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The Grid.co.uk the national & club motor racing website - est1998 |
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The Grid.co.uk the national & club motor racing website - est1998 |
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During the 2008 season, the Doran Racing team scored eleven top-10 finishes, including eight in a row. In 2009 after falling victim to an engine electrical failure in the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona, the duo of Gidley and Jaeger qualified the car in 9th and finished 5th In Round Two at Virginia International Raceway on April 26. In Round Three at New Jersey Motorsports Park, during a race-long downpour that made racing extremely difficult, the team qualified 10th and were headed for a podium finish until a late-race yellow flag failed to materialize despite several cars in the tire wall; the Doran / McDonald's car fishtailed across the finish line in 7th. And this latest result at Barber Motorsports Park confirms that the Doran Racing / McDonald's team is one of the Grand-Am series' front-runners.
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DORAN /McDONALD'S ADDS TO ITS LIST OF IMPRESSIVE 2009 RACE RESULTS WITH A SECOND-ROW QUALIFYING EFFORT AND TOP-8 FINISH AT BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK Adding to an already impressive list of race results during the 2009 season (including a 5th at VIR and 7th at New Jersey), the Doran Racing team and drivers Memo Gidley and Brad Jaeger teamed up to put the #77 McDonald's/South African Airways Doran/Dallara Ford car on the second row of the starting grid – and bring it home in 8th place -- at last weekend's Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. It was a result made all the more impressive by the fact that the team had not planned to compete in the event until additional sponsorship came through early on race week. A flurry of phone calls resulted in drivers and crew heading for the airport and the team scrambling to get the transporter loaded and on the road for the 500-mile trip from its home base in Lebanon, Ohio to the manicured jewel of a racetrack that is Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. Once at the track, the Doran team 'unloaded fast' with a car that was quick right from the start, setting the 5th-fastest lap in the first practice session, 3rd in the second session and 4th in the final session before qualifying at 1:00 pm on Saturday afternoon. In a reversal of the team's usual practice, Memo Gidley qualified the car and started the race, handed it over to co-driver Brad Jaeger for the middle stint, and then got back in the car to bring it home to the checkered. "The Doran team did a great job getting it all together in an incredibly short time and the car was great just as it rolled off the trailer," said Gidley. "We were right there with the championship leaders during qualifying and had a good shot a being on pole. As it was, we qualified just 2/10ths of a second off the pole time and lined up on the second row, our best start so far this season. I moved up to third almost immediately and set a fast race lap that stood until the closing stages of the race. We were running with the leaders until a miscue with Grand-Am during the first yellow pretty dropped us to the back of the field and left us playing catch-up for the rest of the race. Given the circumstances, I think the team did a brilliant job and we definitely had one of the fastest cars on the track." At the first yellow, a communications problem with track officials resulted in them opening the pits late and forcing Gidley to do an extra lap under yellow. That resulted in the #77 car dropping to the tail end of the field when the McDonald's car made their pit stop for fuel and a driver change. "It was both a happy and frustrating weekend for me," said Jaeger. "I was happy to get the call that we were going racing, but I just couldn't get a handle on the car's setup and that problem with the first pit stop really cost us a lot of time. We fell back to mid-pack by the time I got in, but I had a decent pace during my stint and was able to pull away from the Penske Racing car that was behind me, so I felt pretty good about that. Then we had some issues with the front tires just going completely off to the point where I could barely get the car to turn in and Kevin Doran immediately switched race strategies so Memo would have new tires for the finish of the race. The team did an excellent job throughout the weekend and I'm hopeful that we'll be back on track with the McDonald's car soon." By the time the final pit stop and driver change was completed, Gidley inherited a car that was two laps down on the leaders and set off on a mission to gain as much ground back as possible. In closing laps he made up twenty second, passing the race-leading #99 car to gain one lap back. After a final stop under yellow for fuel and tires, Gidley re-joined the battle in 10th, one lap down on the leaders. With fresh tires on the car, he was able to carve through the field up to 8th place before the checkered flag finally fell. "This was probably the best car we've had so far this season, and certainly the best car I've driven at this track," said Gidley. "We tuned the fourth fastest lap of the race and were faster than all the cars that ultimately finished on the podium. If not for that mix-up on the first stop, we could have been fighting for a podium or a win, but that's the way it is in racing that's this close and competitive; everything has to go exactly right. Hopefully we'll get another chance soon, because the Doran/McDonald's team is ready for a breakthrough."
