(25 January 2010)— A new car, a new team, and the dawn of a brand new racing season have Adam Burrows and Trevor Hopwood looking forward to the Fresh From Florida 200 as the 2010 GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Championship kicks off at Daytona International Speedway this Friday.
The duo, who took the 2007 Street Tuner (ST) class Championship in their rookie season (2007) and made a run to second in the 2008 championship standings to follow up that effort, have been signed to race the Kia Forte Koup for Kinetic Motorsports as the Buford, Georgia-based organization has been tapped to campaign the factory effort for the Korean automaker.
The Kia Koup is a two-door compact sedan, utilizing a 2.4-liter four-cylinder powerplant with front-wheel drive. Burrows and Hopwood, who scored their championship utilizing a rear wheel drive platform, and now have two seasons of front-wheel drive racing experience under their belts, are eager to get down to Daytona and experience the new Koup as the Kinetic Motorsports program kicks off in earnest.
“This winter is getting old!” said Hopwood as he prepared for the trip to Daytona. “I’m just really excited about getting down there and getting back into a race car. Being invited to represent a company that is growing like Kia Motors America is very exciting, and I am really looking forward to this season. We know that this is a new program and that we have a lot to learn with the car yet, so our main focus early on will be to just get as many racing miles in as we can, and get a baseline to improve on all season long. Hopefully we can get that process started on the right foot this weekend.”
The two raced with the team in 2008 as they impressed in a Grand Sports (GS)-class debut at Lime Rock Park, and are looking forward to being reunited with the Kinetic team. The duo have taken top-ten finishes in two of of their last three races at Daytona (mechanical DNF while in top-ten/2009), and hope to start the year with a run to the finish line in 2010.
“We had a great experience when we ran with Kinetic in 2008, and are looking forward to building on that chemistry this season,” said Burrows. “I’m eager to get some laps in the car, get a feel for what it likes, and see where we can improve. Kinetic has done a remarkable job to build this program as quickly as they have, strengthening the engineering staff and expanding to be ready for this campaign. It’s a real testament to the depth of talent at Kinetic. Our expectations for this first race are modest, as we know this is just the starting point for the season, but that doesn’t make us any less eager to get down there and get going!”
The Fresh From Florida 200 is slated for a 1:45 PM ET green flag, and the 2.5-hour event will be carried on a tape-delayed basis on SPEED Channel.
PR inquiries about Adam Burrows and Trevor Hopwood should be directed to Matt Cleary at Sunday Group Management; 317.908.2975 (mobile) or media@ sundaymanagement.com
For additional information:
www.trevorhopwood.com <http://www.trevorhopwood.com> www.konichamps.wordpress.com <http://www.konichamps.wordpress.com>
www.sundaygroupmanagement.blogspot.com <http://www.sundaygroupmanagement.blogspot.com
