De Ferran eager for familar Mid-Ohio

The former Indy 500 winner and two-time Champ Car champion has started his first season of sportscar racing strongly, with his own team's Acura ARX-01b having qualified on the front row for both races since their debut at Utah.

The Brazilian hopes that he and teammate Simon Pagenaud can at least reproduce their debut podium finish this weekend.

"Mid-Ohio is a track I've raced a lot on during my previous life as an IndyCar driver and it's a place where I've been very competitive," he said. "I really enjoy Mid-Ohio and I'm looking forward to getting reacquainted with the track and its very knowledgeable fans.

"Our team has shown very good speed to date, which bodes well for the weekend, now we have to turn that speed into good race results.

"We had the opportunity to test there last month and I got to experience the new track surface, which has changed quite a lot since 2001, the last time I was there. We had an excellent test and worked on finding a good set-up for this weekend."

De Ferran added that he's enjoying his racing return, both as a driver and a team boss.

"I'm having a great time driving a race car again, and I'm enjoying the out of the cockpit activities as a team owner as well," he said.

"It's been a fun project, it's different from open-wheel racing and we're learning about sportscar racing right now. But driving the prototype is a lot like driving and open-wheel car, the handling is similar and it's so much fun to drive."