ALMS: BMW Team PTG M3 of Stuck and Said Finish Third In GT

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

FT. WORTH, Texas - BMW Team PTG took advantage of caution periods and used excellent pit stop work to finish third in the GT class with the No. 6 BMW M3 of Hans Stuck and Boris Said, covering 107 laps around the 2.324-mile Texas Motor Speedway circuit in the two-hour-and-45-minute Leather Center Grand Prix of Texas. The No. 10 BMW M3 of Bill Auberlen and Niclas Jonsson finished seventh after running third in the closing stages of the race.

The No. 42 BMW Motorsport M3 of JJ Lehto of Finland and Jorg Muller of Germany ran in a top three position for most of the race, dropping to a fifth place finish after an unplanned third stop for front tires.

Overall it was a strong debut for a new M3 effort in North America as all three M3s scored points in the run for the 2001 American Le Mans Series GT championship.

PTG team owner, Tom Milner said, "I thought a BMW could get on the podium today - either a PTG or BMW Motorsport M3. We are very happy with the result and will get even stronger."

Auberlen, starting fifth with a qualifying time of 1:27.064 and, Said, starting eighth with a qualifying time of 1:28.300 ran a steady pace and held the sixth and seventh positions for the first hour, never far out of sight of the leaders.

Just past the one-hour mark debris on the front straight brought out the first yellow of the day and quick work by both crews for fuel, tires and a drivers change gained both M3s two places.

"The grip came back to the track," said Auberlen, of Redondo Beach, Calif. "The M3 was handling great and everything was fine for Nic - except for the shifter was a little loose. I had a little spin because of it."

Running a conservative pace Said, of Carlsbad, Calif. said, "We wanted to run smoothly, lift early and try to go for one stop. The yellow ended that, but Hans got an M3 that was 100 percent."

At the two-hour mark the three BMW M3s in the field were scored in third, fourth and fifth positions.

The second yellow of the race brought both PTG M3s back to the pits and the best pit stops of the race. The No. 10 of Jonsson rejoined the race in third with the No. 6 of Stuck, just behind, in fourth.

Debris on the track punctured the right rear Yokohama of the No. 10 M3 with twenty minutes to go, but, again, quick work in the pits got Jonsson back out to record PTG's quickest time of the race with a 1:25.724 on lap 101, catching up to Stuck and following him across the finish line only two seconds ahead of the fourth place Porsche. "We caught two cars in the pits - coming out third, " said a tired Jonsson, of Aliso Viejo, Calif. "I got back out after the puncture and was fortunate to catch up with Hans and help him to the finish."

A delighted Stuck, of Austria said, "We had some luck and picked up valuable points for the season. At the end, I could see the Porsche closing on me and used a couple of tricks to keep him behind me. It was a very good team effort today. We had to go strong."

The American Le Mans Series continues on March 17th with the 49th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring.

Text Provided By Bill Cobb

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