"The Mazdas will be fast, the Pontiacs will have something up their sleeves and there will be a ton of good Porsches there, but I think we have a very good chance of doing well. I think my strong suits are consistency, staying out of trouble and bringing the car back the way it was presented. I've always had two sayings. The first is 'when you surround yourself with great people, good things happen'. I cannot think of a better saying that applies to this situation.”
Zacharias, whose best finish overall at the Rolex 24 was eighth in 2007 in the TruSpeed/Wright Motorsports Riley Porsche, has been giving Martien advice for the last two years while coaching him in PCA and SCCA SPEED World Challenge events. Having finished on the podium at the Rolex 24 in 2001 in a Lola Sports Racing Prototype, believes his student is ready for the challenge ahead.
"He definitely has the drive for it, he's very passionate," Zacharias said, "He's one of those guys that if he wants to do something, he'll find a way to do it. Doing the Rolex 24 is his 50th birthday present to himself, and he really wants to do well."
The 2009 Rolex 24 marks Wright's 17th season in the event and, while every race is different, he is optimistic about his team's chances of success.
"For some reason, I feel really good about it,” he commented, “I don't want to jinx it, but we have a brand new car from Porsche and it's always nice going into the 24 with a brand new car. The driver line-up is very strong – and some of Phillip Martien's enthusiasm is rubbing off on all of us. He's one of the most enthusiastic car owners that we've worked with. Phillip's passion and enthusiasm has brought a lot of excitement to our team because he's been willing to dedicate his time and his focus on getting us what we need to make it happen."
Wright added, however, that his team will have to run its car at its full potential to be able to compete with the Pontiacs and the Mazdas in the GT field.
"It's going to take good race strategy and the reliability of the Porsche," he said, "We're going to have to run our car at its full potential the entire time, and I don't think the Pontiacs and the Mazdas are running at their full potential yet. My concern right now is that more can be gotten out of the Pontiacs and the Mazdas. When we go out and practice now, we're running as fast as the car can go. The Mazdas and the Pontiacs are purpose-built race cars, while our car started with street car construction and then was turned into a race car. It's good, but it's a different approach.
"If you go into a 24-hour race running at 100 per cent of the car's capacity instead of 80 per cent, you open it up for a failure. If you don't have to use the engine, the brakes and the gearbox at their full potential, you're not hurting the equipment. That's what I'm concerned about at this point.
"The other side of the coin is that the Porsche is a proven piece, it's a very reliable, well-engineered and well-built car. It has shown good speed already, and the reliability of the Porsche is one of our main strengths, but a good finish is going to also take good preparation, good driving, good race strategy - and good luck."
