Nielsen Prepares To Wrap Up Season at Petit Le Mans - Speedway Digest

Christina Nielsen’s first competitive season in the United States has been peppered with podium appearances and many different race cars, and she looks to punctuate 2014 with a strong finish at the 17th Annual Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda on Oct. 1-4.

Nielsen has raced the full Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama schedule in 2014, along with a handful of appearances in the TUDOR United Sports Car Championship. At Petit Le Mans in Road Atlanta, she again will drive in the highest rung of North American sports car racing, this time in an Aston Martin for The Racer’s Group (TRG-AMR) in the ultra-competitive GT Daytona class.

“We had a late change to put me in the TRG-AMR car in Petit,” Nielsen said. “It will be a big challenge to move between the Porsche and Aston Martin because they are very different cars, but it is really great to get that much seat time and see what I can do in both series. Time management won’t be easy, but luckily both race teams are quite organized, and I know they’ll do their best to help me manage.”

In the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama, Nielsen will drive the No. 25 Porsche 911 Platinum Cup car for NGT Motorsport. A season of driving the Porsche at the best tracks in North America has been an invaluable experience, Nielsen said.

“I believe the Porsche Cup car is one of the best to learn from as a driver because it doesn’t have much technology or other benefits to support you,” she said. “I have learned a lot from it, and I am looking forward to getting back into it this weekend in Atlanta. The GT3 USA paddock has a great atmosphere, and Porsche and IMSA have done a great job running the series this year.”

With two 45-minute GT3 USA timed races and the 10-hour TUDOR endurance race, Nielsen must approach each series with a different mindset on the 2.54-mile, 12-turn road course.

“I love both sprint and endurance races, and I think a professional driver needs to master both disciplines,” she said. “I’m lucky that I get to practice both in the same weekend at Road Atlanta. For a car to last 10 hours versus 45 minutes, different handling of the tires is required, and you also have extremely different strategies with the car.”

Nielsen, from Aarhus, Denmark, will have two practice sessions before Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge qualifying at 8:35 a.m. (ET) Thursday, Oct. 2 at Road Atlanta. Races 1 and 2, both 45-minute timed events, are scheduled at 3:35 p.m. Oct. 2 and 11:25 a.m. Friday, Oct. 3. The 10-hour Petit Le Mans is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 4.

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Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.