Ben Keating Racing Team News

News and Links Second-Straight Circuit of The Americas Win for Ben Keating and Second of Season with Jeroen Bleekemolen AUSTIN, Texas (September 21, 2014) - Competing in their home event at the famed Circuit of The Americas in Austin (COTA), Texas, ViperExchange.com drivers Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen drove the No. 33 SRT Viper GT3-R to an impressive victory in the Lone Star Le Mans, the penultimate round of the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship on Saturday . “It was a really great team effort all day,” said Keating, principal of the Texas-based ViperExchange.com . “We kept the car clean, improved the car, Jeroen drove a great race, and it just really couldn’t have been any sweeter.” Knowing that patience would be a critical element in the race, Keating put in an incredibly calculated race-opening driving stint, doing his best to maintain a pace at the front but understanding that keeping the car in one piece was of primary importance. Keating raced in the top five for much of his run, pulling in to the pits during a timely yellow at the one-hour mark. “In qualifying we had a very significant understeer, and we overcorrected for the race and developed a pretty significant oversteer,” Keating said. “This track is not one where you want an oversteer. I was able to hold the other guys behind me until traffic started coming around. The traffic opened the door for them to get by. My stint in the car was a challenge. I started in second and brought the car home in seventh.” Keating handed off to Bleekemolen and the job was clear for the experienced veteran. Knowing that the team didn’t have the fastest car but one capable of winning, the Dutchman went to immediate work, passing multiple cars during his opening stint and climbing up to fourth by time the race had one hour remaining. Pitting for the final time, an impressive job by the No. 33 ViperExchange.com crew would elevate Bleekemolen to second, with the car steadily gaining on the leading BMW as the laps continued. With 30 minutes remaining, the slowing BMW was simply no match for the Viper, and Bleekemolen would cruise to the lead and never look back. “Today was great, it was very exciting,” Bleekemolen said. “When I got in the car we were very close with many cars, five or six were fighting for second, and at that point I didn’t think we had a chance at winning. I just kept it clean, tried not to make mistakes and suddenly we were leading. Some people dropped out because of issues, some lost the pace and some had different pit stop strategies, which allowed me to overtake two or three cars which got us the lead.” The victory was the second in a row for Keating at COTA and second of the 2014 season after winning in July with Bleekemolen at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Canada. In last year’s IMSA race at the Austin track, Keating co-drove to victory in a Porsche in the GTC class. Each Texas race was won in front of a large group of Texas-based family and friends, including Saturday’s crowd of over 100 supporters. Just two weeks away, the season-ending Petit Le Mans can be seen live in its entirety on IMSA.com and in same-day coverage on FOX Sports 2 beginning at 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Oct. 4 . Race highlights will air on FOX on Sunday, Oct. 5 and viewers can check local listings in their areas for air times. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ben Keating to Co-Drive with Tony Ave in ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R at The Oak Tree Grand Prix Team Regular Jeroen Bleekemolen’s Commitment in Europe Opens Door for Experienced Virginia International Raceway Driver DANVILLE, Va. ( August 19, 2014 ) – Ben Keating and the No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R team will be joined by co-driver Tony Ave for this weekend’s Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway (VIR), August 22 – 24 . The weekend’s featured Oak Tree Grand Prix can be seen in live coverage on FOX Sports 1, this Sunday, August 24 , at 4 p.m. EDT /1 p.m. PDT. Ave will be filling in for Keating’s regular ViperExchange.com co-driver, Jeroen Bleekemolen, who will be racing in Slovakia this weekend in the Blancpain Sprint Series. The Dutchman currently is second in points in the competitive European championship. The Keating/Ave pairing brings together an accomplished duo at VIR. Both drivers have won the title of Grassroots Motorsports Magazine Ultimate Track Car Challenge Champion in Riley-built race cars. Keating captured the honor just two months ago in the 2014 edition of the winner-take-all event behind wheel of the same No. 33 Viper GT3-R he drives this weekend. Ave took top honors in 2011 in a Riley Mk XXII track day car. “Tony is a stud,” Keating said. “Multiple Trans Am Champion, fellow Ultimate Track Car Challenge winner. He has many laps at VIR as well. We should be a great team.” Keating also returns to VIR as a defending IMSA race winner, having scored the 2013 victory in the former IMSA ALMS GTC class in last year’s Oak Tree Grand Prix. He has also had success at VIR in Viper Cup competition to go along with his multiple championships in that series. “I love VIR,” Keating said. “I have raced there 12 times and I have won nine of those races. Last year in GTC, I was able to gap the field a little in my stint and I am hoping for the same in 2014. Except for the long straight, the Viper should be good. We are very good up the esses and in Turn 17 coming on to the front straight, but I expect the Porsches, Audis, and Ferraris to be good here also.” Ave is stepping into a Viper that arrives at one of his favorite tracks after three-straight top-four finishes. The streak began with ViperExchange.com team's first victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and also includes third place at Indianapolis and fourth one race ago at Road America. “The VIR track is one of my favorites,” Ave said. “Fortunately, I live within a couple hours of there so we test our Trans Am cars there a fair amount, it’s very challenging and has some high speed esses that I really enjoy. It’s an excellent place to make my debut in GTD.” ViperExchange.com will take to a VIR facility that has received numerous upgrades since last year. Part of the improvements are a paved paddock and newly resurfaced race course. “The new pavement on the track is a game changer,” Keating said. “It should be really good on tire wear, and some of those cars that are hard on tires should be able to stay more competitive longer. The new pavement makes the track much racier, easier to pass, safer at the limit. I really love what they have done. All good stuff.” Ave will be making his first IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) start with ViperExchange.com but he is a regular test driver for the SRT Motorsports Viper program, which is run by Riley Technologies. “I have driven for Bill and Bob Riley since 1992,” Ave said. “I drove their newly-designed Oldsmobile Pro Series car to its first victories, which led to future championships. I have tested or raced pretty much everything they have built since then, from Trans Am to LMP cars, Daytona Prototypes to Indy cars, Silver Crown to Stock Cars, and now the Vipers. I have done shake down tests and some research and development testing with the GT Vipers, just enough to say that I want to drive them a lot more!” Noteworthy - Within IMSA TUDOR Championship regulations, the No. 33 will be a little toned down this weekend from the wide-open rules of the Ultimate Track Car Challenge. “The GT3-R will be very different than at the Ultimate Track Car Challenge,” Keating said. “For starters, about 200 horsepower less. I don't know that there will be a big comparison, but at least we know this car is capable of doing some unbelievable laps at this track. I am excited to be going back.” - Ave’s relationship with the Riley organization extends beyond testing and racing their cars. “I purchased their Trans Am design and business from them a few years ago and continue building those cars today,” Ave said. “I pretty much only drive cars I own anymore, but any time I get a call from the Rileys I am always ready. I can't wait for this weekend!” _____________________________________________________________________ Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen Finish Fourth at Road America in Viper GT3-R ViperExchange.com Survives Caution-Plagued Race for Top-Five Finish in No. 33 Viper GT3-R ELKHART LAKE, Wis. ( August 11, 2014 ) – Steering clear and staying ahead of the on-track trouble that sidelined more than one competitor, Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen finished fourth in Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America in the No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R. The finish was the third-straight top-four result for Keating, Bleekemolen and ViperExchange.com , a streak that started with the team’s first win last month at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and a third one race ago in the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Sunday’s Road America race started with another solid opening stint by Keating who raced in second place the entire time. “We had a good day,” Keating said. “I had a good stint. We qualified third but due to an accident in morning warm-up we started in second. I was happy to sit there in second throughout my stint. It was a good place to be to hand it over to Jeroen.” Bleekemolen took the wheel just past the race’s one-hour mark but the refueling speed allowed for the Viper GT3-R per IMSA rules extended the stop. “We were just unlucky in the pit stops,” Bleekemolen said. “By the rules, we are a bit slow in the pit stops with the refueling so that dropped us back twice. Then you have to fight back, which was going pretty well, so in the end I guess it was the maximum we can do if you always go down after pit stops.” Bleekemolen raced back to second after the first stop only to fall all the way back to ninth when he pitted for the second and final time 55 minutes from the race finish. “Both of our pit stops were slow in comparison to the other teams,” Keating said. “We got leap frogged in pit lane both times. A couple of the Porsches and the Ferraris had ultra-quick pit stops and gained a couple of positions but Jeroen did a great job.” Bleekemolen’s attempt to race through the field in the final stages of the race was thwarted by a pair of full-course caution periods that slowed the field for more than half of the final 45 minutes. The cautions were the final of six on the day that saw the field parade under caution for more than 90 minutes of the timed 2-3/4 hour race. “This track is a great track but there is