VISIT FLORIDA Racing continues to make progress with its No. 90 VISIT FLORIDA Racing Gibson-Riley in its first year with the new platform as the Florida-based team enters the second half of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season at Watkins Glen International.
That forward progression showed when Renger van der Zande put the No. 90 machine seventh on the grid for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen during qualifying on Saturday. The grid spot on the fourth row marks the best qualifying effort for VISIT FLORIDA Racing so far this year.
The team opened the year with a run to third place in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and will look to return to victory lane at Watkins Glen, having won the 2014 and 2015 editions of the 6 Hour event.
“Overall, I’m very proud of the team,” said van der Zande, who shares the No. 90 Gibson-Riley with Marc Goossens. “We’re still struggling for speed – especially top speed and in the lap time. I think the changes we made during the practice sessions this weekend were in the right direction. We keep making changes in the right direction during the race weekends and we are proud of that. My fastest lap felt like a pole position lap, there was no more that I could get out of it. If you look at the cars we are actually competing against – the other P2 cars – we did pretty well. We need to be fighting for the front, but right now we’re happy with where we’re at.”
VISIT FLORIDA Racing will celebrate the Independence Day holiday on Sunday with a special presentation during pre-race ceremonies for the six-hour classic. The team will be joined by Kenny Habul who will present a check to Homes For Our Troops and Liam Dwyer Sunday morning.
Tune into FS1 at 10:00 AM to catch the start of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen.
