After winning a perfect six titles in three seasons of WeatherTech Championship competition with its Corvette Coyote Daytona Prototype, Action Express Racing has taken on a new challenge in 2017.
While the Corvettes are now part of the IMSA history books, the team returns both driver lineups and most of its support personnel to field a pair of Cadillac Daytona Prototype internationals.
Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi return to the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R team that captured both the 2014 and 2015 WeatherTech Championships in addition to sweeping the Patron North American Endurance Cup from 2014 through 2016.
The No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Cadillac DPi-V.R is led by defending WeatherTech Championship titlists Eric Curran and Dane Cameron.
In addition to being historically strong at Road America, Action Express Racing has been gaining momentum after watching Cadillac DPi rival Wayne Taylor Racing win the opening five rounds of the 2017 season. Fittipaldi and Barbosa - joined by Filipe Albuquerque - broke through by winning the recent Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International.
"Historically, as seasons roll along, we get stronger, while other people run out of gas a little bit," said Action Express team manager Gary Nelson. "I believe that's the result of our preparation. The long straightaways at Road America require a mix of downforce and aero drag, and we seem to be able to find that combination very well and are able to match that to our gearing. Our trend has been to come on strong at Elkhart Lake and the other races late in the season, and I hope to see that happening again this year."
This weekend, Curran and Cameron will be looking to complete the Road America hat trick in the No. 31 Cadillac DPi-V.R.
"Road America is a lot of fun, because it's an old-school racetrack that's been around a long time," Curran said. "It's a special place. I've been racing there a long time - 15 years or so - and I used to do a lot of testing there for RealTime Racing. Action Express has done very well there. Dane (Cameron) and I won the last two years in the red and white Whelen Corvette DP, and we're excited to return with our new Whelen Cadillac on that fast, flowing track. Road America is in my top three or four tracks, and I think it really suits our Cadillac."
Curran is a three-time winner at Road America, joining John Heinricy in taking Rolex Series GT honors in 2011 in the Marsh Racing/Whelen Engineering Corvette.
"Road America really suits the way we like to run our cars and the Action Express team philosophy," Cameron said. "For me, it's always been a good place. I've won there the last three years (winning in GTD in 2014 with Turner Motorsport), and I was leading there the year before that in a [Team Sahlen] Prototype before it broke with only a few minutes to go. It's a great track, and it's always suited me with its long straights and hard braking zones. It's a ton of fun, and I can't wait to get back there. Also, my wife's family is from the Chicago area, so we will have a bunch of people watching us this weekend."
Fittipaldi and Barbosa won in the WeatherTech Championship's Road America debut in 2014 in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP, and then finished second behind teammates Curran and Cameron at the circuit the past two seasons.
"I think racing the Cadillac for the first time at Road America is going to be a big learning curve, but I think we've made a lot of progress since our race at Detroit," Barbosa said. "Road America is a great race track for the drivers, and I think it's going to be an amazing track with the new DPi cars, with all the downforce and speed that they have. Action Express has always done a good job there, so I'm looking forward to seeing if we can continue the success we've had there."
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Credit: Action Express Racing / Jose Mario Dias
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