a lot of high-risk kind of corners that will bait you into going deep and making a pass that is a low-percentage pass,” Keating said. “So we saw a lot of yellows, we still had a great race, but it was really difficult. It seemed like half the race was under caution, it was honestly just a series of sprint races. It was nice for Jeroen to be bunched up like that, he’s really good in traffic and was able to make a few passes and get us up in the order. We finished fourth, so we’re happy, P4 is definitely not too shabby.” The entire ViperExchange.com team has been pleased with the recent run of positive but hard-earned results “We have proven that with a first, a third and a fourth we are consistent in the top five now,” Bleekemolen said. “The car is right up there, the team is right up there, but it is so competitive that if anything goes against you just a little bit you are not there anymore." Next up for ViperExchange.com and the IMSA TUDOR Championship is the Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway, August 22 – 24 . The weekend’s featured race can be seen in live coverage on FOX Sports 1, Sunday, August 24 , at 4 p.m. EDT /1 p.m. PDT. Noteworthy - After a challenging start to the season that included a devastating fire in the opening hour of the 12 Hours of Sebring, ViperExchange.com is hitting its competitive stride this summer. The recent performance bodes well for the future. “The last two months have been good for us,” Keating said. “We’re ready to bring on 2015. The year started so bad for us with the fire, so sadly we’re not really in the championship hunt. We’re trying to do everything we can to get better and better for 2015. We’re really trying to work on pit stops. If you multiply one or two seconds by 24 hours it’s a lot of time. We’re preparing for next year.” ViperExchange.com to Produce LIVE Webcast from Paddock at Road America http://www.viperexchange.com/behind-the-coil ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (August 5, 2014)- Continuing their efforts to bring the loyal Viper audience behind the scenes of the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, ViperExchange.com is launching a new initiative this Saturday, August 9, with the premiere of “Behind the Coil: LIVE!” The next step in the company’s “Behind the Coil” content series, the team will be hosting a live, paddock-side webcast on Saturday night in advance of Sunday’s IMSA TUDOR Championship Continental Tire Road Race Showcase. For any fans of either the Dodge Viper SRT or simply the IMSA TUDOR Championship, this is the perfect opportunity to go directly inside the team’s paddock, interact with ViperExchange.com drivers Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen, as well as ask any questions of both drivers and the crew. The webcast will begin on Saturday at 8 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. CDT in Wisconsin), and continue on for one hour. Fans can see this by visiting either www.ViperExchange.com, or by downloading the Ustream app for your smartphone or tablet and searching for “ViperExchange.” For Ben Keating, driver of the GT Daytona (GTD) class No. 33 ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R, the opportunity to explain the complexities of his machine to a loyal audience is a welcome one. “We’re very excited to bring this to opportunity to our loyal fans and Viper owners,” Keating said. “It’s our first go at this so I’m sure there will be some things to learn, but we’re very excited to give our fans a chance to look up close at the car, and of course answer any questions. It should be a fun time for all.” Fans will not only have their questions answered live visiting the stream, but the ViperExchange.com team will also be giving away numerous hats, shirts, and other giveaway items throughout the webcast. Keating, Bleekemolen and ViperExchange.com come to Road America following their best two-race run in the inaugural IMSA TUDOR Championship season. The No. 33 team won its first race in early July at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and followed it up with a third-place finish in the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a little over a week ago. Repeat Podium for ViperExchange.com, Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen in Viper GT3-R Indy Debut ViperExchange.com Backs Up Breakout Victory with Third-Place in Brickyard Grand Prix in No. 33 Viper GT3-R INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (July 28, 2014) – The No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R of drivers Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen scored its second-straight IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship podium result Friday in the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a third-place GT Daytona (GTD) finish. The podium showing at Indy followed ViperExchange.com’s breakout victory one race earlier at “Mosport” Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Both finishes are season-best results for the first-year Viper GT3-R IMSA TUDOR Championship effort and have combined to turn the tide on a tough run of bad luck in the first half of the season. Like the Mosport victory, where Bleekemolen made the winning pass less than two laps from the finish, Indy featured another late-race pass with two laps remaining by the fast Dutchman. “Jeroen drove an incredible race,” Keating said. “There is no one I would rather have as a teammate. To hand him the car in 10th and finish on the podium again is phenomenal. I’m really happy.” The fact that the ViperExchange.com team had to fight from far back in the field at all was the result of a costly bump-and-run incident Keating sustained during his race-opening shift. He was running in fifth and in the GTD lead pack when another class competitor spun him out. “The 58 Porsche was right behind me,” Keating said. “Three separate times he bumped me and let me know he was there. In Turn 12 again he hit me pretty hard and spun me. It took me a while to get turned back around. That was after a caution, and since everyone was bunched up, I wound up in 10 th , which really upset me. Race control decided not to give the 58 a penalty which upset me even more. Undeterred by the set-back, Keating turned the car over to Bleekemolen about 60 minutes into the 2-3/4-hour race and the climb through the field began. Driving a double stint to the finish, Bleekemolen cracked the top five with 15 minutes remaining and took fourth a lap later. The pass for the podium came on the final lap of the race on the No. 555 Ferrari. “I’m pretty happy,” Bleekemolen said. “Ben got spun around, which threw us to the back, but we had great strategy and some good fights to get back to the front. I’m really happy we could take the podium in the last minute of the race. It is great to have come out on top.” Keating staged a charge of his own after recovering from the spin despite dealing with traffic and some traction challenges. “I was running decent times,” Keating said. “I had one lap where I was full of red mist that I did one really fast pass. Our car had less overall grip than practice, so I had trouble being consistent, but I think our car was really good on tires. At the end, some cars where locking up and going wide while we were still able to run fast laps.” Next up for ViperExchange.com and the IMSA TUDOR Championship is the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 8 – 10 . The weekend’s featured race can be seen in same-day coverage on FOX Sports 1, Sunday, August 10 , at 6:30 p.m. EDT /3:30 p.m. PDT. “The car was great at Indy,” Bleekemolen said. “We had the pace to fight them. We didn’t have much more, but it was just enough to take the podium today. The next track is not our best track but the team has proved that they can do something good, so I’m really confident going into Road America.” Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen Bring Race-Winning Momentum to Indy First Brickyard Grand Prix Start for ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (July 23, 2014) – Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen bring the momentum of the first IMSA United SportsCar Championship victory for ViperExchange.com and the Viper GT3-R one race ago at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park to Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) this weekend for Friday’s Brickyard Grand Prix. Round 9 of the 2014 IMSA TUDOR Championship, the featured 2-3/4 hour race can be seen live on FOX Sports 1 at 5:30 p.m. EDT /2:30 p.m. PDT this Friday, July 25. Shaking off an up-and-down start to the 2014 season, Keating, Bleekemolen and the Riley Technologies-run Viper GT3-R team won its first race from the pole at the Canadian Tire “Mosport” road course two weekends ago. The victory erased any lasting memories of a devastating fire in the second race of the year at Sebring in March and served as an indicator that the ViperExchange.com team may have finally made up for the ground lost in the aftermath of that blaze. “We had a really good car going into Sebring before it all burned up,” Keating said. “After Sebring, we were pretty well starting over again from a setup standpoint. So in all the practice and stuff, we were close but really not exactly there. Really, every race we have done since then has got us a little closer, seeing what works and what doesn’t, and we feel like we are making our car better and better and better.” The No. 33 Viper GT3-R proved to be a good fit for the high-speed Mosport track. Bleekemolen won the pole in Saturday qualifying and race-starting driver Keating led twice in his opening stint. Bleekemolen took over for the second half of the race and made the winning pass just under two laps from the finish. “Mosport was probably one of the best tracks on the calendar for us,” Bleekemolen said. “Indy will be harder, but we should be pretty strong again. We are lucky we will run a chicane now instead of Turn 1 of the oval. In that chicane we will make up time, where we would have lost time otherwise on the oval and into the straight. The GTD class is so competitive that you never know before you actually drive if you can win, but we will certainly try hard.” The Indy road course configuration runs counter-course to the historic 2.5-mile oval used for the Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400. The layout used the last two years has been modified slightly for Friday’s IMSA TUDOR Championship race. Instead of making the high-speed run through the oval’s traditional Turn 1 that actually completes the 2.435-mile speedway road course lap, the track has been altered to include a slower chicane portion. “The track has changed and to me I think it is changed to our advantage,” Keating said. “We are not going to