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Racing News: Roush Yates Performance Products Helps Racers “Go Green”

  roush yates
  Roush Yates Performance Products has opened a performance products store that portrays the company's spirit of recycling and environmental sustainability.

Roush Yates Performance Products Helps Racers “Go Green”
Roush Yates Performance Products has joined NASCAR's efforts to become more environmentally aware by opening a performance products store that portrays a spirit of recycling and environmental sustainability. Roush Yates collects hundreds of used parts each week from many top-tier race teams. The parts are cleaned, inspected, sorted and shelved in the company's new 40,000-sq.-ft. parts store in Mooresville, North Carolina, for resale to the public and grassroots racers. Customers can expect to find cylinder heads, transmissions, intake manifolds, seats and more for half the price. Over the past year, Roush Yates has grown into a full-service performance parts store that sells teams new parts and those previously run by some of the greatest drivers in the sport.

“These parts that come off the race cars each week have only been used one or two times,” said Bucky Gregory, vice president of sales. “Recycling used parts is a great way to give local grassroots racers a quality engineered product for a discounted price. Add in that we have all the new parts they need as well and you’ve got a one-stop shop for everything racing.”

Everything at Roush Yates is recycled, from the cardboard boxes the parts are shipped in, to the sheetmetal off the cars from when drivers wreck. Anything that can’t be sold to the public or Saturday night short track racers is sent to a local recycling center. Even the old hoses are given new fittings so they can be used again and again. Recycling parts lessens the demand for manufacturing new parts and helps keep NASCAR teams from contributing to the overflow of landfills.

“Roush Yates Performance Products came together after realizing how many used race car parts go to auction, or worse, into a landfill,” said Doug Yates, CEO of Roush Yates Engines. “It feels great to give back to the environment as well as provide local grassroots racers with previously run NASCAR engineered products.”

  united
  United Autosports will debut an OAK RACING Pescarolo-Judd LMP2 car with technical support provided by Driot-Associés MotorSport (DAMS) in the LMP2 Class during the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

United Autosports to Compete at Petit Le Mans
United Autosports will debut an OAK RACING Pescarolo-Judd LMP2 car with technical support provided by Driot-Associés MotorSport (DAMS) in the LMP2 Class during the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, September 28–October 1. The 1,000-mile, 10-hour race spectacle serves as the penultimate round of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in the American Le Mans Series.

Co-owners Zak Brown (USA) and Richard Dean (GB) expect United Autosports to be a major contender in LMP2 at Road Atlanta and have assembled a formidable driver lineup. Brown will be accompanied by FIA GT3 European Championship regular Mark Patterson (USA), who will also be making his LMP2 debut. The American duo of Brown and Patterson teamed up earlier in the year with former GP drivers and 24 Hours of Le Mans winners Mark Blundell (GB) and Martin Brundle (GB) to earn fourth place in the 24 Hours of Daytona. Former F1 driver and 24 Hours of Le Mans race winner Stefan Johansson (SE) will round out the trio of talent as United Autosports sets its sights on the Petit Le Mans podium.

Long Sweeps; Crosland and Povoledo Join as Pirelli World Challenge Winners At Infineon
Patrick Long, from Bellaire, Florida, earned a Pirelli World Challenge weekend sweep overall and in the GT class Sunday at Infineon Raceway in the Cadillac Grand Prix of Sonoma – Round 10 of the 2011 season. Ben Crosland, from Salt Lake City, made a late-race pass for the GTS win, with Aaron Povoledo leading every lap to earn the victory in Touring Car.

With the grid set based on lap times during Saturday’s first race of the doubleheader weekend, Long started from pole in his No. 45 Privacy Star/TruSpeed and pulled away from the field at the as the lights went out. A pair of Cadillacs driven by Andy Pilgrim and Johnny O’Connell gave chase, but Long opened up a gap that settled between one and two seconds for most of the race.

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Patrick Long
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Ben Crosland
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Aaron Povoledo (#88) Photo credits: Mark Weber, SCCA

Each time Pilgrim’s No. 8 Cadillac Racing Cadillac CTS-V Coupe appeared poised to catch the leader, Long worked his Porsche through traffic and stretched his lead again. When the checkered flag waved after 27 laps, Long had earned a 1.586-second win. Long averaged 82.520 mph over the 60.615-mile race, and turned the fastest lap of the race in 1:35.914 (84.263 mph).

The weekend sweep gives Long four wins this season and a GT Drivers’ Championship lead with two races remaining in the season.

While Pilgrim chased Long, he also had to hold off a charge from drivers behind him—first from his teammate O’Connell in the No. 3 Cadillac Racing Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, and then from James Sofronas in the No. 14 GMG Porsche 911 GT3 once Sofronas moved into third on lap eight. Pilgrim held off the challenges to earn his first podium of the season.

Sofronas started fifth, but hit traffic at the wrong time and settled for third.

