For more information:
Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
Cell: (317) 201-0729
E-mail: LKMRestart@gmail.com

Dempsey/Wright Motorsports'
Brumos Racing #58 Finishes
Sixth in Class at Sebring

SEBRING, Fla., March 24 - All three drivers of the Dempsey/Wright Motorsports #58 Porsche 911 GT America were scored as high as second in class at some point during Saturday's Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida at Sebring International Raceway. After 12 hours of competition under brutally hot conditions the team finished sixth in class with its Porsche, which carried the livery of Brumos Racing.

The team's drivers were Jan Heylen, who lives in nearby Tampa, Fla.; the youngest driver in the race, 19-year-old Madison Snow of Lehi, Utah, and Milo Valverde of San Jose, Costa Rica. The latter was substituting for Patrick Dempsey of Malibu, Calif., who was a late withdrawal due to work commitments. The 34-year-old Valverde was making his first Sebring start.

All three drivers were proud to represent Brumos Racing, an iconic team that is enshrined in the track's Hall of Fame. In addition to Brumos Racing, the team enjoyed support from Porsche, Beautyrest mattresses, Bilstein shocks, Spyder active sportswear and Universal Industrial Sales.

An engine issue during practice caused the team to sideline its new, 2015-spec race engine and install a well-seasoned, 2014-spec engine. The crew stepped up to perform the engine swap and committed themselves to fast and accurate pit stops to help gain track position. Their practice, experience and commitment showed, as the team had numerous lightning-fast pit stops, which to most accounts were the fastest in the field. 

There were six full-course cautions during the race, which featured 14 cars in the GT Daytona class in a total field of 43. All but one of the yellows occurred in the first half of the race, which made finding a comfortable rhythm a challenge. The cautions' timing in relationship to the team's regularly-scheduled pit stops also proved challenging.

Due to the 2014 engine's power versus the power supplied by the 2015 spec engine, the team decided on a very aggressive race strategy to keep track position, as the car didn't have the outright speed to drive to the front but it was competitive once there. Driving hard takes its toll on components such as the braking system. The team planned to work on the car's brakes under a long caution period during the second half of the race, but unfortunately that caution never came and the repair was completed at an inopportune time.

After qualifying eighth, the #58 was 13th in class at the one-hour mark due to the shuffle of pit stops, but Heylen and Snow pushed hard throughout their stints and 16 minutes after the one-hour mark Snow was shown in second place. Valverde kept their pace up and the car was still in second at the three-hour mark. The fourth hour featured an intense battle between Snow and Bryce Miller in an Audi, but the car remained unscathed and it was fourth in class at the halfway point. 

Not counting dips for pit stops, the entry was primarily in sixth place during hours seven and eight, but Heylen climbed to third at the nine-hour mark. At the time he was 40.164 seconds behind the second-

place Aston Martin and under a fierce attack by the fourth-place driver, who was in a Dodge Viper. 

Snow was circling the track under a full-course caution at the 10-hour mark. He'd been fifth until the caution waved, but at hour 10 he was seventh due to pit stops. The car had lost one more spot with 60 minutes to go, but Heylen put his head down and brought the entry up to sixth before time ran out, setting the car's fastest lap of the race in the process.

Two of the cars in the GT Daytona class that were running in the top-three positions with one hour remaining in the race didn't end up on the podium. The leader with just 8 minutes to go ended up ninth. 

"We want to publically thank Brumos Racing's Hurley Haywood for showing his support and offering motivation to the team with stories from his many years of endurance racing," said John Wright, the team owner.

The GTD division won't be in action at Long Beach, so the #58's next race will be May 3 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, Calif., when the class will be paired with the PC class and the P and GTLM classes will be combined for twin 2-hour races. That event will be covered live on Fox Sports 1 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern time. 

Saturday's race at Sebring was covered live on Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2 and imsa.com.

Wright Motorsports' Web site is at WrightMotorsports.com. The team is also active on Facebook and Twitter.

Driver quotes follow:

Madison Snow: "We had a great car for the race and the crew worked flawlessly on every pit stop. We always had tires done before fuel and when it came to brakes they were very quick and made sure everything was perfect before they sent us out on track. I was able to have great stints with not terrible amounts of traffic, as it was fairly

well spread out, and had cars in my class to battle with too. We finished in an OK position but we ran a very good race so I would say I am happy with the result."

Milo Valverde: "I want to thank the Dempsey/Wright Motorsports team for giving me this opportunity. It was an honor for me to drive a Brumos Porsche at Sebring next to Jan and Madison. The race was very hard. This was my first time at this difficult and demanding track, but it was a great experience. The guys did amazing pit stops; we just weren't lucky with the yellows, and that cost us track position."

About Wright Motorsports:  

Wright Motorsports is the premier Porsche race engineering facility in Ohio and a multi-series, international racing team known for superb car preparation, expert race strategy and driver development. Located in Batavia, Ohio near Cincinnati, it is owned and directed by John Wright, a certified Porsche factory-trained technician. As a crew chief John Wright has played a key role in winning eight driver and seven team championships in World Challenge, IMSA (ALMS) and the Grand-Am Rolex Series. Wright Motorsports won the team championship in Porsche GT3 Cup USA in 2012 and 2013. In 2014 it had four podium finishes in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. For more information see WrightMotorsports.com and follow it on Facebook and Twitter.