Despite Disappointing Results at the Grand Prix of Texas, Team Panoz Racing Aims to Build on the Positives

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After a race-ending accident on Saturday, Team Panoz Racing showed amazing grit and determination to get the No. 50 Avezzano GT on the grid for Sunday’s PWC GTS Championship round-four race, and the team leaves Texas determined to build on Dr. Preston Calvert’s strong driving in the No. 51 sister car.
 
For the debut of the SprintX format in the GTS class, which are 60-minute races that require a pit stop and Pro/Am driver change, Team Panoz Racing added Matt Keegan to share the No. 50 Panoz Avezzano GT driving duties with Ian James for this weekend and all future 2018 SprintX GTS races.

The weekend began with strong PWC GTS round three qualifying results. Matt Keegan qualified with a time of 2:18.681, placing him P9 and on row five of the 37-car, 19-row grid. Calvert qualified P13 on row seven with a time of 2:19.512.
 
At the start of Saturday’s round three race on the 3.4-mile, 20-turn Circuit of the Americas track, an incident involving the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS GT4 and the No. 3 Epic Motorsports BMW M4 GT4 forced an immediate full course caution. On the lap-four restart, Keegan spun the No. 50 Avezzano GT. Unfortunately, a crash with the No. 8 GMG Racing McLaren 570S GT4 before Keegan could recover and get underway ended both entrants’ day and forced another full course caution. 
 
This left Calvert and the No. 51 Avezzano GT to soldier on and bring home a positive result. Calvert delivered a strong performance, finishing P5 in the GTSA class and P20 overall. His quickest lap of 2:22.026 on lap 15 secured a row 11, P22 start for Sunday’s round four race. Keegan’s and James’ No. 50 would start P35 on row 18.
 
On Sunday under an overcast sky and with damp track conditions, James and Calvert, in the Nos. 50 and 51 Avezzano GTs, respectively, started the race. James immediately showed tremendous pace and gained six positions on the first lap and was in P16 overall when summoned to the pits on lap seven due to smoke. He returned to competition but pitted again on lap 10. Team Manager Tom Milner opted to not continue for safety reasons when the team discovered a rear differential leak.
 
Once again, this left Calvert to carry the Team Panoz Racing torch. Early on Calvert was P20 overall and P3 in class until contact with a competitor necessitated a drive-through penalty that dropped Calvert to P26 overall. Calvert showed good pace in the No. 51 car throughout the race and finished P25 overall and P8 in class. His quickest lap on Sunday was 2:23.631 on lap 18.
 
Though a disappointing weekend, Team Panoz Racing will build on the positives of strong qualifying times, quick pace, and the outstanding crew efforts in the face of adversity. Team Panoz Racing is committed to the full 2018 PWC GTS Championship schedule of GTS/GTSA and SprintX GTS races.

Next up for Team Panoz Racing are PWC GTS Championship rounds five and six at the Grand Prix of Virginia International Raceway, April 27-29, 2018, Alton Va. This is the second GTS SprintX weekend on the schedule with the remaining 2018 GTS SprintX races to be held at Lime Rock Park, Portland International Raceway and Utah Motorsports Campus. Please visit www.world-challenge.com for the most up to date PWC information, live streaming, and CBS Sports Network broadcast details. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat for as-it-happens updates.

The Panoz Avezzano GT race car is based on the new Panoz Avezzano sports car, the latest street-legal Panoz creation featuring a new fastback configuration, an aluminum chassis and body, and a 6.2-liter, 450-plus horsepower Panoz/Élan aluminum block V8 mated to a heavy duty, close ratio six-speed manual gearbox. Visit Panoz.com for more information.

Adam Sinclair
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