be around the banking as long as we would have in the old configuration. The new layout is more raceable, it makes for more interesting racing, more interesting television. We won’t be on the banking as long so being down on top speed will not hurt us as much.” Keating and Bleekemolen are one of the few duos in either IMSA TUDOR Championship GT division that has both drivers experienced on the Indianapolis road course. “I have only raced there once, back in 2005,” Bleekemolen said. “I have great memories from that race. I raced in Porsche Supercup and it was my first race ever in a Porsche. Normally new drivers take a while in Supercup to do well, but I took a podium that weekend and it really helped my career. A podium at Indy is always going to be special.” Keating was a competitor in the first headline sports car race at Indy in 2012, the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix. “I am really excited to go back to Indy,” Keating said. “It’s an iconic track obviously. I raced there in GRAND-AM in a Porsche in 2012 and it was great fun. I ran with Joerg Bergmeister, it rained, and he did an epic job on the rain, passing prototypes.” The two-day Brickyard Grand Prix schedule starts Thursday with practice and qualifying. Race-day Friday begins with a 2 p.m. EDT warm-up before the featured Brickyard Grand Prix that is scheduled to go green at 5:45 p.m. EDT . Noteworthy - Keating and the ViperExchange.com /Riley Technologies crew didn’t rest for long after the breakout Mosport victory. They brought the No. 33 to the Grassroots Motorsports Magazine Ultimate Track Car Challenge the following Friday at Virginia International Raceway and walked away with the overall champion’s trophy with the fastest lap of the day. Keating’s winning lap time of 1:45.394 would have earned the pole position at last year’s American Le Mans Series race at VIR. “This event has just a totally different feeling than all of the big-time stress of a race weekend,” Keating said. “It is just a bunch of great guys wanting to go out and have fun. It’s a run-what-you-brung kind of a deal and it was a total blast.” A total open competition, Riley Technologies pulled out the stops on the No. 33 to take the victory. “We really tried to go back to the GT3-spec car that it started life as,” Keating said. “It really didn’t make sense to go on with the ABS, so we left the ABS off, but we put the GT3-spec rear wing on it, and put the rear-wheel speed sensors back on and turned on the traction control. The Michelins were the same as the GTLM cars run, and we took the restrictor out, which was a huge deal. With the restrictor in GTD we are running somewhere between 450 and 500 horsepower. Without the restrictor we are running somewhere around 680. It really was a ton of fun.” About ViperExchange.com: ViperExchange.com is the largest Dodge Viper and exotic cars licensed dealer located just Northwest of Houston, Texas. With over 100 Dodge Vipers typically for sale and more arriving daily for sale, ViperExchange.com has combined the largest inventory in the world of new and pre-owned Dodge Vipers. ViperExchange.com also offers the best prices and discounts. Special orders, specific model searches and financing options are also available. Visit directly at ViperExchange.com , Twitter @ViperExchange and Facebook at Facebook.com/Viper-Exchange . Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen Score First Viper GT3-R Victory in IMSA TUDOR Championship Last-Lap Pass Gives No. 33 ViperExchange.com Team Deserved Victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada ( July 14, 2014 ) – Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen co-drove to the first victory for ViperExchange.com and the Viper GT3-R in the IMSA TUDOR Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park where a thrilling last-lap pass sealed the GT Daytona (GTD) win on Sunday . Keating led twice in his race-opening driving shift, a season-best performance that set the tone for a winning day. “It’s been a longtime coming,” Keating said. “We both drove a great race, we had a great car, it’s easy to drive and that’s all you can ask for at this kind of a track. High-speed track, lots of risk, and it was a lot of fun. Hopefully we win on Sunday and sell on Monday at ViperExchange.com .” Keating handed the No. 33 Viper GT3-R to pole-winning teammate Bleekemolen during the first pit stop. Bleekemolen returned to the race in the top five, made up a few positions, and then had some good luck in traffic as he closed on race-leader Kevin Estre as the white flag flew. “I got a bit lucky at the end with Kevin Estre,” Bleekemolen said. “He caught a lot of traffic and in one lap he lost like four seconds. I saw it happening, he couldn’t do anything about it, there was like four or five cars overtaking him. I have been there before too but we will take it. It was a great day and it is great to win with this Viper, it is the first win and hopefully not the last, but we are just very happy with it.” The ViperExchange.com GT3-R team has been competitive all year but overcame a string of setbacks – including a devastating fire at Sebring in March – to finally put all of the pieces together at Mosport. The Viper GT3-R is built by Riley Technologies that also runs Keating’s ViperExchange.com team under the leadership of Bill Riley. “We have had a great effort all season with Ben Keating and ViperExchange and it is great to finally see it all pay off,” Riley said. “Everybody has been working hard, we had an issue at Sebring, we didn’t have the Daytona we wanted to have, so now it’s finally clicking and we are finally moving forward.” The ViperExchange.com win was part of an all-podium Viper day as both GTLM-class GTS-Rs also made it to victory lane with respective second and third-place finishes. “A win is always helpful for gaining attention for the car and this is a big victory for the car,” said SRT Racing Manager Gary Johnson. “It comes at the right time, the team worked really hard, the pit stops were fantastic and you have to give credit to Ben and Jeroen, they kept the car in one piece and clean and brought it home.” On top of winning the race from the pole – both first time ViperExchange.com and Viper GT3-R achievements – Bleekemolen also set the fastest GTD-class race lap chasing down the leader in the race’s late stages. “It’s unbelievable,” said Riley’s ViperExchange.com Team Manager Greg Jones. “Everybody at Riley and Ben Keating, he has always been there for us with Viper Exchange, so it has been really good. This is definitely what we needed for sure. I have known Ben and I have worked with Ben multiple times, and I think that’s probably the best drive I have ever seen him do. He just did solid laps, fought his way back into first, great drive by Ben and Jeroen today.” ViperExchange.com moves on to compete in the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday, July 25 . The event on the 2. 53 4- mi le circuit can be seen live on FOX Sports 1 at 7 p.m. EDT . About ViperExchange.com: ViperExchange.com is the largest Dodge Viper and exotic cars licensed dealer located just Northwest of Houston, Texas. With over 100 Dodge Vipers typically for sale and more arriving daily for sale, ViperExchange.com has combined the largest inventory in the world of new and pre-owned Dodge Vipers. ViperExchange.com also offers the best prices and discounts. Special orders, specific model searches and financing options are also available. Visit directly at ViperExchange.com , Twitter @ViperExchange and Facebook at Facebook.com/Viper-Exchange . CONTACT: Adam Saal asaal @ententeinteractive.com 321.890.2848 BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO, CANADA (July 13, 2014) – Jeroen Bleekemolen passed Kevin Estre in traffic with two laps remaining and went on to win the GT Daytona (GTD) class, giving the No. 33 Riley Motorsports/ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R started by Ben Keating its first victory. It was the eighth lead change in the competitive class that saw Bleekemolen beat Estre to the checkered flag by 1.038 seconds. “I felt bad for Kevin, because I saw it all happening in front of me,” Bleekemolen said. “It looked like we were going to be second, but we got a little bit lucky at the end.” “This is not only our first win, but our first podium,” Keating said. “We have had our share of tough luck this season, so to a certain extent we felt like we were due. We’ve always been down on top speed, but the sweeping corners here really suit out car.” Estre and Patrick Lindsey were looking to give Park Place Motorsports its first GTD class victory in the No. 73 Porsche 911 GT America, before getting hung up in late-race traffic. Lindsey started seventh and moved up to second before his pit stop, with Estre passing Bleekemolen for the class lead with 57 minutes remaining. After winning the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen two weeks ago, the No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 of Markus Palttala and Dane Cameron led in the early going. A stop-plus-20-second penalty when equipment rolled outside the team’s pit box dropped the team from second to seventh. Cameron managed to work his way back to a third-place finish. The competitive race saw 16 of the 17 GTD starters running within four laps of the lead at the finish. The next race for the TUDOR Championship will be the Brickyard Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday, July 25. - See more at: http://www.imsa.com/articles/bleekemolen-keating-give-dodge-viper-srt-gt3-r-first-victory?invalidate-cache=1405017110#sthash.aBwtm0DM.dpuf Keating Viper GT3-R Win First IMSA TUDOR Championship Pole! No. 33 ViperExchange.com Team Part of Viper Pole Sweep at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada (July 12, 2014) – Jeroen Bleekemolen gave ViperExchange.com and co-driver Ben Keating their first pole in the new No. 33 Viper GT3-R in qualifying for tomorrow’s IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Saturday . Bleekemolen posted the fastest time early in qualifying and then came back to seal the pole for good on his sixth of nine laps in the fast, 15-minute session. The pole-winning lap time of 1:19.004 (112.050 mph) topped a strong field of 18 other GTD (GT Daytona) class competitors. Teammate and ViperExchange.com principal Keating will start the No. 33 in tomorrow’s 2-3/4 hour race on the Canadian Tire “Mosport” road course. “Jeroen turned just an incredible lap time,” Keating said. “His best theoretical time was 1:18.996, just 8/1000ths off of what he turned. I have never seen a lap that close to perfect. We still don’t have the quickest car, others have better theoretical laps, but our setup has allowed us to be comfortable at the limit and get the possible lap time