19.08.2003  DESPITE A DIFFICULT RACE JMB ARE CONFIDENT THEY ARE MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Joining regulars Stephan Gregoire and Eliseo Salazar at the wheel of the 28 Ferrari 360 Modena GT was Iradj Alexander of Switzerland. Alexander is also currently competing in the French FFSA GT championship, and has signed on with JMB Racing USA to contend in selected ALMS events. Alexander is no stranger to the US, as he drove in the Barber Dodge Pro Series back in 1998. 

Iradj was one of the fifty million people affected by the blackout of August 14th, 2003, the biggest power outage in history. He was forced to miss Friday’s test session, and his first time on the track was Saturday morning, when he almost immediately set the fastest time the team’s Ferrari 360 Modena GT had gone all weekend. During Saturday’s qualifying session, Alexander was suffering from an ill handling car, and placed the 360 Modena GT 9th on the grid in only his second session on the track.  Peter Kutemann of Monaco qualified the 29 car 14th in class, which he co-piloted with Antoine Gosse of France. The team then decided to make a change of shock absorbers following the qualifying session to improve the car’s handling.

In Sunday’s morning warm-up, the drivers really liked the change and felt they had a very strong car for the race. Alexander acknowledged, “We were having problems with the car rolling a large amount in the turns, and compressing too much on the brakes. We made a shock and spring change following qualifying and there was significant improvement in the morning warm-up. Its too bad I wasn’t able to test on Friday because I believe we would have qualified much better if we had had more time to work on the race set-up.” 

Iradj Alexander started the race in the 28 car, with Gosse starting in the 29. Less than a half hour into the timed 2 hour and 45 minute event, the first full course yellow of the day allowed almost the entire field to come in for fuel and/or tyres. JMB Racing USA brought in Gosse for tyres only and quickly sent him on his way. However, they opted to take a gamble and keep Alexander out, moving him up from 9th to 2nd position in the GT class. 

Iradj was running in 3rd position when just past the halfway point, he slid off at turn 1 and became engulfed in the gravel trap. Another full course yellow resulted and the 28 Ferrari lost three laps as it had to be removed from the gravel. The car was brought into the pits and Stephan Gregoire took control behind the wheel, resuming the race in 11th position. Before handing over the driving duties to Eliseo Salazar, Gregoire had moved into 10th position where the car ultimately finished. Peter Kutemann and Antoine Gosse drove a very smart race, staying out of trouble and brought the 29 Ferrari 360 Modena GT home in 13th position. 

Benjamin Durand, managing director of JMB Racing USA acknowledged: “Although JMB Racing is used to better results back in Europe in the FIA GT championship, we feel that the sister team in the US, JMB Racing USA, is making progress at every race. We are discovering new racetracks, different surfaces requiring different set-ups, as well as competing in a new championship. All this requires some degree of adaptation, and we are definitely moving in the right direction!”