Team ADT/Champion Audi Qualifies
2nd at Mid-Ohio
| LEXINGTON, OH. (June 26,
2004) - Team ADT Champion Racing will start from 2nd position tomorrow in round two of the American Le Mans Series at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Marco Werner, in his first appearance at Mid-Ohio, put in a remarkable flying lap (1:12.184/112.612 mph); two seconds faster than the 2002 Pole time set by Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro. Tire wear and tire preservation will be the key to winning this 2:45 minute race tomorrow. Mid-Ohio recently put new grooves on the apex of every corner to ultimately give the race cars better grip. But as new as these grooves are, they are still quite bumpy and chew up the tires rather severely. ADT/Champion Racing spent the better part of yesterday's practice session working with the Michelin engineers on tire set-up. JJ Lehto was the most consistent yesterday during practice as he posted six consecutive laps in the 1:13 minute range. 27 cars will compete tomorrow on Mid-Ohio's 2.25-mile, 13-turn circuit. CBS Sports will have live coverage of the Mid-Ohio race from 2-4 p.m. (EDT), while MotorsTV will have live flag-to-flag coverage in Europe. The American Le Mans Series Radio Web will have live coverage of the race and of Saturday's qualifying session online at www.americanlemans.com. Marco Werner (Germany). "The lap time was good but obviously not good enough. I pushed very hard on the tires and it was not possible to go any faster as we got near the end of the qualifying session. The track is nice, I like it, but it is also very difficult. Tomorrow's race will be a good one." JJ Lehto (Finland). "Dyson has tested here a lot and they did a good job. We are all very close and the tires will play a major role tomorrow. They are really being worked hard and you will either win or lose based on the tires. There is nothing else that can really make as big a difference as the tires will this weekend. Today the car was better than yesterday and the biggest thing is we did a lot of tire testing yesterday with Michelin. Performance wise, you always have to compromise a little bit for that one fast qualifying lap versus choosing a set-up for race distance and we did that today. I think we are quite positive we've found the right tire and car set-up for tomorrow." Brad Kettler (Technical Director). "The car is very, very good for the race tomorrow. We can run a strong pace all day. The tire wear issues we were worried about seem to be under control and I'm satisfied. We would like to have had another six hundredths to our favor but basically everything is in good shape. Marco and JJ are driving fantastically and I think we'll have a good day tomorrow." 1) J. Weaver/B. Leitzinger Dyson Racing LMP1 2) J. Lehto/M. Werner Team ADT Champion Racing LMP1 3) C. Dyson/A. Wallace Dyson Racing LMP1 4) C. McMurry/B .Willman/J. Bucknum Team Bucknum Racing LMP2 5) O. Gavin/O. Beretta Corvette Racing GTS
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