Another Win and Podium to Finish off the 2015 PWC for TRG-AMR

Monday, September 14, 2015

Once again, TRG-Aston Martin Racing delivers with a solid win in GTS class and a podium result in GTA class to finish the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge season. After scoring a race win and podium finish at the Sonoma Grand Prix just two weeks ago, the team repeats the performance again at the Grand Prix of Monterey to close out the PWC season.

In the GT race, Christina Nielsen qualified and started fourth in the GTA class in the #7 Royal Purple/Orion/LaSalle Solutions/Passtime V12 Vantage. Christina battled hard through the first half of the race to hold off attacks from rivals and made an aggressive pass on the front-running Audi R8 to move up from P4 to P3. She charged forward from there avoiding the off track mistakes that plagued several of her competitors, to finish on the podium in P3.

In the GTS race, Kris Wilson qualified in the second position in the #07 Royal Purple/Orion/LaSalle Solutions/Passtime V8 Vantage. TRG-AMR team driver Jeff Huber in the #06 Stand Up 2 Cancer V8 Vantage also delivered a strong P14 qualifying effort in a field of 27 cars. At the drop of the green and heading into turn 2, Kris made a perfect outside pass on the pole sitting Porsche and never looked back as he drove a flawless race to the checkered flag to win his 5th GTS class race of the season -- the most of any driver in class during the 2015 season. Jeff Huber had a great start and narrowly avoided an incident that took out two competitors at the green flag; and battled his way through the pack but suffered a small spin late in the race as he was trying to navigate around slower traffic. Jeff managed to avoid any damage to his V8 Vantage and charged forward in the closing laps to finish P16 and turned the seventh fastest race lap of all 27 entries.

“Winning my first GTA race two weeks ago was awesome and I wanted to finish the season with another strong finish in Monterey,” said Christina Nielsen, TRG-AMR driver. “Our qualifying was really good, but I had my work cut out for me to move up from P4 as the Mercedes SLS AMG cars had significant pace all weekend. I tried to drive smart and avoid mistakes while some of the other GTA class competitors went off track. I managed to finish on the podium and in the absence of a class win -- I’ll take it.”

“Last week I told everyone that while a second place GTS finish at the Sonoma Grand Prix was nice, I really wanted to win here at Laguna Seca,” said Kris Wilson, TRG-AMR Driver. “The team provided me with another well prepared car and we did it. Not only did we deliver a strong qualifying effort, but in the race I was able to jump out to an early lead and hang on for the rest of the way to the checkered flag with the second and third place guys right on my bumper. This Aston Martin is just so solid and we look forward to welcoming several new teams for next year and helping them to make a run at the championship. TRG and the Aston Martin are definitely the magic combo if you want to win.”

“I came into this race very focused after delivering a solid performance at the Sonoma Grand Prix two weeks ago and was hoping to deliver a Top 10 finishing result,” said Jeff Huber, TRG-AMR driver. “While my late race spin was unfortunate, I was able to recover quickly and still pass four cars to regain valuable positions. Well done to the team.”

“We are really proud of what we have accomplished this season in Pirelli World Challenge and with our entire Aston Martin Racing program,” said Kevin Buckler, Chief Executive Officer at TRG-AMR. “We set the high mark with five wins in the GTS class this season to lead all other teams and we delivered our first win in the GTA class. We have seen growing interest in our race programs in the GT and GTS class with the strong performances of both the GT4 and the GT3. We’ve proven that TRG and Aston Martin are a winning combination both on and off the track. With the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge season now completed, we must shift our focus to the two remaining races in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship where we are trying to make history in winning the first North American GT Championship for our professional driver Christina Nielsen, for the TRG-AMR team and for Aston Martin.”