out of a car that is not the fastest.” The first-year ViperExchange.com team and the Viper GT3-R have been competitive at every race, but a string of typical new-car issues and some uncanny bad luck have prevented a strong race finish. Bleekemolen previously qualified a then season-best second at Detroit but he and Keating are still looking for a race result reflective of the team’s performance. “It’s great,” Bleekemolen said. “We started this program with a new car. It’s been a good car since the beginning and we’ve just been unlucky with some small issues, but I think we could have had a good result already. It shows we never gave up. The whole team worked very hard for this and hopefully our back luck is gone now. Putting it on pole really means something and it’s just great to be able to do this. The team has worked so hard and the Viper is absolutely fantastic.” Bleekemolen proved once again he knows the quick way around Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, as he also won the pole in the GT Challenge class for last year’s American Le Mans Series race, which he went on to win. “It was a great achievement for the whole team because it is a new project,” said Bleekemolen, who earned the 16th pole of his career. “It’s a new build for this year. We’ve been a bit unlucky in the races, we’ve shown already we have some speed in other events. Finally we were able to put it on pole.” Keating gave credit to his Riley Technologies team on what was a great day for SRT Motorsports Vipers at Mosport. Kuno Wittmer also won the GTLM class pole in the No. 93 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R. “We really nailed the setup,” Keating said. “We pulled out all kinds of tricks to get the pole and Jeroen put in that just amazing lap. We should have a great car tomorrow and I am hoping it stays dry because so many others are looking for rain. I am really comfortable at this track and learned a ton last year and in GT3 Cup. This could be our race. We are due.” Sunday’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix Presented by Hawk Performance airs live on FOX Sports 1 at 2 p.m. EDT . About ViperExchange.com: ViperExchange.com is the largest Dodge Viper and exotic cars licensed dealer located just Northwest of Houston, Texas. With over 100 Dodge Vipers typically for sale and more arriving daily for sale, ViperExchange.com has combined the largest inventory in the world of new and pre-owned Dodge Vipers. ViperExchange.com also offers the best prices and discounts. Special orders, specific model searches and financing options are also available. Visit directly at ViperExchange.com , Twitter @ViperExchange and Facebook at Facebook.com/Viper-Exchange . CONTACT: Adam Saal asaal @ententeinteractive.com 321.890.2848 ViperExchange.com , Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen Finish in New Viper GT3-R Debut at Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R Team Gets Finish They Need But Not The Result They Wanted at Laguna Seca MONTEREY, Calif. ( May 5, 2014 ) – Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and the No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R team earned a race finish they needed but not the result they wanted Sunday in the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey at Laguna Seca. Just competing at Laguna Seca in itself was a triumph for the ViperExchange.com team after a completely new car was unveiled this weekend after a devastating fire one race ago in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Keating was uninjured in the incident and joined the team in its determination to be race-ready for this weekend in Monterey. The newly built Viper GT3-R was fast out-of-the-box, and after practicing second and Bleekemolen’s sixth-place qualifying run on Saturday , starting driver Keating ran with the lead pack from the race start. He was battling for top-five position in the early going when he inadvertently made contact with the eventual race-winning BMW Z4. “The BMW got by me and was fighting it out with a Porsche in front of me,” Keating said. “Heading into Turn 11, the last turn before the straight, I saw the BMW go for the pass, I backed up and concentrated on getting a really good run through there because I knew side-by-side would slow them both down. I thought I might be able to set them up for a pass into Turn 2. “What ended up happening was that the Porsche driver didn’t see that the BMW was passing him there, turned down on him, and here I come planning to get this great run down the straight. The BMW had to check up and I ran into the back of him.” Keating was assessed a “stop plus-60” penalty for what was judged as an “avoidable contact” incident. The No. 33 was held in the pits for a full minute and the team fell over a lap down and out of contention for any type of positive race result. Keating pitted soon after the penalty and Bleekemolen took over for a fast but mildly frustrating run to the checkered flag. “Even a lap down, I was running with some of the good guys that were there in the end and we seemed to be quite competitive, so we can be happy with that,” Bleekemolen said. “We just need that one more lap I guess and we would have been fighting for a podium. The positive thing is there is always a next time. If we can build on this one and get everything together, we are definitely a team that people will notice.” Next up for ViperExchange.com and the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s GT Daytona (GTD) class is the fourth round of the year at the Raceway on Belle Isle Park in Detroit, May 30 – 31 . About ViperExchange.com: ViperExchange.com is the largest Dodge Viper and exotic cars licensed dealer located just Northwest of Houston, Texas. With over 100 Dodge Vipers typically for sale and more arriving daily for sale, ViperExchange.com has combined the largest inventory in the world of new and pre-owned Dodge Vipers. ViperExchange.com also offers the best prices and discounts. Special orders, specific model searches and financing options are also available. Visit directly at ViperExchange.com , Twitter @ViperExchange and Facebook at Facebook.com/Viper-Exchange . CONTACT: Adam Saal asaal @ententeinteractive.com 321.890.2848 Outline Width Color Border Pattern Color Background Round Corners Shadow Styles DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 7, 2013) – The No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R team, and drivers Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Emmanuel Collard and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, wrapped up a full and productive three-day test at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 this past weekend and are now placing their full focus on the 52nd Annual Rolex 24 At Daytona, January 23 - 26 . The No. 33, the only GT Daytona (GTD) class Viper entered in the inaugural season of the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, recorded its best result in Friday’s second practice run of the day. The lap of 1.48.944 (117.638 mph) was good enough for the top five in that practice session but the ViperExchange.com team still needs more straight-line speed to rank higher in the weekend’s overall rankings. “I feel really good about the test,” said Keating, a veteran Viper competitor who is also the principal of top Viper dealer ViperExchange.com . “We have a good car, we have a reliable car, but it does seem like top speed is our issue. I don’t know what the solution is for that with IMSA, but I’m leaving the test feeling pretty good.” The regulations for the diverse GTD division of the IMSATUDOR United SportsCar Championship attempt to balance the competition among a wide variety of competing manufacturers and cars. While the street version of the SRT Viper that is the basis for the No. 33 GTD machine is among the most powerful cars in its class, the current IMSA regulations have restricted the power to the point that the race version is losing ground to the majority of the competition on Daytona’s ample high-speed banking and straights. “I think that we definitely have some things that we need to work on,” Keating said. “I think that with a little bit of help from IMSA, and then with a little improvement on our end in the shop, I’m hopeful that we can be there. If we are on the lead lap at the end, I’m not sure we have the pace to stay in front, but you have to get there first and I feel really good about our ability to stay clean. From a driver-team standpoint, I definitely feel like we are in the top 10 for sure, and that’s a pretty good spot to be.” Keating will co-drive the full season with top Dutch sports car talent Jeroen Bleekemolen. Former Rolex 24 overall winner (2005) Emmanuel Collard and Bleekemolen’s older brother Sebastiaan Bleekemolen will join the team for the Daytona opener. “It’s looking all very exciting if you see how many cars are here, how many friends you see, and how many great drivers you see,” Jeroen Bleekemolen said. “It’s going to be great. We don’t know yet exactly where we stand in terms of competitiveness, we will have to wait for that, but I am pretty confident that the guys have done a great job getting us a new car that has been reliable so far. We have to continue working hard and hopefully when we get back here for the race we will be competitive.” Sebastiaan Bleekemolen was making his second run with ViperExchange.com after making both his team and Daytona debut at the track in a private test just last month. “I think we have made some progress because then we did (laps at one minute and) 50s and now we can do 49s, so we have improved a little bit,” Sebastiaan Bleekemolen said. “The only problem we had during the test was the top speed because we were restricted and that’s an issue, but once we sort that out I think we will be competitive. “It’s tough because there are 28 cars in our class and all good drivers so we must be on it and do our best.” Practice and qualifying for the 2014 Rolex 24 will be held Thursday and Friday, January 23 – 24 , with the day-long classic scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, January 25 . Live coverage will be FOX Sports. About ViperExchange.com: ViperExchange.com is the largest Dodge Viper and exotic cars licensed dealer located just Northwest of Houston, Texas. With over 100 Dodge Vipers typically for sale and more arriving daily for sale, ViperExchange.com has combined the largest inventory in the world of new and pre-owned Dodge Vipers. ViperExchange.com also offers the best prices and discounts. Special orders, specific model searches and financing options are also available. Visit directly at ViperExchange.com , Twitter @ViperExchange and Facebook at Facebook.com/Viper-Exchange . CONTACT: Adam Saal asaal @ententeinteractive.com 321.890.2848

