TEAM NEWS: Cincinnati's RJR Racing Group Is Ready for Its First Rolex Series Race Sunday at Mid-Ohio

Photo by John Thawley LEXINGTON, Ohio, June 23 - The newest team in Grand-Am's Rolex Series,

Cincinnati's RJR Racing Group, is ready to race.

After months of preparation, drivers Rene Robichaud and B.J. Zacharias, both

of Cincinnati, will compete in Sunday's 400-k/111-laps/two-and-one-half-hour

Rolex GT race Sunday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course here. The green flag is

slated to drop at 11 a.m.

The race will be televised on a one-hour tape-delayed basis beginning at noon

ET Sunday on SPEED.

The team also plans to compete in the Rolex Series GT race at Barber

Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala., on July 21. The race in Alabama will be covered

live on SPEED at 4 p.m. Eastern that day.

The team hopes to find marketing partners in order to do all of the events

next year. Currently the car's livery advertises the RJR Racing Group, the

Motorsports Country Club of Cincinnati and Wright Motorsports.

Although he's competed in KONI Challenge and Porsche Club of America events,

tomorrow's race will be Robichaud's first Rolex Series race ever. Crew chief

John Wright gave him the nod for qualifying, so Robichaud, the team owner,

will be in the cockpit at the start and his instructor and now co-driver,

Zacharias, will drive later in the race.

On Saturday Robichaud qualified 18th in the field of 27 with a time of

1:27.952 for the 2.2-mile road course in the No. 96, one of 12 Porsche

factory-built, Grand-Am GT3 Cup cars. The car is brand new, and this is its first race

ever.

In practice on Thursday and Friday the team concentrated on getting both

drivers comfortable in the car, and did a lot of work with the car's shocks

package.

"The team has been working hard to make improvements, and we've gotten faster

every session," Zacharias said. "Rene set his fastest time of the weekend in

qualifying in an extremely tough field. We feel we have a comfortable car

for the race."

"We're going to do our best to be there at the finish," Robichaud added.

The last time Zacharias and Wright worked together in a Rolex Series race was

this year's Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, where they finished an impressive

eighth overall in a Porsche-powered Riley Daytona Prototype.