K1 Sponsors Moran, Jr./TruSpeed Autosport at GPLB

K1 Speed is thrilled to announce today that they will be sponsoring the TruSpeed Autosport #71 Audi R8 LMS driven by Rocky Moran, Jr. at this weekend’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Pirelli World Challenge series race in the ultra-competitive GT class.

 

Rocky may be a familiar name to many K1 Speed fans as he was most recently announced as K1 Circuit’s track designer. Rocky boasts a varied racing career that has seen him racing open-wheel and sports car races. He last raced sports cars as a Jaguar team driver in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) with RSR Racing.

 

Rocky and his well-known racing father Rocky Sr., are also popular in the karting community since they built and operated Moran Raceway in the 2000s to much critical acclaim from drivers (both Alexander Rossi and Graham Rahal were fans of the track, which sadly closed in 2008).

 

This is Rocky’s first return to racing at the Beach since 2015, when he was injured driving an IndyCar for Dayle Coyne Racing during practice. Prior to that, Rocky was leading the Formula Atlantics race in 2005, before a wheel bearing broke with only one lap to go.

 

Rocky takes to the track tomorrow, Friday, April 13 at 3:30pm PST for practice. Qualifying will be at 9:20am on Saturday, April 14, and the 50-minute sprint race will be at 10:00am on Sunday morning. Join us in cheering them on!

 

CEO of K1 Speed: 

 

“We are so happy to be sponsoring Rocky and the #71 TruSpeed Audi R8 LMS. Rocky and us go way back when we used to work together to promote our karting tracks. He’s a supremely talented driver, and we expect great things from him this weekend. Equally, TruSpeed is a neighbor of ours in Orange County, and we’re so proud to have our logos on their car. With our sponsorship this weekend, we aim to cement our dedication to motorsport, not just at a karting level, but in the professional auto racing realm as well.”

 

 

Rocky Moran, Jr., driver of the #71 TruSpeed Autosport Audi R8 LMS:

 

“Really excited to be here. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs at this race track. I actually was leading in Toyota Atlantic in 2005 with one lap to go my wheel bearing failed. So I’ve been here a lot, I feel like I have a lot of unfinished business. I love this racetrack; it’s my hometown event. I’m very thankful to K1 Speed, Trench Shoring, King Taco and TruSpeed’s team owner, Tyler Tadevic for putting me in this car on short notice. He took a big risk on me, but we’ve known each other for about 20 years, and we were able to put this together Tuesday night at about 5 o’clock. So we were testing the next morning, got fitted in the car Tuesday night.”

 

 

Tyler Tadevic, team owner of TruSpeed Autosport: 

 

“Super excited to have Rocky as a part of the team. Rocky and I go back a long ways. I’ve competed with him and against in the (Formula) Atlantic series years ago, so I’ve known him for almost 18 years. Super stoked to finally to get the chance to go racing with him. And to couple that with the fact that we have K1 Speed as one of the sponsors, it’s a big deal, you know? I take my boy to K1 all the time, Boris Said’s a really good personal friend of mine, so I’ve been a supporter of K1 for awhile, so to have (K1 Speed) on the car, it’s a pretty cool deal. I’m just hoping as far as results, and what we can do out there, it’s kinda a small field out there this year so I’m hoping to go out there and capitalize on that, get a good result. But more than anything, we’re a Southern Californian team, running a Southern Californian kid, at the best Southern California race which is possibly as good as it can get.”