Rain Dance Works For Keen, Werner

Millville, N.J. (May 3, 2009) - Leh Keen and the Farnbacher Loles Racing team did a rain dance Saturday night, and it paid off with a 1-2 GT finish in the Verizon Wireless 250 presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Keen led 16 laps early in the race in the No. 87 Porsche GT3 early in the race. Dirk Werner passed Spencer Pumpelly's No. 66 TRG Porsche on the 65th circuit and led the final 22 laps to lead a 1-4 sweep for Porsches.

Pumpelly and Ted Ballou finished second, while Eric Lux and Bryan Sellers placed third in the No. 86 to give Farnbacher Loles Racing two cars on the podium. Rolex 24 At Daytona winners Andy Lally and Justin Marks placed fourth in the No. 67 TRG Porsche.

It was Keen's second Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 victory. He won last year with Lux at Mid-Ohio, in a race run in similar rainy conditions.

"We've been watching the weather all weekend," Keen said. "We were happy to see there was a chance of rain all day. It's pretty obvious that we love the rain, and today we definitely got what we wanted.

"This team does really well in the worst Mother Nature conditions," Keen added. "It shows how good a team this is. The weather levels out the playing field, and that makes the drivers and the crews more important. We're going to celebrate tonight with a double podium."

Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis finished fifth in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXP.R, winners of the most recent Rolex Series race at Virginia International Raceway.

"We had visibility problems for most of the race," Liddell said. "We absolutely could not see a single thing through the windscreen. We tried everything and eventually changed the screen itself. Then the wiper packed up. It was very poor visibility for us."

Liddell prevented a 1-5 sweep for Porsche when he passed the No. 31 Battery Tender/MCM Motorsports/South African Airways Porsche GT 3 of Hennie Groenewald and Dion von Moltke late in the race. That car went on to finish sixth.

Kelly Collins started on the pole in the No. 07 Banner Racing Pontiac GXP.R he shared with Paul Edwards. That team also struggled with visibility issues, finishing 15th after leading two laps early in the race.

Leading the Mazda brigade was the No. 40 Dempsey Racing/El Grado Mazda RX-8 of Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster in seventh.

"I love this track, and I had a great time here," said Dempsey, who had his best personal finish in Rolex Series competition. "I feel really comfortable in the rain. Everybody drove really smart, which is a great thing about this series. All the drivers realized how difficult the conditions were, and they really took care of each other. It's a great series to be part of, I'm happy for the result, and I'm happy for Mazda and having a great result for El Grado. It's been a great weekend."

Sitting on over 500 acres in Millville, N.J., New Jersey Motorsports Park is conveniently located to Philadelphia, the Jersey Shore, New York and Baltimore, and offers diverse and dynamic motorsports attractions. The facility includes two world-class road courses (Thunderbolt and Lightning), an exclusive motorsports country club known as the Drivers Club, the Breighton Room Restaurant open to the general public, and F1 New Jersey, one of the top karting facilities in America. Opened in July 2008, New Jersey Motorsports Park hosts eight major motorsports events in 2009, beginning with the Verizon Wireless 250 presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 May 1 - 3. The 2009 spectator schedule also includes the Formula X weekend featuring the Atlantic Championship powered by Mazda and a host of Mazda-powered race series, as well as All Revved Up; the debut of the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) Pro Road Race Series, including the American Superbike class and the new Daytona Sportbike program; the return of the ARCA/ReMax Series as the only road course visit on the series schedule; a Ferrari Challenge event and the excitement of two separate Vintage race weekends.

For more information on New Jersey Motorsports Park, F1 New Jersey, Breighton Room, or to purchase tickets, visit www.njmp.com or call 856-327-7217.