Synergy

Some families head out on the boat, and some gather for the big game, but for the Tennessee-based Grants, there’s only one place to be when it comes to family activities—the race track.

Synergy Racing will campaign a second entry in this weekend’s Bosch 250 at Virginia International Raceway, as the father and two-son entry of Milton (father), Kevin, and Carry Grant have joined the team with the backing of Courtyard by Marriot.  The Bosch 250 weekend will also see Synergy Racing campaigning Patrick Long and David Murry in the No. 80 Oil Heat America.com Porsche GT3 for round four of the 2008 Rolex Sports Car Series season.

The VIR event marks the second Rolex Sports Car Series start for the Grants, having made a series debut in 2007 at Mid-Ohio. Despite their Rolex rookie status, the No. 71 Courtyard by Marriot Porsche GT3 entry has plenty of racing experience. Father Milton has been racing for over 30 years, and the Bosch 250 event will mark his 417th race start. And it didn’t take long for his sons to catch the bug either, as Carey took in his first race weekend at all of six weeks old.

““We enjoy racing as a family and we are just trying to ease into it, making this step up to the Rolex Series,” said Milton. “We raced this car last weekend in a double national as a tune-up for this weekend, and are really looking forward to the Bosch event at VIR. It is going to be interesting to be racing out there with the Daytona Prototypes, but having run with the GT-1 cars coming up so fast on you, I think that experience is going to be helpful this weekend.”

With all three drivers measuring in between 6’ 1” and 6’ 6”, the Grant family won’t be hard to miss in the paddock and they are hoping to be standing tall come race time as well.

“We’re really focused on getting to the finish of this race,” said Carey. “Just to have a good mistake-free weekend is going to be our main goal. VIR is a great track, with the combination of slow and fast corners and the natural layout of the track, I just love it. I have a lot of experience racing a Camaro so I am still getting used to the Porsche and hopefully I can keep doing that this weekend.”

“The biggest thing for us is to be stepping up to the next level and really getting to enjoy the racing as a family,” said Kevin, who himself just became a father recently. “We have so much experience doing everything ourselves during race weekends, that it is going to be nice to be able to just concentrate on the driving and letting Synergy handle everything else. The Porsche is a great handling car so we’re excited to be running on VIR this weekend. We’ve all had experience racing as both the fastest and the slowest classes, so hopefully that knowledge will be helpful for us running with the Daytona Prototypes this weekend.”

The Bosch 250 weekend will open with practice and qualifying on Saturday, April 26, with the two-hour and forty-five minute race taking the green flag at 1:00 PM ET on Sunday.