ALOHA, Ore., June 17, 2012 – Cindi Lux had to fight fire, fuel and frustration but she landed her second-consecutive class podium finish in the June 17 Portland Rose Festival's Rose Cup Race. The Aloha, Ore.-resident has been a lifelong resident of the Northwest and the region’s premier club racing event has always been a major date on her calendar. For 2012, Lux Performance Group built a new SRT Viper Competition Coupe and, without any prior testing, introduced it at the Rose Cup Races. The 1.967-mile, 12-turn Portland International Raceway is familiar territory to Lux and that experience proved vital while the 12-time road-racing champion chased not only the competition but new car development items on America’s Super Car as well. Despite a weekend of frustration, the No. 5 SRT Viper Competition Coupe Fueled by Black Rock Coffee brought it altogether on Sunday afternoon finishing third in class and fourth overall.
Meanwhile, in a second Lux Performance Group-prepped machine, local racer Steve Streimer added nicely to the results ledger for Northwest-based organization. Streimer, who began having his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry prepared by Lux Performance last year, continued a string of podium finishes. The Sherwood, Ore.-resident added four podium finishes to Lux’s to bring a total of five trophies back to the Aloha, Ore.-headquarters of the Fred and Cindi Lux-owned team.
The debut of any new car is always wrought with teething problems and the Lux SRT Viper Comp. Coupe was no exception. Early issues with the fuel system starved the V10 engine of much-needed gasoline wreaking havoc with Lux’s lap times. To make matters worse, a oil leak led to a small engine fire. The conflagration was quickly extinguished without substantial damage but the incident required a full teardown of the system late into Saturday night. The Fred Lux-led team isolated and repaired the problem just in time for the Feature Race held on Father’s Day. Starting sixth in the main race, Lux drove a faultless 45-minutes to take the checkered flag two spots higher than she started. While she finished third-overall in 2011 – the first woman to ever do so – the fourth overall and third in class was possibly an even greater achievement considering the challenges of the weekend.
Streimer wheeled his No. 02 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry to two pole positions and the race wins in both Porsche Pirelli Cup events held over the weekend. In an SCCA regional event and in Sunday’s Rose Cup Feature Race, Streimer added podium finishes to the Lux Performance Group tally for the weekend. He finished tenth-overall in the Rose Cup Feature Race.
Lux Performance Group again brought far more to their local event than what they displayed on-track. SRT, Chrysler’s performance division which develops the Viper under its own banner as well as other high-performance and track cars for Chrysler’s Dodge and Jeep divisions, made its Rose Cup debut as a marque over the weekend. Furthermore, the Rose Cup was the premiere of Cindi Lux as an SRT factory driver. She held that honor with Dodge and Mopar previously.
