For media information:
Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
Cell: (317) 201-0729
E-mail: LindaKMansfield@cs.com
 
(Photos are available)
 
 
 
Genoa Racing Back on Track Wednesday
As Preparation Continues
For Saturday's Twelve Hours of Sebring;
Team Fastest in Class in Practice Wed.
 
SEBRING, Fla., March 17 - Genoa Racing was back in action Wednesday at 
Sebring International Raceway after missing Tuesday's practice sessions to make 
repairs to its bright-red LMPC car, No. 36. At the end of the day it was on 
top of the class standings.
 
The car's tub was damaged in an accident around noon on Monday when Tom 
Sutherland spun and hit a guardrail off Turn 7 as the Zionsville, Ind.-based 
team prepared for Saturday's Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by 
Fresh from Florida.
 
The season opener for the American Le Mans Series will be broadcast live on 
SPEED beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
 
Sutherland was not hurt in the incident, but the car's tub did not hold up 
as well as expected.  Chris Oldham, who handles the composites work for the 
team, was busy all day Tuesday making repairs to the tub using a product 
supplied by one of the team's technical partners, Zyvex Performance Materials. 
 
"In layman's terms, it's a structural adhesive for carbon fiber," said 
Oldham as he applied the product to a carbon-fiber panel in Genoa Racing's 
paddock inside the 3.7-mile, 17-turn road course in Sebring, Fla.
 
Zyvex Performance Materials, which is based in Columbus, Ohio, was the 
first company to provide nano-enhanced products to the marketplace.  Carbon 
nanotubes are among the strongest materials on earth, with a strength about 100 
times that of steel at one-sixth the weight.  Besides Genoa Racing's LMPC 
car, the company's products are used on everything from high-performance 
powerboats and fighter jets to baseball bats.
 
The LMPC category is a new class in the American Le Mans Series this year, 
and all of the cars in it are brand-new.
 
"The tub should have held up better than it did in that incident, but the 
supplier responded well to the problem and worked with us to minimize the 
track time we lost," said Thomas Knapp, the team's manager.
 
All three of the team's drivers - Sutherland, Andy Wallace and J.R. 
Hildebrand - turned practice laps on Wednesday afternoon and at the end of the day 
the entry topped the class standings. Additional practice sessions will be 
held Thursday and Friday, and a warm-up session will be held on Saturday 
morning at 8 a.m. before the race begins at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time. 
 
Live timing and scoring will be available on imsaracing.net, while other 
information can be found on americanlemans.com.