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Second-Straight Circuit of The Americas Win for Ben Keating and Second of Season with Jeroen Bleekemolen AUSTIN, Texas (September 21, 2014) - Competing in their home event at the famed Circuit of The Americas in Austin (COTA), Texas, ViperExchange.com drivers Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen drove the No. 33 SRT Viper GT3-R to an impressive victory in the Lone Star Le Mans, the penultimate round of the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship on Saturday . “It was a really great team effort all day,” said Keating, principal of the Texas-based ViperExchange.com . “We kept the car clean, improved the car, Jeroen drove a great race, and it just really couldn’t have been any sweeter.” Knowing that patience would be a critical element in the race, Keating put in an incredibly calculated race-opening driving stint, doing his best to maintain a pace at the front but understanding that keeping the car in one piece was of primary importance. Keating raced in the top five for much of his run, pulling in to the pits during a timely yellow at the one-hour mark. “In qualifying we had a very significant understeer, and we overcorrected for the race and developed a pretty significant oversteer,” Keating said. “This track is not one where you want an oversteer. I was able to hold the other guys behind me until traffic started coming around. The traffic opened the door for them to get by. My stint in the car was a challenge. I started in second and brought the car home in seventh.” Keating handed off to Bleekemolen and the job was clear for the experienced veteran. Knowing that the team didn’t have the fastest car but one capable of winning, the Dutchman went to immediate work, passing multiple cars during his opening stint and climbing up to fourth by time the race had one hour remaining. Pitting for the final time, an impressive job by the No. 33 ViperExchange.com crew would elevate Bleekemolen to second, with the car steadily gaining on the leading BMW as the laps continued. With 30 minutes remaining, the slowing BMW was simply no match for the Viper, and Bleekemolen would cruise to the lead and never look back. “Today was great, it was very exciting,” Bleekemolen said. “When I got in the car we were very close with many cars, five or six were fighting for second, and at that point I didn’t think we had a chance at winning. I just kept it clean, tried not to make mistakes and suddenly we were leading. Some people dropped out because of issues, some lost the pace and some had different pit stop strategies, which allowed me to overtake two or three cars which got us the lead.” The victory was the second in a row for Keating at COTA and second of the 2014 season after winning in July with Bleekemolen at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Canada. In last year’s IMSA race at the Austin track, Keating co-drove to victory in a Porsche in the GTC class. Each Texas race was won in front of a large group of Texas-based family and friends, including Saturday’s crowd of over 100 supporters. Just two weeks away, the season-ending Petit Le Mans can be seen live in its entirety on IMSA.com and in same-day coverage on FOX Sports 2 beginning at 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Oct. 4 . Race highlights will air on FOX on Sunday, Oct. 5 and viewers can check local listings in their areas for air times. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ben Keating to Co-Drive with Tony Ave in ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R at The Oak Tree Grand Prix Team Regular Jeroen Bleekemolen’s Commitment in Europe Opens Door for Experienced Virginia International Raceway Driver DANVILLE, Va. ( August 19, 2014 ) – Ben Keating and the No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R team will be joined by co-driver Tony Ave for this weekend’s Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway (VIR), August 22 – 24 . The weekend’s featured Oak Tree Grand Prix can be seen in live coverage on FOX Sports 1, this Sunday, August 24 , at 4 p.m. EDT /1 p.m. PDT. Ave will be filling in for Keating’s regular ViperExchange.com co-driver, Jeroen Bleekemolen, who will be racing in Slovakia this weekend in the Blancpain Sprint Series. The Dutchman currently is second in points in the competitive European championship. The Keating/Ave pairing brings together an accomplished duo at VIR. Both drivers have won the title of Grassroots Motorsports Magazine Ultimate Track Car Challenge Champion in Riley-built race cars. Keating captured the honor just two months ago in the 2014 edition of the winner-take-all event behind wheel of the same No. 33 Viper GT3-R he drives this weekend. Ave took top honors in 2011 in a Riley Mk XXII track day car. “Tony is a stud,” Keating said. “Multiple Trans Am Champion, fellow Ultimate Track Car Challenge winner. He has many laps at VIR as well. We should be a great team.” Keating also returns to VIR as a defending IMSA race winner, having scored the 2013 victory in the former IMSA ALMS GTC class in last year’s Oak Tree Grand Prix. He has also had success at VIR in Viper Cup competition to go along with his multiple championships in that series. “I love VIR,” Keating said. “I have raced there 12 times and I have won nine of those races. Last year in GTC, I was able to gap the field a little in my stint and I am hoping for the same in 2014. Except for the long straight, the Viper should be good. We are very good up the esses and in Turn 17 coming on to the front straight, but I expect the Porsches, Audis, and Ferraris to be good here also.” Ave is stepping into a Viper that arrives at one of his favorite tracks after three-straight top-four finishes. The streak began with ViperExchange.com team's first victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and also includes third place at Indianapolis and fourth one race ago at Road America. “The VIR track is one of my favorites,” Ave said. “Fortunately, I live within a couple hours of there so we test our Trans Am cars there a fair amount, it’s very challenging and has some high speed esses that I really enjoy. It’s an excellent place to make my debut in GTD.” ViperExchange.com will take to a VIR facility that has received numerous upgrades since last year. Part of the improvements are a paved paddock and newly resurfaced race course. “The new pavement on the track is a game changer,” Keating said. “It should be really good on tire wear, and some of those cars that are hard on tires should be able to stay more competitive longer. The new pavement makes the track much racier, easier to pass, safer at the limit. I really love what they have done. All good stuff.” Ave will be making his first IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) start with ViperExchange.com but he is a regular test driver for the SRT Motorsports Viper program, which is run by Riley Technologies. “I have driven for Bill and Bob Riley since 1992,” Ave said. “I drove their newly-designed Oldsmobile Pro Series car to its first victories, which led to future championships. I have tested or raced pretty much everything they have built since then, from Trans Am to LMP cars, Daytona Prototypes to Indy cars, Silver Crown to Stock Cars, and now the Vipers. I have done shake down tests and some research and development testing with the GT Vipers, just enough to say that I want to drive them a lot more!” Noteworthy - Within IMSA TUDOR Championship regulations, the No. 33 will be a little toned down this weekend from the wide-open rules of the Ultimate Track Car Challenge. “The GT3-R will be very different than at the Ultimate Track Car Challenge,” Keating said. “For starters, about 200 horsepower less. I don't know that there will be a big comparison, but at least we know this car is capable of doing some unbelievable laps at this track. I am excited to be going back.” - Ave’s relationship with the Riley organization extends beyond testing and racing their cars. “I purchased their Trans Am design and business from them a few years ago and continue building those cars today,” Ave said. “I pretty much only drive cars I own anymore, but any time I get a call from the Rileys I am always ready. I can't wait for this weekend!” _____________________________________________________________________ Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen Finish Fourth at Road America in Viper GT3-R ViperExchange.com Survives Caution-Plagued Race for Top-Five Finish in No. 33 Viper GT3-R ELKHART LAKE, Wis. ( August 11, 2014 ) – Steering clear and staying ahead of the on-track trouble that sidelined more than one competitor, Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen finished fourth in Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America in the No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R. The finish was the third-straight top-four result for Keating, Bleekemolen and ViperExchange.com , a streak that started with the team’s first win last month at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and a third one race ago in the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Sunday’s Road America race started with another solid opening stint by Keating who raced in second place the entire time. “We had a good day,” Keating said. “I had a good stint. We qualified third but due to an accident in morning warm-up we started in second. I was happy to sit there in second throughout my stint. It was a good place to be to hand it over to Jeroen.” Bleekemolen took the wheel just past the race’s one-hour mark but the refueling speed allowed for the Viper GT3-R per IMSA rules extended the stop. “We were just unlucky in the pit stops,” Bleekemolen said. “By the rules, we are a bit slow in the pit stops with the refueling so that dropped us back twice. Then you have to fight back, which was going pretty well, so in the end I guess it was the maximum we can do if you always go down after pit stops.” Bleekemolen raced back to second after the first stop only to fall all the way back to ninth when he pitted for the second and final time 55 minutes from the race finish. “Both of our pit stops were slow in comparison to the other teams,” Keating said. “We got leap frogged in pit lane both times. A couple of the Porsches and the Ferraris had ultra-quick pit stops and gained a couple of positions but Jeroen did a great job.” Bleekemolen’s attempt to race through the field in the final stages of the race was thwarted by a pair of full-course caution periods that slowed the field for more than half of the final 45 minutes. The cautions were the final of six on the day that saw the field parade under caution for more than 90 minutes of the timed 2-3/4 hour race. “This track is a great track but there is a lot of high-risk kind of corners that will bait you into going deep and making a pass that is a low-percentage pass,” Keating said. “So we saw a lot of yellows, we still had a great race, but it was really difficult. It seemed like half the race was under caution, it was honestly just a series of sprint races. It was nice for Jeroen to be bunched up like that, he’s really good in traffic and was able to make a few passes and get us up in the order. We finished fourth, so we’re happy, P4 is definitely not too shabby.” The entire ViperExchange.com team has been pleased with the recent run of positive but hard-earned results “We have proven that with a first, a third and a fourth we are consistent in the top five now,” Bleekemolen said. “The car is right up there, the team is right up there, but it is so competitive that if anything goes against you just a little bit you are not there anymore." Next up for ViperExchange.com and the IMSA TUDOR Championship is the Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway, August 22 – 24 . The weekend’s featured race can be seen in live coverage on FOX Sports 1, Sunday, August 24 , at 4 p.m. EDT /1 p.m. PDT. Noteworthy - After a challenging start to the season that included a devastating fire in the opening hour of the 12 Hours of Sebring, ViperExchange.com is hitting its competitive stride this summer. The recent performance bodes well for the future. “The last two months have been good for us,” Keating said. “We’re ready to bring on 2015. The year started so bad for us with the fire, so sadly we’re not really in the championship hunt. We’re trying to do everything we can to get better and better for 2015. We’re really trying to work on pit stops. If you multiply one or two seconds by 24 hours it’s a lot of time. We’re preparing for next year.” ViperExchange.com to Produce LIVE Webcast from Paddock at Road America http://www.viperexchange.com/behind-the-coil ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (August 5, 2014)- Continuing their efforts to bring the loyal Viper audience behind the scenes of the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, ViperExchange.com is launching a new initiative this Saturday, August 9, with the premiere of “Behind the Coil: LIVE!” The next step in the company’s “Behind the Coil” content series, the team will be hosting a live, paddock-side webcast on Saturday night in advance of Sunday’s IMSA TUDOR Championship Continental Tire Road Race Showcase. For any fans of either the Dodge Viper SRT or simply the IMSA TUDOR Championship, this is the perfect opportunity to go directly inside the team’s paddock, interact with ViperExchange.com drivers Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen, as well as ask any questions of both drivers and the crew. The webcast will begin on Saturday at 8 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. CDT in Wisconsin), and continue on for one hour. Fans can see this by visiting either www.ViperExchange.com, or by downloading the Ustream app for your smartphone or tablet and searching for “ViperExchange.” For Ben Keating, driver of the GT Daytona (GTD) class No. 33 ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R, the opportunity to explain the complexities of his machine to a loyal audience is a welcome one. “We’re very excited to bring this to opportunity to our loyal fans and Viper owners,” Keating said. “It’s our first go at this so I’m sure there will be some things to learn, but we’re very excited to give our fans a chance to look up close at the car, and of course answer any questions. It should be a