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Alliance Autosport started their first Rolex 24 from 30th position in the highly competitive field of 45 GT cars. The opening hour of the race was fairly uneventful, but unfortunately during the second hour of the race, the Alliance Autosport Porsche GT3 Cup developed a clutch issue. The team elected to go back to the garage and fix the clutch problem instead of trying to run the remaining 22 hours with no clutch. After making repairs, the team was nearly in last place, but the car was running some very competitive laps, and they began to climb back up the leaderboard. Regrettably, a few hours later another GT car blew a tire exiting NASCAR Turn 2 and pushed the Alliance Autosport Porsche hard into the wall at 160 mph. The team did not give up though. They repaired and replaced the rear fender, front and rear suspension, splitter, and many other parts and quickly had the car back on track. Luckily, the team’s run of bad luck was over and all the hard work paid off as the #12 Porsche ran the next 15 hours flawlessly and moved up from nearly last place to finish 28th.

“It was certainly a very exciting race for us,” stated Alliance Autosport Team Manager Suren Tchobanian. “We had a fast and reliable car. Hitting the wall at that speed would have taken many teams out of the race or would cause other things to fail later in the race, but the team put their heads down and worked very hard to get the car repaired right and got us back on track. Our drivers Matt Schneider, Darryl Shoff, Hal Prewitt, Jon Miller, and Scott Rettich all drove smart and kept us out of trouble the rest of the race. We really wanted to finish in the top 10, but our most important objective was to finish the race and we achieved that. I am very proud of our entire team and our drivers!”

“Obviously we would have liked to have finished higher up the finishing order, but the team and my co-drivers put in a tremendous effort,” stated Alliance Autosport Driver Scott Rettich. “It was unfortunate that someone blew a tire and hit us on the banking. Over the entire 24 hour race that was the only contact we had with another car. Without that on track incident I think we could have easily finished in the top 15.”

Alliance Autosport would like to thank the follow sponsors and supports for being a part of their 2012 Rolex 24 Hour effort: PDI Communication Systems, Saiphs Performance Apparel, Florida Citrus-Drink Florida Orange Juice, Coastal Technical Services LLC, Springboro Car Wash, and The RAACE Foundation.

Alliance Autosport currently has open seats at many of the remaining Rolex GT rounds. Interested parties should contact Alliance Autosport at goallianceautosport@gmail.com

Alliance Autosport competes throughout North America at many major road racing venues. With multiple championships, including two SCCA National Championships and three SCCA Pro Racing Championships, the team has found success at each level it has competed. Currently the team is competing in SCCA National, SCCA Pro Racing, and Grand Am Rolex Series events. More information about the team is available at https://www.allianceautosport.com and http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Alliance-Autosport/226161730731234