PORTLAND, OR. (July 24, 2004) -
With temperatures above the 100 degree mark at Portland
International Raceway, the Audi R8 of ADT Champion Racing struggled
during today's twenty-minute American Le Mans Series qualifying
session. Lehto along with teammate Marco Werner will start for the
first time this season in the second row behind a pair of Dyson LMP1
cars.
JJ Lehto scored his fastest lap of the weekend
early in the session on the 1.944-mile track but it still wasn't
good enough to get the #38, Audi R8 in the front row.
Werner and Lehto hope to continue their
winning streak (three consecutive wins) but it will a battle for the
German/Finnish duo as the top three qualifying cars are all within a
fraction of a second of one another.
The Portland Grand Prix gets the green flag
at 1 p.m. (PDT) on Sunday, July 25. The SPEED Channel will feature
round five of the American Le Mans Series with a live telecast of
the Portland Grand Prix, live from Portland (Ore.) International
Raceway, Sunday, July 25, at 4 p.m. (EDT).
Driver quotes:
JJ
Lehto (Finland): "Qualifying for us today was as good as it could
be. I said this morning that with this heat, we can't go much faster
than what Marco and I did in practice today. The biggest thing will
be to see what the weather is like tomorrow. If it's cooler, than we
can go faster than today."
Marco Werner (Germany): "The temperature
today is just too hot for our R8. The Dyson cars are lighter and
they had a slight advantage over us today. JJ did a great job, in
fact he did the fastest lap of the whole weekend in qualifying. He
tried everything but this weekend it was just not enough. If it's
cooler tomorrow, we will have a fine race."
Brad Kettler (Technical Director):
"Qualifying today was determined by the heat. The R8 is struggling
hard in this heat. Tomorrow is supposed to be a cooler day and I
think you'll see a different result."
1) C. Dyson/A. Wallace Dyson Racing
1:04.750
2) J. Weaver/B. Leitzinger Dyson Racing
1:04.823
3) J. Lehto/M. Werner ADT Champion
Racing 1:05.185
4) C. Field/R./Liddell/J. Field Intersport
Racing 1:09.921
5) O. Gavin/O. Beretta Corvette Racing
1:09.981 |