fun time for all.” Fans will not only have their questions answered live visiting the stream, but the ViperExchange.com team will also be giving away numerous hats, shirts, and other giveaway items throughout the webcast. Keating, Bleekemolen and ViperExchange.com come to Road America following their best two-race run in the inaugural IMSA TUDOR Championship season. The No. 33 team won its first race in early July at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and followed it up with a third-place finish in the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a little over a week ago. Repeat Podium for ViperExchange.com, Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen in Viper GT3-R Indy Debut ViperExchange.com Backs Up Breakout Victory with Third-Place in Brickyard Grand Prix in No. 33 Viper GT3-R INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (July 28, 2014) – The No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R of drivers Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen scored its second-straight IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship podium result Friday in the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a third-place GT Daytona (GTD) finish. The podium showing at Indy followed ViperExchange.com’s breakout victory one race earlier at “Mosport” Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Both finishes are season-best results for the first-year Viper GT3-R IMSA TUDOR Championship effort and have combined to turn the tide on a tough run of bad luck in the first half of the season. Like the Mosport victory, where Bleekemolen made the winning pass less than two laps from the finish, Indy featured another late-race pass with two laps remaining by the fast Dutchman. “Jeroen drove an incredible race,” Keating said. “There is no one I would rather have as a teammate. To hand him the car in 10th and finish on the podium again is phenomenal. I’m really happy.” The fact that the ViperExchange.com team had to fight from far back in the field at all was the result of a costly bump-and-run incident Keating sustained during his race-opening shift. He was running in fifth and in the GTD lead pack when another class competitor spun him out. “The 58 Porsche was right behind me,” Keating said. “Three separate times he bumped me and let me know he was there. In Turn 12 again he hit me pretty hard and spun me. It took me a while to get turned back around. That was after a caution, and since everyone was bunched up, I wound up in 10 th , which really upset me. Race control decided not to give the 58 a penalty which upset me even more. Undeterred by the set-back, Keating turned the car over to Bleekemolen about 60 minutes into the 2-3/4-hour race and the climb through the field began. Driving a double stint to the finish, Bleekemolen cracked the top five with 15 minutes remaining and took fourth a lap later. The pass for the podium came on the final lap of the race on the No. 555 Ferrari. “I’m pretty happy,” Bleekemolen said. “Ben got spun around, which threw us to the back, but we had great strategy and some good fights to get back to the front. I’m really happy we could take the podium in the last minute of the race. It is great to have come out on top.” Keating staged a charge of his own after recovering from the spin despite dealing with traffic and some traction challenges. “I was running decent times,” Keating said. “I had one lap where I was full of red mist that I did one really fast pass. Our car had less overall grip than practice, so I had trouble being consistent, but I think our car was really good on tires. At the end, some cars where locking up and going wide while we were still able to run fast laps.” Next up for ViperExchange.com and the IMSA TUDOR Championship is the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 8 – 10 . The weekend’s featured race can be seen in same-day coverage on FOX Sports 1, Sunday, August 10 , at 6:30 p.m. EDT /3:30 p.m. PDT. “The car was great at Indy,” Bleekemolen said. “We had the pace to fight them. We didn’t have much more, but it was just enough to take the podium today. The next track is not our best track but the team has proved that they can do something good, so I’m really confident going into Road America.” Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen Bring Race-Winning Momentum to Indy First Brickyard Grand Prix Start for ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (July 23, 2014) – Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen bring the momentum of the first IMSA United SportsCar Championship victory for ViperExchange.com and the Viper GT3-R one race ago at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park to Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) this weekend for Friday’s Brickyard Grand Prix. Round 9 of the 2014 IMSA TUDOR Championship, the featured 2-3/4 hour race can be seen live on FOX Sports 1 at 5:30 p.m. EDT /2:30 p.m. PDT this Friday, July 25. Shaking off an up-and-down start to the 2014 season, Keating, Bleekemolen and the Riley Technologies-run Viper GT3-R team won its first race from the pole at the Canadian Tire “Mosport” road course two weekends ago. The victory erased any lasting memories of a devastating fire in the second race of the year at Sebring in March and served as an indicator that the ViperExchange.com team may have finally made up for the ground lost in the aftermath of that blaze. “We had a really good car going into Sebring before it all burned up,” Keating said. “After Sebring, we were pretty well starting over again from a setup standpoint. So in all the practice and stuff, we were close but really not exactly there. Really, every race we have done since then has got us a little closer, seeing what works and what doesn’t, and we feel like we are making our car better and better and better.” The No. 33 Viper GT3-R proved to be a good fit for the high-speed Mosport track. Bleekemolen won the pole in Saturday qualifying and race-starting driver Keating led twice in his opening stint. Bleekemolen took over for the second half of the race and made the winning pass just under two laps from the finish. “Mosport was probably one of the best tracks on the calendar for us,” Bleekemolen said. “Indy will be harder, but we should be pretty strong again. We are lucky we will run a chicane now instead of Turn 1 of the oval. In that chicane we will make up time, where we would have lost time otherwise on the oval and into the straight. The GTD class is so competitive that you never know before you actually drive if you can win, but we will certainly try hard.” The Indy road course configuration runs counter-course to the historic 2.5-mile oval used for the Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400. The layout used the last two years has been modified slightly for Friday’s IMSA TUDOR Championship race. Instead of making the high-speed run through the oval’s traditional Turn 1 that actually completes the 2.435-mile speedway road course lap, the track has been altered to include a slower chicane portion. “The track has changed and to me I think it is changed to our advantage,” Keating said. “We are not going to be around the banking as long as we would have in the old configuration. The new layout is more raceable, it makes for more interesting racing, more interesting television. We won’t be on the banking as long so being down on top speed will not hurt us as much.” Keating and Bleekemolen are one of the few duos in either IMSA TUDOR Championship GT division that has both drivers experienced on the Indianapolis road course. “I have only raced there once, back in 2005,” Bleekemolen said. “I have great memories from that race. I raced in Porsche Supercup and it was my first race ever in a Porsche. Normally new drivers take a while in Supercup to do well, but I took a podium that weekend and it really helped my career. A podium at Indy is always going to be special.” Keating was a competitor in the first headline sports car race at Indy in 2012, the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix. “I am really excited to go back to Indy,” Keating said. “It’s an iconic track obviously. I raced there in GRAND-AM in a Porsche in 2012 and it was great fun. I ran with Joerg Bergmeister, it rained, and he did an epic job on the rain, passing prototypes.” The two-day Brickyard Grand Prix schedule starts Thursday with practice and qualifying. Race-day Friday begins with a 2 p.m. EDT warm-up before the featured Brickyard Grand Prix that is scheduled to go green at 5:45 p.m. EDT . Noteworthy - Keating and the ViperExchange.com /Riley Technologies crew didn’t rest for long after the breakout Mosport victory. They brought the No. 33 to the Grassroots Motorsports Magazine Ultimate Track Car Challenge the following Friday at Virginia International Raceway and walked away with the overall champion’s trophy with the fastest lap of the day. Keating’s winning lap time of 1:45.394 would have earned the pole position at last year’s American Le Mans Series race at VIR. “This event has just a totally different feeling than all of the big-time stress of a race weekend,” Keating said. “It is just a bunch of great guys wanting to go out and have fun. It’s a run-what-you-brung kind of a deal and it was a total blast.” A total open competition, Riley Technologies pulled out the stops on the No. 33 to take the victory. “We really tried to go back to the GT3-spec car that it started life as,” Keating said. “It really didn’t make sense to go on with the ABS, so we left the ABS off, but we put the GT3-spec rear wing on it, and put the rear-wheel speed sensors back on and turned on the traction control. The Michelins were the same as the GTLM cars run, and we took the restrictor out, which was a huge deal. With the restrictor in GTD we are running somewhere between 450 and 500 horsepower. Without the restrictor we are running somewhere around 680. It really was a ton of fun.” About ViperExchange.com: ViperExchange.com is the largest Dodge Viper and exotic cars licensed dealer located just Northwest of Houston, Texas. With over 100 Dodge Vipers typically for sale and more arriving daily for sale, ViperExchange.com has combined the largest inventory in the world of new and pre-owned Dodge Vipers. ViperExchange.com also offers the best prices and discounts. Special orders, specific model searches and financing options are also available. Visit directly at ViperExchange.com , Twitter @ViperExchange and Facebook at Facebook.com/Viper-Exchange . Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen Score First Viper GT3-R Victory in IMSA TUDOR Championship Last-Lap Pass Gives No. 33 ViperExchange.com Team Deserved Victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada ( July 14, 2014 ) – Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen co-drove to the first victory for ViperExchange.com and the Viper GT3-R in the IMSA TUDOR Championship at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park where a thrilling last-lap pass sealed the GT Daytona (GTD) win on Sunday . Keating led twice in his race-opening driving shift, a season-best performance that set the tone for a winning day. “It’s been a longtime coming,” Keating said. “We both drove a great race, we had a great car, it’s easy to drive and that’s all you can ask for at this kind of a track. High-speed track, lots of risk, and it was a lot of fun. Hopefully we win on Sunday and sell on Monday at ViperExchange.com .” Keating handed the No. 33 Viper GT3-R to pole-winning teammate Bleekemolen during the first pit stop. Bleekemolen returned to the race in the top five, made up a few positions, and then had some good luck in traffic as he closed on race-leader Kevin Estre as the white flag flew. “I got a bit lucky at the end with Kevin Estre,” Bleekemolen said. “He caught a lot of traffic and in one lap he lost like four seconds. I saw it happening, he couldn’t do anything about it, there was like four or five cars overtaking him. I have been there before too but we will take it. It was a great day and it is great to win with this Viper, it is the first win and hopefully not the last, but we are just very happy with it.” The ViperExchange.com GT3-R team has been competitive all year but overcame a string of setbacks – including a devastating fire at Sebring in March – to finally put all of the pieces together at Mosport. The Viper GT3-R is built by Riley Technologies that also runs Keating’s ViperExchange.com team under the leadership of Bill Riley. “We have had a great effort all season with Ben Keating and ViperExchange and it is great to finally see it all pay off,” Riley said. “Everybody has been working hard, we had an issue at Sebring, we didn’t have the Daytona we wanted to have, so now it’s finally clicking and we are finally moving forward.” The ViperExchange.com win was part of an all-podium Viper day as both GTLM-class GTS-Rs also made it to victory lane with respective second and third-place finishes. “A win is always helpful for gaining attention for the car and this is a big victory for the car,” said SRT Racing Manager Gary Johnson. “It comes at the right time, the team worked really hard, the pit stops were fantastic and you have to give credit to Ben and Jeroen, they kept the car in one piece and clean and brought it home.” On top of winning the race from the pole – both first time ViperExchange.com and Viper GT3-R achievements – Bleekemolen also set the fastest GTD-class race lap chasing down the leader in the race’s late stages. “It’s unbelievable,” said Riley’s ViperExchange.com Team Manager Greg Jones. “Everybody at Riley and Ben Keating, he has always been there for us with Viper Exchange, so it has been really good. This is definitely what we needed for sure. I have known Ben and I have worked with Ben multiple times, and I think that’s probably the best drive I have ever seen him do. He just did solid laps, fought his way back into first, great drive by Ben and Jeroen today.” ViperExchange.com moves on to compete in the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday, July 25 . The event on the 2. 