EXTREME HEAT AFFECTS QUALIFYING AT PORTLAND - Sunday, July 25, 2004 at 12:05

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

For more information on Champion Racing, please visit www.championracing.net.  For more information on Audi's motorsport program, please visit www.audiusa.com.