Lotus Alex Job Racing Ready for ALMS Petit Le Mans Finale This Weekend

Lotus Alex Job Racing drivers Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell and Johnny Mowlem are ready for the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season ending Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda to be run Oct. 20 at Road Atlanta.  John Eagle European’s Lotus of Austin is central Texas’ official factory dealer for new and pre-owned Lotus cars.

The AJR team took the opportunity to test the car on Oct. 16 at the 2.54-mile, 12-turn Road Atlanta track, located 30 minutes northeast of Atlanta. Mowlem (Charvil, UK), the Lotus Factory Driver, joins season long drivers Sweedler (Westport, NY) and Bell (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) behind the wheel of the No. 23 Lotus Alex Job Racing Evora GT. Road Atlanta is viewed by the drivers as one of the more "old style" road courses with high speed turns and a multitude of elevation changes making the 1,000-mile or 10-hours, whatever comes first, a very exciting race. The event will see the second biggest field of the year with 42 cars entered.

"We were able to put in a good day of testing yesterday at Road Atlanta," Sweedler said. "Johnny is fitting right in with the team and is providing some positive feedback on the car and the development that the team has done with the car this season. We have a good baseline set up to tweak on for the rest of the week and a few additions to our to-do list for the off season. Our partners Battery Tender, William Rast, Schecter Guitars and Yokohama are behind us all the way and I am looking forward to closing out the season very strong on Saturday."

Bell will run Road Atlanta for the first time since a second place run in Indy Lights 11 years ago.

"My last visit to Road Atlanta was in 2001," Bell said. "I was leading by 16 seconds with three laps to go in the Indy Lights race. It started to rain. The yellow came out. It went green, white, checker and Wheldon (Dan) passed me in last corner. I finished second. Dan was a fierce competitor and it's been one year since we lost him, he was a good friend. I am looking forward to racing the Lotus there this weekend, especially through the Esses - the fast twisty section from Turn Two to Turn Five. We have a great contingent of Lotus enthusiasts coming to the race and I hope we can have them celebrating with us come 9 p.m. on Saturday evening."

Mowlem returns to Petit Le Mans, where he also raced one year ago in a Lotus.

"I raced the Evora at Petit Le Mans last year in the World Endurance Championship," Mowlem said. "The Road Atlanta circuit really suits the chassis. I am optimistic that with the great preparation of AJR behind it, and the advantage of a 10 hour race where reliability and strategy can really play a part, that we have a chance at a strong performance in the final results."

Alex Job, team principal, had his team put the car through its paces on Monday at Road Atlanta.

"The test went well," Job said. "Johnny got acclimated to the car and the team. We were able to put some quality miles on the Lotus and get a good baseline set up heading into the official weekend which starts on Wednesday. We are looking to prove out our updates on the car, so we can go into the off season knowing exactly where to put our development efforts for 2013."

On Friday, the team donate one of the limited-edition Lotus Alex Job Racing Schecter Guitars to the Austin Hatcher Foundation auction. The live auction will take place at 1:15 p.m. on Friday at the Flying Lizard Motorsports' Team Transporter in the paddock.

Petit Le Mans Powered by Mazda live qualifying can be viewed Oct. 19 at 2:25 p.m. EDT on ESPN3.com, the live streaming of the race can be seen Oct. 20 beginning at 11:15 a.m. EDT on ESPN3.com with the race broadcast on ABC running Oct. 21 starting at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

Alex Job Racing is one of the most successful teams in sports car racing. The team's resume includes: ALMS GT series championships in 2004, 2003, 2002; a record 22 consecutive ALMS GT pole positions; two-time 24-Hour of Le Mans GT class winners; Eight 12-hour of Sebring wins in 2012, 2010, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 1999 and 1995.

The ALMS GT Class is production-based, moderately-modified two-wheel drive race cars comprise the GT class - BMW M3, Corvette C6.R, Ferrari F458 GT, Ford GT-R, Jaguar XKR GT, Lotus Evora and Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. The GT cars share many similarities to their showroom brands. With top speeds of up to 180 mph, these elite GTs produce between 450-500 horsepower and have a minimum weight of 2,480 pounds. All GT race cars have green Leader Light System race position lights and green car numbers.