DORAN/McDONALD'S TEAM JUST MISSES TOP-10 FINISH IN VERIZON FESTIVAL OF SPEED AT MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca May 18, 2009
The weekend began on a promising note, with a good setup that produced a 6th-fast time in the first practice session. With some tweaks in between and Gidley at the wheel for the second session, the #77 car sat atop the time sheets for most of the session. In the final ten minutes with other teams putting on new tires, the times dropped but the Doran Racing team was again the 6th-fastest car on the track. With temperatures heating up for qualifying, the team found the car developing an understeer condition and made several changes that helped, but did not cure, the problem. As a result, co-driver Brad Jaeger qualified the #77 Doran Racing / McDonald's Doran-Dallara Ford 11th on the grid. "In practice the track was a bit cooler and our setup was good and we were turning good times, but as soon as the track temp went up and got hot in qualifying we lost a lot of front grip," said Jaeger. "We tried to fix it for the race, we did some setup changes and it helped a little bit, but ultimately it wasn't enough and the understeer came back, which made it hard to pass cars and hard to turn a quick lap time. I was up to sixth at one point; when we came in for the driver change Memo went back out in 12th. We were hoping for a yellow there, but there was just an extremely long time of green laps, especially for Laguna Seca where there are usually a bit more yellows spread out through the whole race due to the gravel traps and cars getting stuck. It was the longest time I've run under green conditions at Laguna and that hurt us a bit in pit stop strategy. The race definitely didn't go as well as me, Memo and the entire Doran team were hoping it would, but we kept it on track, kept it in one piece and had a finish. We'll move on and look forward to the next race." Brad Jaeger is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio and recent graduate of Vanderbilt University where he was a member of their Formula SAE team. His racing resume includes karting, Sports 2000, Skip Barber, F2000, Star Mazda and the Indy Pro Series. This is his second season of competition in the Grand-Am Daytona prototype class. Memo Gidley, the very talented and widely respected American driver who was born in La Paz, Mexico, now makes his home in Novato, California. He has made a name for himself as one of the most committed drivers in the paddock, driving and winning in everything from karts to Indy Cars and stock cars to prototypes and has recently expanded his winning ways to jet skis. "We actually unloaded a pretty good car; it wasn't quite there in first practice but I was pretty happy with it," said Gidley. "We made a couple of key changes and the car really got going and we ended up sixth in the first practice. I was very optimistic at that point and so we made a couple more changes and were actually P1 for most of the second session. The race started off pretty well; Brad qualified 11th and we cycled up and down in the field a little bit because of pit stops, but ultimately, similar to the last race in New Jersey, we kind of missed the window of when we should have stopped and done a driver change. There were a couple of yellows in the first 45 minutes, but then there were essentially no yellows at all until right toward the end with about 15 laps to go. So unfortunately we had to make a green flag pit stop to change drivers and when I was exiting the pits, something went wrong with the gearbox and it wouldn't shift for about a lap and a half. Finally I figured out that by backing off the throttle and pulling super-light on the lever I was able to get it to at least shift and so we stayed out, but at that point, because we were so close to the tail end of the lead lap we went a lap down. It was disappointing for the whole team because the car felt so good in practice we were sure we'd be fighting for a place on the podium." During the 2008 season, the Doran Racing team scored eleven top-10 finishes, including eight in a row. In 2009 after falling victim to an engine electrical failure in the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Doran Racing / McDonald's team has shown its true colors as one of the Grand-Am series front-runners. In Round Two at Virginia International Raceway on April 26, the duo of Gidley and Jaeger qualified the car in 9th and finished 5th. In Round Three at New Jersey Motorsports Park, during a race-long downpour that made racing extremely difficult, the team qualified 10th and were headed for a podium finish until a late-race yellow flag failed to materialize despite several cars in the tire wall; the Doran / McDonald's car fishtailed across the finish line in 7th. Factoring in the results of the Verizon Festival of Speed at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Doran Racing is currently 8th in the team points championship and Gidley and Jaeger are tied for 8th in the driver's championship.
