Park, and several IndyCar teams, Matt Cleary has covered open wheel and sports car racing for over a decade. Working for Sunday Group Management, Cleary also provides strategic motorsports consulting for a range of clients in the sport. You can follow him on Twitter @sundaygroup
SPEED.com can report that former open wheel racer and two-time Rolex Sports Car Series race winner Christian Fittipaldi has signed with Action Express for the full 2013 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car season campaign.
Fittipaldi won the 2004 Rolex 24 At Daytona, and has made at least one Rolex Series start every year since, including his two full-time campaigns in 2006 and 2007. Most recently, Fittipaldi finished fifth in the 2012 Rolex 24 At Daytona with Action Express, and it was that working relationship that led to the Biscayne Bay-based Brazilian being brought into the conversation for 2013.
“I know a lot of the guys who work with the team and have for many, many years, and a lot of the guys I’ve also worked with in other series, so it’s very natural for me to be joining them full time,” said Fittipaldi. “I ran GRAND-AM on and off for a couple of years and have done Daytona six or seven times, so it was a natural thing for this opportunity to come together. They called me and we put something together and so now its, ‘lets go racing!”
The full-time call-up not only sees the former open-wheeler reunited with a group that he is familiar with, but he is also opening up another chapter in his relationship with what was originally the Coyote chassis.
Those mechanical underpinnings, which received extensive development and upgrading ahead of the 2012 DPG3 rules implementations, served as the developmental backbone of the Corvette chassis that Fittipaldi will campaign starting at Daytona in 2013.
“I remember working with the Coyote and going to Mexico City with the car and we saw the potential there,” said Fittipaldi, who came within just inches of bringing the car a maiden victory at Montreal in 2008. “Ian Watt told me last year--this is an entirely different Coyote-a different beast so we are starting fresh”
When asked if the sports car merger was a motivation for his return, Fittipaldi jumps in with an eager “Absolutely!” before the question is even finished.
“There is no doubt about it,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the same result that everyone else is--that sports car racing gets bigger and bigger and that it generates a lot more opportunities for drivers, teams, sponsors, and manufacturers. Right now is an important period of time, very critical to be back in the game again. With this opportunity, I’m back in the game --so lets get going!”
Since bringing in Elton Sawyer as Director of Team Operations under canny Team Manager Gary Nelson and shaking up the driver roster, Action Express has marked itself as a team on the brink of breakthrough, closing the year out fourth and sixth in the GRAND AM Team Championship standings.
“People are impressed with this team, and I think that this group has everything--all the right ingredients-to be very successful,” offered Fittipaldi. “It will just be a question of time for everything to click. We don’t know when that will happen or how long it will take, but we will try our very best. At some point--it will click. Hopefully we can put the package together and be competitive right from the start next year.
Action Express has not confirmed its full driver line up for the 2013 season, but it is expected that the two-car Corvette organization will have a significantly different look next year. The team won two races with the No. 9 machine, which finished sixth in the Team Championship standings.
With experience at Skip Barber Racing School, Lime Rock Park, and several IndyCar teams, Matt Cleary has covered open wheel and sports car racing for over a decade. Working for Sunday Group Management, Cleary also provides strategic motorsports consulting for a range of clients in the sport. You can follow him on Twitter @sundaygroup
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