GrandAm - Kinetic Motorsports BMW Finishes 13th In Barber 200

Birmingham, April 10, 2011: Birmingham, Alabama…The #33 Kinetic Motorsports BMW M3 E92 of Jade Buford and Bryan Sellers briefly ran as high as second place in the Barber 200 race at Barber Motorsports Park but eventually had to settle for the 13th finishing position.

After struggled with car issues throughout the entire weekend, Jade Buford qualified the BMW 10th. The car was disqualified from that position at the tech inspection, and he had to start the two hours and thirty minute race from the back of the field. Buford was able to quickly gain track positions, and handed the car over to Bryan Sellers in 13th position. After a technical issue during the car’s pit stop, Bryan Sellers again had to move forward from the back. Sellers held the #33 in the Top 5 for a few laps, but the car finally finished 13th. The Kinetic Motorsports team was disappointed by the final race finish but encouraged by the continued progress.

Russell Smith, owner, Kinetic Motorsports “It was a very difficult weekend overall for the #33. I think the big problem was the issue at tech and being disqualified after qualifying. Jade did a great job and had a fantastic start and would have done well on the grid, but we let him down. I feel very upset and sorry that we did. As if to compound it, Jade was moving very quickly and went from dead last up to about mid-field during his stint, I think he was about 13th when he handed the car over to Bryan. Bryan jumped in and it turned out that we had no air left in the gun to put on the left tire. Because of that, we ended up with a pit stop that took us from 13th down to last place again. I am extremely embarrassed, and extremely disappointed, so we’re going to have to go back and think really hard about better preparation and implementing it for the next race.”

Ed Hall, Team manager of Kinetic Motorsports “The BMW finish is a result that we can build upon. We’re definitely not satisfied with the finish in 13th, but to run up front was great. Jade did a phenomenal job and gave Bryan a good, solid car. I think the yellows fell a little bit off cue from where we wanted. The BMW crew guys worked really hard this weekend. This series is so competitive that if you don’t come off the truck in front, it’s really hard to get up there. We’ll go back and evaluate it and make some changes and take away some things from here and apply it to Virginia and contend for a win. We’ve been fast there the last couple of times. We didn’t achieve a solid finish but we had a good car. I think with the drivers, Jade and Bryan, if we give them a really good car they’re definitely going to be contenders.”

Jade Buford, driver #33 Kinetic Motorsports BMW M3 E92: “The race did not go as expected. We overcame the troubles that we had with Tech and utilized our track position, but we made mistakes during our pits stops that cost us a lot. We need to go back and rework things, and do better next time.”

Bryan Sellers, driver #33 Kinetic Motorsports BMW M3 E92: “The race wasn’t great. We had the car and the team that was probably good enough for a Top 5 finish, but every time we took a step forward, we would then take two steps back. We didn’t finish how we had hoped at all. We definitely had a car that we could have done something with, but things did not go our way today and we did not produce the results that we wanted.” Sponsors of the #33 car for the 2011 season are Sail Air Travel, Inc. and Vion Hitachi Data Systems.

The next Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race is scheduled for May 13-14 at Virginia International Raceway.