Brian Simo @Sears Point

Road-racing champion Brian Simo of Carlsbad, Calif., will compete in his 
second NASCAR Winston Cup event this weekend.  He will substitute for Hut 
Stricklin, driving the No. 90 Hills Bros Coffee Ford for Donlavey Racing, at 
Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.  Simo raced the same car at Sears Point 
last year, but the track layout was different.

"We're hoping that Sears Point will be good to us this year," he said.  "We 
haven't been on the track in this new configuration, but hopefully the 
changes will make it even better.  Our goal is to move forward from where we 
were last year, to qualify well and then drive a solid race and have a strong 
finish."
 
Simo acknowledged last year's race experience will be valuable.

"Learning to manage the mass of a Winston Cup car versus other types of 
sports car is key, so any track time is valuable," he said.  "Last year's 
race at Sears Point gave us a good understanding of what's needed for the car 
setup, so we're hoping that will contribute to our performance this year.
 
"The Winston Cup drivers have a tremendous amount of experience in these big 
cars, so anybody coming in has a bit of a handicap because of the obvious 
lack of seat time.  But we have experience on road courses, so we're looking 
for a balance between inexperience with the mass and experience on road 
courses.  We'll work with it and look for a good race."

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Sylvia Proudfoot
spur07@cs.com
403 287 3945