Lexington, Ohio (6 April 2021) – Round 3 Racing (R3R) will take the hunt for the World Racing League (WRL) National Championship to rural Ohio this weekend as the team looks forward to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the third round of the 2021 season this weekend. The 2020 WRL Eastern Champions bring a four-car lineup of Porsche entries to the GTO, GP2 and GP3 classes which will compete on the 2.258-mile course in rural Ohio.
Coming off a podium finish at Barber Motorsports Park last month, Loni Unser, Mike GIlbert and Mo Dadkhah have their sights set on taking the No. 601 Cooper Tires Porsche Boxster to the top step with a GP2 class win. The Cooper Tires drivers have combined for two wins and seven podiums since partnering up at the beginning of the 2020 season.
R3R regular Christian Maloof will be joined by Lt. Col. Mike Smith and Hannah Grisham in the No. 604 Sentinel Porsche Boxster. Smith returns to the team where he last raced the Boxster at Barber Motorsports Park with R3R in 2019. Grisham completes the driver lineup and will make her first WRL start this weekend in addition to her full-season Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup campaign.
“Joining the R3R team again is always a pleasure and an amazing group of people to work with,” said Smith. “Brad and Buz (McCall) have put together a professional setup and crew that allows me to jump into a car and just focus on racing. Mid-Ohio is a tricky and technical course that I have years of experience on and if the midwest spring decides to give us rain, I know I am capable of using those conditions to get the No. 604 to the front and kept clean.”
Both the No. 601 and No. 604 will return to the 2.7L engine platform for the remainder of the WRL season.
As the team looks to make an assault on both the overall as well as class competitions, R3R will have an added opportunity for success starting this weekend with the debut of one additional entry, the No. 605 Porsche Boxster.
Pairing for the first time this season on board the No. 605 will be Cole Loftsgard, Carter Pease, Dennis Neel and David Kicak complete the driver lineup for the combined 16-hours over two days of racing as the team’s sole GP3 class entry.
The No. 702 Hagerty Porsche Cayman returns to competition after an on-track incident at the Barber Motorsports Park round which forced the entry of Buz McCall, Brad McCall, and Sarah Montgomery to retire early. Entered in the top class (GTO), the trio will have two opportunities to capture an overall win.
R3R team co-owner Brad McCall is optimistic as the team looks to collect championship points.
“As a team owner, I am expecting us to continue our upward momentum as we continue to think about championship implications, but as a driver I can’t wait to be able to drive at Mid-Ohio,” said McCall. “The R3R crew has worked hard to put the No. 702 back together in time for this race weekend and they continue to provide the best work for our cars. We have a good opportunity to win and want to come out on top when we see the checkered flag.”
The race weekend at Mid-Ohio begins Friday, April 9th with practice from 8:00 AM-5:00 PM ET before the first eight hour endurance race on Saturday, April 10th and Race Two On Sunday, April 11th.
