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Napleton Racing Fastest In New GX Class At Roar Before The Rolex 24 At Daytona
Napleton Racing and drivers David Donohue, Shane Lewis, Dr. Jim Norman and Nelson Canache capped off a great weekend, January 4 - 6, in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series GX class at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 with the fastest lap of three-day test session in the new No. 16 Napleton Racing Porsche Cayman S.
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The Rolex 24 debuting team turned the top overall GX lap of the weekend with Lewis at the wheel of the No. 16 in Saturday morning’s first test session of the day. The time of 1:56.167 (110.324 mph) was .425 of a second ahead of the similar BGB Motorsports car and held as the fastest lap of the weekend.
“I couldn’t ask for a better test,” Lewis said. “We went through all kinds of weather conditions and temperature conditions. We tried a lot of different things on the race car and I think we are going to come back with a great package come race day.”
Bringing four new teammates together didn’t slow the No. 16 Porsche Cayman S down. The Napleton Racing team led nearly every practice session at the Roar Before the Rolex 24.
“I’m really excited about the Rolex 24 because the team chemistry is coming together really well,” Norman said. “The team is jelling well, working together well and we are really excited.”
After a great weekend on track in the new GX class, the Napleton Racing team will continue developing the new car until the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Racing Series season opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, January 26 – 27.
“It was a very valuable test,” said Donohue, the 2009 overall Rolex 24 At Daytona winner. “The car shows speed. There’s a lot of things Napleton needs to do when they get back to the shop, but when we come back at the end of the month we should have a really good kit to go earn another Rolex timepiece.”
Napleton Racing, a fulltime sports car team based out of leading Chicago-area dealership Napleton Porsche of Westmont, earned a pair of GTS-class victories and numerous podium finishes with two different Caymans last year in Pirelli World Challenge competition. The team updated to GX specifications its Cayman S that was victorious in its first weekend of Pirelli World Challenge competition at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this past August. The Napleton Cayman S won Sunday’s final race of the Mid-Ohio weekend’s doubleheader after earning a third-place finish one day earlier in the debut race for both the car and driver Kevin Gleason.
In addition to the Mid-Ohio Pirelli World Challenge success, Napleton Racing also built and at the time maintained the No. 68 Team Hot Wheels™ Cayman S that Jack Baldwin drove to the Pirelli World Challenge GTS victory in April at Long Beach. The Napleton/ Hot Wheels® combination also produced several other podium finishes and Baldwin and the No. 68 went on to finish third in this year’s GTS season championship.
Napleton Porsche of Westmont also owns and operates the Pirelli Cayman Interseries Endurance Cup Championship that completed its third full season of competition last month at Daytona.
About Napleton Racing: Napleton Racing is a performance and competition division of the Chicago-area auto dealership Napleton Porsche of Westmont. An established and full-service racing division and prep shop, Napleton Racing specializes in amateur and beginner-level competition on up to entry-level and top-tier professional racing series. The performance-focused operation is just one division within Napleton Porsche of Westmont, which is the Ed Napleton Automotive Group’s flagship Porsche dealership. A family business that was established in 1931 by their grandfather Edward W. Napleton with a single dealership on Chicago’s south side, Ed Napleton and his brothers today own 69 franchises in 39 locations in four states. The Ed Napleton Automotive Group operates 36 of these franchises in 21 locations while his brothers operate 33 dealerships in 18 locati ons.
PaddockTalk Perspective
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