53 4- mi le circuit can be seen live on FOX Sports 1 at 7 p.m. EDT . About ViperExchange.com: ViperExchange.com is the largest Dodge Viper and exotic cars licensed dealer located just Northwest of Houston, Texas. With over 100 Dodge Vipers typically for sale and more arriving daily for sale, ViperExchange.com has combined the largest inventory in the world of new and pre-owned Dodge Vipers. ViperExchange.com also offers the best prices and discounts. Special orders, specific model searches and financing options are also available. Visit directly at ViperExchange.com , Twitter @ViperExchange and Facebook at Facebook.com/Viper-Exchange . CONTACT: Adam Saal asaal @ententeinteractive.com 321.890.2848 BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO, CANADA (July 13, 2014) – Jeroen Bleekemolen passed Kevin Estre in traffic with two laps remaining and went on to win the GT Daytona (GTD) class, giving the No. 33 Riley Motorsports/ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R started by Ben Keating its first victory. It was the eighth lead change in the competitive class that saw Bleekemolen beat Estre to the checkered flag by 1.038 seconds. “I felt bad for Kevin, because I saw it all happening in front of me,” Bleekemolen said. “It looked like we were going to be second, but we got a little bit lucky at the end.” “This is not only our first win, but our first podium,” Keating said. “We have had our share of tough luck this season, so to a certain extent we felt like we were due. We’ve always been down on top speed, but the sweeping corners here really suit out car.” Estre and Patrick Lindsey were looking to give Park Place Motorsports its first GTD class victory in the No. 73 Porsche 911 GT America, before getting hung up in late-race traffic. Lindsey started seventh and moved up to second before his pit stop, with Estre passing Bleekemolen for the class lead with 57 minutes remaining. After winning the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen two weeks ago, the No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 of Markus Palttala and Dane Cameron led in the early going. A stop-plus-20-second penalty when equipment rolled outside the team’s pit box dropped the team from second to seventh. Cameron managed to work his way back to a third-place finish. The competitive race saw 16 of the 17 GTD starters running within four laps of the lead at the finish. The next race for the TUDOR Championship will be the Brickyard Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday, July 25. - See more at: http://www.imsa.com/articles/bleekemolen-keating-give-dodge-viper-srt-gt3-r-first-victory?invalidate-cache=1405017110#sthash.aBwtm0DM.dpuf Keating Viper GT3-R Win First IMSA TUDOR Championship Pole! No. 33 ViperExchange.com Team Part of Viper Pole Sweep at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada (July 12, 2014) – Jeroen Bleekemolen gave ViperExchange.com and co-driver Ben Keating their first pole in the new No. 33 Viper GT3-R in qualifying for tomorrow’s IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Saturday . Bleekemolen posted the fastest time early in qualifying and then came back to seal the pole for good on his sixth of nine laps in the fast, 15-minute session. The pole-winning lap time of 1:19.004 (112.050 mph) topped a strong field of 18 other GTD (GT Daytona) class competitors. Teammate and ViperExchange.com principal Keating will start the No. 33 in tomorrow’s 2-3/4 hour race on the Canadian Tire “Mosport” road course. “Jeroen turned just an incredible lap time,” Keating said. “His best theoretical time was 1:18.996, just 8/1000ths off of what he turned. I have never seen a lap that close to perfect. We still don’t have the quickest car, others have better theoretical laps, but our setup has allowed us to be comfortable at the limit and get the possible lap time out of a car that is not the fastest.” The first-year ViperExchange.com team and the Viper GT3-R have been competitive at every race, but a string of typical new-car issues and some uncanny bad luck have prevented a strong race finish. Bleekemolen previously qualified a then season-best second at Detroit but he and Keating are still looking for a race result reflective of the team’s performance. “It’s great,” Bleekemolen said. “We started this program with a new car. It’s been a good car since the beginning and we’ve just been unlucky with some small issues, but I think we could have had a good result already. It shows we never gave up. The whole team worked very hard for this and hopefully our back luck is gone now. Putting it on pole really means something and it’s just great to be able to do this. The team has worked so hard and the Viper is absolutely fantastic.” Bleekemolen proved once again he knows the quick way around Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, as he also won the pole in the GT Challenge class for last year’s American Le Mans Series race, which he went on to win. “It was a great achievement for the whole team because it is a new project,” said Bleekemolen, who earned the 16th pole of his career. “It’s a new build for this year. We’ve been a bit unlucky in the races, we’ve shown already we have some speed in other events. Finally we were able to put it on pole.” Keating gave credit to his Riley Technologies team on what was a great day for SRT Motorsports Vipers at Mosport. Kuno Wittmer also won the GTLM class pole in the No. 93 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R. “We really nailed the setup,” Keating said. “We pulled out all kinds of tricks to get the pole and Jeroen put in that just amazing lap. We should have a great car tomorrow and I am hoping it stays dry because so many others are looking for rain. I am really comfortable at this track and learned a ton last year and in GT3 Cup. This could be our race. We are due.” Sunday’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix Presented by Hawk Performance airs live on FOX Sports 1 at 2 p.m. EDT . About ViperExchange.com: ViperExchange.com is the largest Dodge Viper and exotic cars licensed dealer located just Northwest of Houston, Texas. With over 100 Dodge Vipers typically for sale and more arriving daily for sale, ViperExchange.com has combined the largest inventory in the world of new and pre-owned Dodge Vipers. ViperExchange.com also offers the best prices and discounts. Special orders, specific model searches and financing options are also available. Visit directly at ViperExchange.com , Twitter @ViperExchange and Facebook at Facebook.com/Viper-Exchange . CONTACT: Adam Saal asaal @ententeinteractive.com 321.890.2848 ViperExchange.com , Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen Finish in New Viper GT3-R Debut at Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R Team Gets Finish They Need But Not The Result They Wanted at Laguna Seca MONTEREY, Calif. ( May 5, 2014 ) – Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and the No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R team earned a race finish they needed but not the result they wanted Sunday in the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey at Laguna Seca. Just competing at Laguna Seca in itself was a triumph for the ViperExchange.com team after a completely new car was unveiled this weekend after a devastating fire one race ago in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Keating was uninjured in the incident and joined the team in its determination to be race-ready for this weekend in Monterey. The newly built Viper GT3-R was fast out-of-the-box, and after practicing second and Bleekemolen’s sixth-place qualifying run on Saturday , starting driver Keating ran with the lead pack from the race start. He was battling for top-five position in the early going when he inadvertently made contact with the eventual race-winning BMW Z4. “The BMW got by me and was fighting it out with a Porsche in front of me,” Keating said. “Heading into Turn 11, the last turn before the straight, I saw the BMW go for the pass, I backed up and concentrated on getting a really good run through there because I knew side-by-side would slow them both down. I thought I might be able to set them up for a pass into Turn 2. “What ended up happening was that the Porsche driver didn’t see that the BMW was passing him there, turned down on him, and here I come planning to get this great run down the straight. The BMW had to check up and I ran into the back of him.” Keating was assessed a “stop plus-60” penalty for what was judged as an “avoidable contact” incident. The No. 33 was held in the pits for a full minute and the team fell over a lap down and out of contention for any type of positive race result. Keating pitted soon after the penalty and Bleekemolen took over for a fast but mildly frustrating run to the checkered flag. “Even a lap down, I was running with some of the good guys that were there in the end and we seemed to be quite competitive, so we can be happy with that,” Bleekemolen said. “We just need that one more lap I guess and we would have been fighting for a podium. The positive thing is there is always a next time. If we can build on this one and get everything together, we are definitely a team that people will notice.” Next up for ViperExchange.com and the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s GT Daytona (GTD) class is the fourth round of the year at the Raceway on Belle Isle Park in Detroit, May 30 – 31 . About ViperExchange.com: ViperExchange.com is the largest Dodge Viper and exotic cars licensed dealer located just Northwest of Houston, Texas. With over 100 Dodge Vipers typically for sale and more arriving daily for sale, ViperExchange.com has combined the largest inventory in the world of new and pre-owned Dodge Vipers. ViperExchange.com also offers the best prices and discounts. Special orders, specific model searches and financing options are also available. Visit directly at ViperExchange.com , Twitter @ViperExchange and Facebook at Facebook.com/Viper-Exchange . CONTACT: Adam Saal asaal @ententeinteractive.com 321.890.2848 Outline Width Color Border Pattern Color Background Round Corners Shadow Styles DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 7, 2013) – The No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R team, and drivers Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Emmanuel Collard and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, wrapped up a full and productive three-day test at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 this past weekend and are now placing their full focus on the 52nd Annual Rolex 24 At Daytona, January 23 - 26 . The No. 33, the only GT Daytona (GTD) class Viper entered in the inaugural season of the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, recorded its best result in Friday’s second practice run of the day. The lap of 1.48.944 (117.638 mph) was good enough for the top five in that practice session but the ViperExchange.com team still needs more straight-line speed to rank higher in the weekend’s overall rankings. “I feel really good about the test,” said Keating, a veteran Viper competitor who is also the principal of top Viper dealer ViperExchange.com . “We have a good car, we have a reliable car, but it does seem like top speed is our issue. I don’t know what the solution is for that with IMSA, but I’m leaving the test feeling pretty good.” The regulations for the diverse GTD division of the IMSATUDOR United SportsCar Championship attempt to balance the competition among a wide variety of competing manufacturers and cars. While the street version of the SRT Viper that is the basis for the No. 33 GTD machine is among the most powerful cars in its class, the current IMSA regulations have restricted the power to the point that the race version is losing ground to the majority of the competition on Daytona’s ample high-speed banking and straights. “I think that we definitely have some things that we need to work on,” Keating said. “I think that with a little bit of help from IMSA, and then with a little improvement on our end in the shop, I’m hopeful that we can be there. If we are on the lead lap at the end, I’m not sure we have the pace to stay in front, but you have to get there first and I feel really good about our ability to stay clean. From a driver-team standpoint, I definitely feel like we are in the top 10 for sure, and that’s a pretty good spot to be.” Keating will co-drive the full season with top Dutch sports car talent Jeroen Bleekemolen. Former Rolex 24 overall winner (2005) Emmanuel Collard and Bleekemolen’s older brother Sebastiaan Bleekemolen will join the team for the Daytona opener. “It’s looking all very exciting if you see how many cars are here, how many friends you see, and how many great drivers you see,” Jeroen Bleekemolen said. “It’s going to be great. We don’t know yet exactly where we stand in terms of competitiveness, we will have to wait for that, but I am pretty confident that the guys have done a great job getting us a new car that has been reliable so far. We have to continue working hard and hopefully when we get back here for the race we will be competitive.” Sebastiaan Bleekemolen was making his second run with ViperExchange.com after making both his team and Daytona debut at the track in a private test just last month. “I think we have made some progress because then we did (laps at one minute and) 50s and now we can do 49s, so we have improved a little bit,” Sebastiaan Bleekemolen said. “The only problem we had during the test was the top speed because we were restricted and that’s an issue, but once we sort that out I think we will be competitive. “It’s tough because there are 28 cars in our class and all good drivers so we must be on it and do our best.” Practice and qualifying for the 2014 Rolex 24 will be held Thursday and Friday, January 23 – 24 , with the day-long classic scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, January 25 . Live coverage will be FOX Sports. About ViperExchange.com: ViperExchange.com is the largest Dodge Viper and exotic cars licensed dealer located just Northwest of Houston, Texas. With over 100 Dodge Vipers typically for sale and more arriving daily for sale, ViperExchange.com has combined the largest inventory in the world of new and pre-owned Dodge Vipers. ViperExchange.com also offers the best prices and discounts. Special orders, specific model searches and financing options are also available. Visit directly at ViperExchange.com , Twitter @ViperExchange and Facebook at Facebook.com/Viper-Exchange . CONTACT: Adam Saal asaal @ententeinteractive.com 321.890.2848