WET AND WILD -- ANOTHER TOP-7 FOR DORAN RACING IN THE NEW JERSEY RAIN AT THE VERIZON WIRELESS 250 The Doran Racing / McDonald's team battled through conditions more suited to jet skis than race cars and scored another top-7 finish at this weekend's Verizon Wireless 250, round 3 of the 2009 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. Brad Jaeger, co-driver of the #77 Doran Racing/ McDonald's/Doran-Dallara Ford, qualified the car 10th on the grid for the start of the 250-mile main event and drove several stints, running consistently with the leaders and as high as second in the early stages of the race. The team called him in for a pit stop and driver change when two cars spun into the tire barrier, but the expected yellow flag was never displayed and the #77 car dropped a lap down. Memo Gidley continued to battle his way back through the pack, finally finishing 7th after a long and difficult day. "I'm really happy with how the team stuck together and got through the weekend with a good finish and an undamaged car," said Jaeger. "We struggled with the setup in the dry, but when it started raining, we went a completely different direction with the springs, shocks and everything; and it was really good. Memo was fastest in the final wet practice session before the start of the race. The track conditions were both horrible and fun; it was pouring all the time and nobody could see anything, and you couldn’t even go full throttle on the straights because there was so much water on the track the tires would just spin. Kevin Doran called me in for a driver change when he saw the two cars into the tires but they never threw the yellow, so it cost us some time, but we still managed a good finish." Brad Jaeger is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio and recent graduate of Vanderbilt University where he was a member of their Formula SAE team. His racing resume includes karting, Sports 2000, Skip Barber, F2000, Star Mazda and the Indy Pro Series. He co-drove his first prototype race for the Doran team in the 2007 season finale at Miller Motorsport Park and was Gidley's full-time co-driver during the 2008 season.
"We were actually happy when the rain came because we had such a great
wet setup for the car that we were the fastest car on the track," said
Gidley. "Brad did a great job and was in the car for a long time while
the team was waiting for a yellow flag to put me in. Somehow those cars
that went into the tire barrier got going again and we lost a lap in the
pits, but that wasn't really a mistake, just one of those things. The
team ran a good, solid effort all weekend and brought it home under
conditions that saw a lot of damage to a lot of cars. We're in good
shape and I'm looking forward to the next race at my home track of
Laguna Seca in two weeks." In the midst of this epic struggle, Doran Racing and officials from the Grand-Am series still found time to provide the experience of a lifetime for a dozen members of the "The Bronx Flash Track Club," non-profit community organization that serves children ages 9-18 years old who are interested in running as a means to achieving a healthy and successful lifestyle. The adventure included a tour of the Grand-Am garages and the Doran Racing transporter, as well as a Q&A session with drivers Gidley and Jaeger. "I can't thank Grand-Am and Doran Racing enough for the time and effort they put forward to provide our kids with both a great adventure and a tremendous learning experience," said Bronx Flash Track Club founder Don Bellino. "They were talking about it all the way home and I have no doubt the lessons they learned and people they met will continue to be a positive influence on them in the future."
