TOURING: BMW Team PTG Petit Le Mans provisional qualifying

29 September 2000

BMW Team PTG notes:  provisional qualifying, Sept. 28, 2000
Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta
race nine of 12, American Le Mans Series

BMW Team PTG qualified third and fifth on the provisional GT grid
for Saturday's 1000-mile, 10-hour race.  Boris Said qualified the #7
BMW M3 third in one minute, 24.662 seconds.  He is driving with
Hans Stuck and Johannes van Overbeek.  Brian Cunningham,
sharing the #10 M3 with Peter Cunningham and Nic Jonsson,
qualified fifth (1:25.053).

Boris Said, driver, #7 BMW M3

"That's the closest we've been all year on a horsepower track.  This
track's kind of funny because it's half horsepower and half
handling.  The guys have worked on the motors and Yokohama's
worked on the tires, and it's all coming together."

Brian Cunningham, driver, #10 BMW M3

"We have one more qualifying to go, so I guess it's a good place to
start.  We just really need to work on the setup.  We haven't got
the understeer out of the car yet."

return to racing

Hans Stuck returns this week after missing the Portland race to
heal an injury to his sixth and seventh vertebrae.  It was only the
second race he has missed in his 32-year career.  "It was good to
have three weeks off because I had to do isometric therapy to
stabilize my spine and the vertebra," he said.  "I missed Portland, of
course, and I was nervous about what was going on there.  But I
was more anxious to get back in the car.  I'm fine again, everything
is okay.  The old dog is back!"

record run

BMW Team PTG driver Peter Cunningham is also competing in the
Speedvision World Challenge GT race this weekend, in a BMW M3. 
He scored his 19th series victory earlier this season, tying him for
all-time series victories.  A win this weekend will give him the series
record, and edge him closer to his 11th professional driver
championship.

BMW Car Club

BMW of North America, Inc. will host 420 BMW Car Club members
and their guests during the Petit Le Mans.  The company hosts car
clubs at each ALMS race, but the biggest crowd attends the
annual event at Road Atlanta.  Guests will enjoy hospitality in the
BMW Car Corral, meet the BMW Team PTG drivers and crew, and
catch all the action from Spectator Hill between turns 5 and 6.