Patrick Lindsey’s
No. 12 Hawk Performance/CRP Chevrolet Corvette and O’Connell’s Cadillac made contact in Turn 11 on lap 16, slowing both and sending O’Connell spinning. Lindsey inherited fourth after Dino Crescentini pulled to pit lane with clutch issues in his No. 4 StopTech Brakes Porsche 911 GT3.

Tomy Drissi
moved past O’Connell with two laps remaining to finish fifth in the No. 47 Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked Porsche 911 GT3. O’Connell finished sixth after the eventful day.

Long leads the GT Drivers’ Championship with 1152 points over Sofronas, who is 185 points behind with two races remaining in the season. O’Connell (954) sits third, followed by Mike Skeen (918). Skeen finished eighth after starting the race from pit lane and the rear of the field with a clutch problem on the formation lap. Pilgrim is fifth in points with 807. Porsche continues to hold a 73–45 lead over Cadillac in the GT Manufacturers’ Championship, with Volvo (18) third.

Crosland pushed his No. 25 RaceWithRP.com Ford Mustang FR500S around the outside of Paul Brown in Turn 11 with two laps remaining to earn the Cadillac CTS-V Move of the Race, then held off the GTS point leader to the checkered flag for his second win of the season. The 18-year-old started on the pole but fell behind Brown’s No. 50 Luminox/Lucas Oil/K&N Filter Ford Mustang Boss 302S on the standing start, remaining in second for the opening 22 laps of the 25 that the GTS leaders completed. Crosland held off a challenge from Alec Udell’s No. 06 Momentum Autosport Chevrolet Camaro during the middle stages of the race before setting his sights on Brown.

Brown would finish second after leading 22 laps and turning the fastest lap of the race in 1:44.835 (77.092 mph). He leads the GTS Drivers’ Championship with 1,249 points, followed by Crosland with 1,028. Eric Foss, who finished seventh on Sunday, is third with 1016. Cunningham (997) and Adams (757) complete the top five. Ford leads Acura in the GTS Manufacturers’ Championship, 91–48.

Povoledo started second in his No. 88 K-Pax Racing Volvo C30 alongside the No. 71 Compass360 Racing Honda Civic Si of Lawson Aschenbach, who led the Touring Car field away from the standing start, but Povoledo moved past him midway through the opening lap to earn the Invisible Glass Clean Pass of the Race. Once in the lead, Povoledo led for 24 laps to the checkered flag for an 8.576-second victory despite a scare from contact with the No. 45 Entrust Porsche 911 GT3 of Rob Morgan while Morgan was working through the Touring Car traffic.

Povoledo’s win closed the gap to Touring Car Drivers’ Championship leader Aschenbach to 202 points with two races to go, with Aschenbach holding a 1285–1083 lead. Robb Holland, who finished ninth on Sunday, is third with 875 points. Herbert (806) and Mason (745) are fourth and fifth in the Touring Car point standings. Honda leads Volvo 77–59 in the Touring Car Manufacturers’ Championship, with Volkswagen third with 47 points.

The Pirelli World Challenge Round Nine race will air on Versus at 5:30 p.m. (EDT), September 18. For more information, please visit www.world-challenge.com.

  freitas
  Garrick Freitas won the TSCO Vegas to Reno race's premier Class 1500 and came in second overall out of 298 vehicles.

Freitas Off-Road Motorsports Comes From the Back to Finish First in Class 1 at Vegas to Reno
In only his second season racing in Best in the Desert’s unlimited ranks, Garrick Freitas won the TSCO Vegas to Reno race. Winning in desert racing’s premier Class 1500 and coming in second overall out of 298 vehicles in the longest off-road race in America was anything but easy, though. Freitas took a more conservative approach to this year’s race, which netted him a starting position of 26th from Friday’s qualifying—well back from his ninth place qualifying position at last year’s race. The Tulare, California, resident knew he had to remain patient to overcome not only the 38 other Class 1500 competitors vying for the win, but also the 549 miles of brutal Nevada desert.

When the green flag dropped, Freitas quickly settled in to a fast and sustainable pace in his Jimco Champion with his father Danny navigating. This strategy, combined with skillful and efficient pitting from his family and friends, resulted in Freitas never getting passed while in the pits. Instead, he passed many other teams dealing with mechanical issues to move forward in the field. Approximately half-way from Vegas to Reno, at Race Mile 219, Danny Freitas gave up the passenger seat to his son’s cousin Trevor, who navigated him to victory.

After 10 hours of fierce competition, Freitas finished just five minutes behind the overall winner and 10 minutes ahead of current Class 1500 leader Steve Appleton. The class victory catapulted Freitas and his team from fourth in season points up to second place and puts them right in the hunt for the $9,000 Camburg “Best in the Desert” award for the fastest average speed over every mile of every race for the season. Freitas and his team now return home to Tulare to prep their Jimco Champion for the BITD Bluewater Desert Challenge October 14–16 in Parker, Arizona.