DORAN RACING SCORES TOP-5 FINISH IN BOSCH ENGINEERING 250 AT ROUND 2 OF GRAND-AM ROLEX SPORTS CAR SERIES AT VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
"The Doran Racing McDonald's team put in a lot of hard work this weekend and things went pretty good today," says Gidley. "We ran third quick in practice, which is always a good sign, especially since we havn't ran the car since Daytona, and Brad did a great job to qualify the car ninth on the grid for the start of the race. He ran in the thick of the field and the car was strong enough to overcome a drive-through penalty when we mistakenly entered pit lane while the pits were closed. We had a couple of other mistakes throughout the race but were still able to bring the McDonald's car home to a nice finish. It was also great to have Aderholt Racing, back on the car as an associate sponsor and cool that Steve Aderholt was at the track this weekend." Gidley, who co-drives the #77 Doran Racing/McDonald's/Doran-Dallara Ford, is a talented and widely respected American driver who was born in La Paz, Mexico and now makes his home in Novato, California. He has made a name for himself as one of the most committed drivers in the paddock, driving and winning in everything from karts to Indy Cars and stock cars to prototypes. 2009 will mark Gidley's fifth season in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series DP class, and his third season with Doran Racing. Brad Jaeger is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio and recent graduate of Vanderbilt University where he was a member of their Formula SAE team. His racing resume includes karting, Sports 2000, Skip Barber, F2000, Star Mazda and the Indy Pro Series. He co-drove his first prototype race for the Doran team in the 2007 season finale at Miller Motorsport Park and was Gidley's full-time co-driver during the 2008 season. "I'm definitely happy with the result, even if we did make a few mistakes they were small and we kept our heads down and recovered and came back to finish well," said Jaeger. "It was one of my best races in the Daytona Prototype class; I felt good behind the weel and could push the car comfortably and turn fast laps. I was able to run with the fast guys and hand it over to Memo on the lead lap. It was our fuel strategy that made the biggest diffference; we pitted early and were in conservation mode for most of the last stint and were in line for a podium finish if the race had gone green to the end. Unfortunately there was a final yellow and so everyone was good for fuel, so we just turned on the flat-out engine map at the end and passed several cars. I really want to thank Kevin Doran and the team for a great setup and a fast race car." The next event on the 2009 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series schedule is the Verizon Wireless 250 at New Jersey Motorsports Park, May 1 – 3. On-track activities begin Friday, May 1 with several practice sessions. The 15-minute Daytona Prototype qualifying session takes place 1:45 pm - 2:00 pm Saturday, May 2. The green flag for the start of the 250-mile / 2 3/4-hour Verizon Wireless 250 is scheduled to wave at 1:00 pm, Sunday, May 3. The race will be broadcast live on SPEED TV. "The big story last year was all the dust clouds that got kicked up every time a car dropped a wheel off the track; it was like driving blindly at top speed through a wall and hoping there were no stalled cars on the other side," said Jaeger. "Now that they've got sod down, it should be a fun event. I really enjoyed the track layout when we raced there last August. We had a good setup last year and I think our new aero body panels and increased downforce should let us fight for a podium finish."
AFTER LEADING THE 47th ANNUAL ROLEX 24, ENGINE PROBLEMS SIDELINE THE #77 DORAN / McDONALD'S CAR
Things were looking promising for the Doran Racing/McDonald's team in the early stages of the race. After running in the top-10 during pre-event testing earlier this month, the team experienced, a severe handling problem in pre race practice, problems that relegated them to the 16th spot on the starting grid after Thursday's 20-minute qualifying session. A combination of the team finding a big problem with the shocks and a dramatic, last-minute setup change produced a good car for the race and the team was able to run with the leaders. "I qualified the car while we were still having the handling problem but the team kept working and we gambled on a radical setup change and it worked," said Memo Gidley, who, along with Brad Jagegr, Matteo Bobbi and Fabrizio Gollin, shared the driving duties. "The car kept getting better as we got into the race and it started getting cooler, and we were running on the lead lap at the six-hour mark. I called in to Kevin Doran and told him I thought we had a top-5 car if we could stay out of trouble until the end. The only problem we had was when Fabrizio came in for a driver change and said he thought we had a flat tire. I went out and was only able to make one lap at about twenty miles an hour before we pitted again and discovered a steering arm had broken. We lost some laps but were able to get them back over time and were running seventh with Fabrizio in the car when we had the electrical problem that put us out." Gidley, a full-season co-driver of the #77 Doran Racing/McDonald's/Doran-Dallara Ford, is a talented and widely respected American driver who was born in La Paz, Mexico and now makes his home in Novato, California. He has made a name for himself as one of the most committed drivers in the paddock, driving and winning in everything from karts to Indy Cars and stock cars to prototypes. 