One year ago, Rennsport One (RS1) made its Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge competition debut at Daytona International Speedway, winning the Street Tuner (ST) class in the BMW Performance 200.
The Pompano Beach, Florida-based team backed up that showing with three additional victories, with Spencer Pumpelly and rookie Luis Rodriguez Jr. placing third in the final point standings.
Now, RS1 is back for an encore. The team will be testing a pair of Porsche Caymans at this weekend’s Roar Before the Rolex 24, and will have three Caymans with a revised driver lineup for the BMW Performance 200 and the remainder of the season.
“Logistically, two cars would probably have been easier that three for us, but Spencer was a weapon in our cars last year and we wanted to keep him on board,” said team principal Justin Bellinzoni. “So we put our heads together so we could make it happen.”
For 2016, Pumpelly will co-drive with Nick Galante in the No. 17 Legestics Porsche Cayman, with support from Cobra Golf. Galante has 19 career races in the series, with five top-10 finishes and a career best finish of seventh at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in 2013.
Pumpelly was the lone driver to win in both the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Continental Tire Challenge in 2015, taking GT Daytona victories at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda for Park Place Motorsports. He has 93 career races in the Continental Tire Challenge, with nine victories, 23 podiums, three poles and 49 top-10 finishes.
“When we were able to line up Nick, it made sense and we decided to go with it,” Bellinzoni said. “The car has a new look for 2016, and we’ve put a lot of time into testing. We thought we developed the chassis very well last year and progressed throughout the season, and obviously it showed with our results. But in this off-season, there was no time to take a break. It was back to basics, and we’ve worked to make our cars that were good even better. We feel like we’ve accomplished that, and we’ll be coming to Daytona very prepared.”
There’s more than a new look for the No. 17 car.
“We’re building a brand-new No. 17 for Spencer and Nick,” Bellinzoni said. “The old No. 17 had a big hit last year at Road America. We patched it up and managed to win at VIR and Circuit of The Americas, but it was never really the same. We started with a fresh new chassis, so we’ll have a brand-new car that Spencer and Nick deserve.”
Bellinzoni also has a new pairing in the No. 18 Cayman, where Remo Ruscitti will co-drive with newcomer Aaron Song of Seattle. Ruscitti scored his first victory in his rookie 2014 season at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. He ran a partial season in 2015, with his best finish 10th at Mazda Raceway for the MINI John Cooper Works team.
In Song, Ruscitti will be paired with another Michael Valiante protégé. Valiante, who competes for HART in ST competition, operates a karting facility in Vancouver, B.C., where he became acquainted with both drivers.
“Aaron was introduced to Remo by Michael Valiante,” Bellinzoni explained. “Aaron is a frequent customer and driver at Michael’s go-kart track. Michael paired them up, and Aaron brought Remo on board and is using him as his driving coach.
“Aaron has been making great progress,” Bellinzoni added. “We’ve had him out already for four days of testing in the 18 car, and the progress he’s made is amazing. His growth has been exponential at this point. I’m real happy to see what the future brings in this car.”
Bloum and Strelzoff return in the No. 19 Cayman. They finished 12th in the 2015 points, with their best finish third at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The pair co-drove to four career podium finishes, including a second at Road Atlanta in 2013.
“They’ve co-driven for four season, including last year for us,” Bellinzoni said.
For the start of the season, RS1 will again concentrate on running in ST. That focus may expand later in the season, with the team looking at the new Porsche Cayman GT4 that is eligible for Grand Sport (GS) competition.
“We have a GT4 here in house, but we’re going to build it internally on our own time,” Bellinzoni said. “We have all the aero fitted on it, and we’re going to continue with the build after Daytona. Our focus is to hit Daytona really hard again this year – ideally to win again – and then get back to building the GT4. We’ll probably debut it at Watkins Glen.”
RS1 will have two cars and two drivers at the Roar, with Song driving the No. 18 and Strelzoff in the No. 19.
“Greg hasn’t driven since Atlanta, so he wants to knock off some rust, even though he’s always been very comfortable at Daytona,” Bellinzoni said. “Aaron’s been driving a lot – which is great – but our mission is to get him comfortable at Daytona. Our mission is not to set any lap records. We want to shake down our equipment and go over some data.”
That mission will change drastically three weeks later, when RS1 aims for its second consecutive Daytona victory in the BMW Performance 200.
Comments