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ALMS Mid-Ohio Qualifying Report - Saturday, June 26, 2004
at 20:25
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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) which is two seconds faster
compared to the time of Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro who raced an Audi R8
here in 2002 and earned the pole position.
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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