2009 will mark Gidley's fifth season in the Grand-Am Rolex DP class, and his third season with Doran Racing. "The handling problems early on in practice and qualifying put us behind the curve, but Kevin Doran finally came up with a last-minute setup that worked quite well and we had a good car for the start of the race," said co-driver Brad Jaeger. "I actually led some laps around 9:30 or so in the evening and was thinking that we were headed for a top-5 finish. Unfortunately I didn't get the wake-up call I was hoping for. Instead of the team waking me up and telling me to get ready, it was Memo telling me that we were out of the race." Jaeger is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio and recent graduate of Vanderbilt University where he was a member of their Formula SAE team. His racing resume includes karting, Sports 2000, Skip Barber, F2000, Star Mazda and the Indy Pro Series. He co-drove his first prototype race for the Doran team in the 2007 season finale at Miller Motorsport Park and was Gidley's full-time co-driver during the 2008 season. "We've won this race four times, back-to-back in 1987-88 and again in 1998 and 2002, so our plan was to go the distance and given our new sponsor, McDonald's, a high-profile finish," says Doran Racing owner Kevin Doran. "Unfortunately we ran into the same crank position sensor problem that put most of the other Ford-powered cars out of the race, but we led the race and ran competitively for eighteen hours. Naturally we're all a bit disappointed with the result after all the work that goes into preparing for this race, but I feel our performance is also a clear indicator that we've stepped up our game and the McDonald's car will be a force to be reckoned with during the 2009 season." Joining Gidley and Jaeger in the #77 car for the Rolex 24 were Matteo Bobbi and Fabrizio Gollin, both of whom are highly-experiences endurance racing drivers and veterans with Doran Racing; the duo were the team's full-time drivers in 2005-2006. The 47th Annual Rolex 24 also marked the first appearance of McDonald's, the world's leading food service retailer, as the primary sponsor of a team in the Rolex Series. McDonald's, along with additional companies to be announced in the coming weeks, will appear throughout the 2009 season on the #77 Doran Racing machine. During the 2008 season, Doran Racing scored a remarkable string of eleven top-10 finishes, eight of them in a row. The 2009 #77 Doran Racing/McDonald's/Doran-Dallara Ford is a refined, updated version of the car the team campaigned so successfully in 2008. It features a Doran chassis fitted with Dallara bodywork featuring enhanced aerodynamics and increased downforce. Power is provided by a 500 horsepower Roush-Yates Ford V-8 engine. |
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Coming
off a pair of competitive 5th- and 7th-place finishes in Rounds Two and
Three of the 2009 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, the Doran Racing /
McDonald's team just missed scoring a top-10 finish in Round Four of the
2009 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, the Verizon Festival of Speed at
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Persevering through gearbox and handling
issues, the #77 Doran / McDonald's Doran-Dallara Ford co-driven by Memo
Gidley and Brad Jaeger qualified and finish 11th.
Virginia
International Raceway (April 27, 2009) – the #77 Doran Racing /
McDonald's team, with co-drivers Memo Gidley and Brad Jaeger scored a
strong 5th-place finish in the Bosch Engineering 250, Round Two of the
2009 Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series. This marks the continuation of a
Doran Racing streak at VIR; in this event last season, the team scored
one of eleven top-10 finishes, including eight in a row.
After
leading the race, and with a top-5 finish in sight after 18 hours of
almost trouble-free racing in the 47th Annual Rolex 24, the #77 Doran
Racing / McDonald's Doran-Dallara Ford succumbed to the same engine
'gremlins' that felled six of the seven Ford-powered Daytona Prototypes
in the 49-car starting field. The problem in each case was ultimately
traced to the failure of a crankshaft position sensor stator wheel in
each of the 500 horsepower Ford V-8 engines.