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ben Keating to Co-Drive with Tony Ave in ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R at The Oak Tree Grand Prix

http://www.viperexchange.com/behind-the-coil

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (August 5, 2014)- Continuing their efforts to bring the loyal Viper audience behind the scenes of the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, ViperExchange.com is launching a new initiative this Saturday, August 9, with the premiere of “Behind the Coil: LIVE!” The next step in the company’s “Behind the Coil” content series, the team

will be hosting a live, paddock-side webcast on Saturday night in advance of Sunday’s IMSA TUDOR Championship Continental Tire Road Race

Showcase. For any fans of either the Dodge Viper SRT or simply the IMSA TUDOR Championship, this is the perfect opportunity to go directly inside

the team’s paddock, interact with ViperExchange.com drivers Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen, as well as ask any questions of both drivers and the

crew.

The webcast will begin on Saturday at 8 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. CDT in Wisconsin), and continue on for one hour. Fans can see this by visiting

either www.ViperExchange.com, or by downloading the Ustream app for your smartphone or tablet and searching for “ViperExchange.”

For Ben Keating, driver of the GT Daytona (GTD) class No. 33 ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R, the opportunity to explain

the complexities of his machine to a loyal audience is a welcome one. “We’re very excited to bring this to opportunity to our loyal fans and Viper

owners,” Keating said. “It’s our first go at this so I’m sure there will be some things to learn, but we’re very excited to give our fans a chance to look up

close at the car, and of course answer any questions. It should be a fun time for all.” Fans will not only have their questions answered live visiting the stream, but the ViperExchange.com team will also be giving away numerous hats, shirts, and other giveaway items throughout the webcast.

Keating, Bleekemolen and ViperExchange.com come to Road America following their best two-race run in the inaugural IMSA TUDOR

Championship season. The No. 33 team won its first race in early July at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and followed it up with a third-place finish

in the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway a little over a week ago.

ViperExchange.com Backs Up Breakout Victory with Third-Place in Brickyard Grand Prix in No. 33 Viper GT3-R

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (July 28, 2014) – The No. 33 ViperExchange.com Viper GT3-R of drivers Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen scored its second-straight IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship podium result Friday in the Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a third-place GT Daytona (GTD) finish.

The podium showing at Indy followed ViperExchange.com’s breakout victory one race earlier at “Mosport” Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Both finishes are season-best results for the first-year Viper GT3-R IMSA TUDOR Championship effort and have combined to turn the tide on a tough run of bad luck in the first half of the season.

Like the Mosport victory, where Bleekemolen made the winning pass less than two laps from the finish, Indy featured another late-race pass with two laps remaining by the fast Dutchman.

“Jeroen drove an incredible race,” Keating said. “There is no one I would rather have as a teammate. To hand him the car in 10th and finish on the podium again is phenomenal. I’m really happy.”

The fact that the ViperExchange.com team had to fight from far back in the field at all was the result of a costly bump-and-run incident Keating sustained during his race-opening shift. He was running in fifth and in the GTD lead pack when another class competitor spun him out.

“The 58 Porsche was right behind me,” Keating said. “Three separate times he bumped me and let me know he was there. In Turn 12 again he hit me pretty hard and spun me. It took me a while to get turned back around. That was after a caution, and since everyone was bunched up, I wound up in 10 th , which really upset me. Race control decided not to give the 58 a penalty which upset me even more.

Undeterred by the set-back, Keating turned the car over to Bleekemolen about 60 minutes into the 2-3/4-hour race and the climb through the field began. Driving a double stint to the finish, Bleekemolen cracked the top five with 15 minutes remaining and took fourth a lap later. The pass for the podium came on the final lap of the race on the No. 555 Ferrari.

“I’m pretty happy,” Bleekemolen said. “Ben got spun around, which threw us to the back, but we had great strategy and some good fights to get back to the front. I’m really happy we could take the podium in the last minute of the race. It is great to have come out on top.”

Keating staged a charge of his own after recovering from the spin despite dealing with traffic and some traction challenges.

“I was running decent times,” Keating said. “I had one lap where I was full of red mist that I did one really fast pass. Our car had less overall grip than practice, so I had trouble being consistent, but I think our car was really good on tires. At the end, some cars where locking up and going wide while we were still able to run fast laps.”

Next up for ViperExchange.com and the IMSA TUDOR Championship is the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 8 – 10 . The weekend’s featured race can be seen in same-day coverage on FOX Sports 1, Sunday, August 10 , at 6:30 p.m. EDT /3:30 p.m. PDT.

“The car was great at Indy,” Bleekemolen said. “We had the pace to fight them. We didn’t have much more, but it was just enough to take the podium today. The next track is not our best track but the team has proved that they can do something good, so I’m really confident going into Road America.”

Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen Bring Race-Winning Momentum to Indy

CONTACT:

Adam Saal

asaal @ententeinteractive.com

321.890.2848

ViperExchange.com , Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen Finish in New Viper GT3-R Debut at Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey

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About ViperExchange.com: ViperExchange.com is the largest Dodge Viper and exotic cars licensed dealer located just Northwest of Houston, Texas. With over 100 Dodge Vipers typically for sale and more arriving daily for sale, ViperExchange.com has combined the largest inventory in the world of new and pre-owned Dodge Vipers. ViperExchange.com also offers the best prices and discounts. Special orders, specific model searches and financing options are also available. Visit directly at ViperExchange.com , Twitter @ViperExchange and Facebook at Facebook.com/Viper-Exchange .

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