The French Connection
The Circuit of the Americas, better known as CoTA, lies just a few miles outside of Austin Texas. The 3.327 miles of red, white and blue driving is stunning to look at, especially from the vantage point of the iconic observation tower - it is also our venue for the fourth race in the 2017 WeatherTech Season.
The usual suspects from the Alegra crew are at it again, with one notable exception. Porsche works driver (and a guy who knows how to cook a mean soft boiled egg) Michael Christensen, is across the pond with his factory team in the World Endurance Championship (WEC). Filling the Dane's racing shoes this weekend is our new French connection, Mathieu Jaminet, straight from the Porsche Junior Drivers program. This isn't Mathieu's first time to the Texas rodeo; last year he raced in the Porsche Supercup during CoTA's F1 USGP weekend - and he won he'll have you know. So he knows his way around the star-spangled track.Now you might say, 'Sure....he may have won a year ago in the Supercup - but what has this Frenchman done for us lately?' Well, during qualifying, Mathieu and the team put on a racing clinic, tearing up the track and nailing pole position - lapping the track in only 02:06.531. We're pretty sure the heat coming off the track is partly due Mathieu setting it on fire with the no. 28 Porsche GT3 R.
The team is optimistic for this race. They were within striking distance at Long Beach and had to deal with a small error that led to a drive-through penalty (or two). They are looking to avenge that weekend, and with a P1 qualifying session, they're well on their way to doing that.