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Performance Tech Set For Long Beach

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (April 13, 2016) – Performance Tech Motorsports along with the rest of the Prototype Challenge class will compete on the streets of Long Beach, California for the first time since 2013.

Performance Tech finished fifth in the Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix At Long Beach three years ago and plans on besting that finish with a place on podium in 2016. The hour and 40-minute race features three of the Weather Tech SportsCar Championship classes, PC, Prototype and GT Le Mans. This is one of two street courses the PC class competes on this season, the other taking place on Detroit’s Belle Isle in the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic Presented by Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers.

Driver James French shocked the crowd in Detroit last year by taking the pole position in the No. 38 at his first street course event. French powered the team to a third place finish through a combination of treacherous weather conditions. French has never raced on the Long Beach course and will lean on teammate Kyle Marcelli to get up to speed.

Marcelli, who was also in a PC car in 2013 at Long Beach, has competed on the 1.986-mile course four times prior. He’ll add two more races to that tally this weekend as he pulls double duty with the Pirelli World Challenge GT series in an Audi R8 GT3. The extra track time, though a challenge, helps Performance Tech and Marcelli have a better read on the track surface and its overall nuances.

Team Principal Brent O’Neill will lean on the past success of his drivers to carry the team through the sprint race to its first podium of the season.

“We’re looking forward to this race,” O’Neill said. “It’s a fun race and it’s exciting for everyone because it’s a bigger show. The challenge is you have to go into the race with the car ready to go from the moment you get there because there isn’t a lot of time. We’ve been working hard to have everything ready to go and setup how we want it.

“I think we’ll be set. You know James did great in Detroit last year with his first street course. He won pole and we finished third so I think he’ll do just fine here. Really, the two tracks are pretty similar. But we’ll lean on Kyle some too with his experience of being in the PC here on track. He’ll be pulling double duty in World Challenge but extra time on the track is never a bad thing. They also have some new driver aids that should help them out.”

Performance Tech Motorsport’s weekend begins on Friday, April 15 with Practice One taking place at 7:40 a.m. PST followed by Practice Two at 5 p.m. Qualifying, which will be live streamed on imsa.com, begins with the GTLM class at 5:35 p.m., PC class qualifying is at 5:55 p.m.

The Bubba Burgers Sports Car Grand Prix At Long Beach takes place Saturday, April 16 at 4:05 p.m. The race will be aired live on FOX Sports 2 beginning at 7 p.m. ET with encore presentations taking place on FOX Sports 1 Sunday, April 17 at 11 p.m. and 12:30 p.m.

Follow the No. 38 The No. 38 Ric-Man Construction / Children’s Miracle Network / NeuroSpine Institute / HighBloodCalciumIsBad.com / Fer-Pal Infrastructure PC on track with scoring.imsa.com.

For updates from the team follow Performance Tech on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. For more information visit performancetechmotorsports.com.

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