Sears Point ALMS qualifying - BMW Motorsport record pole

note:  the O in Jorg, U in Muller and first O in Jonsson are spelled with an 
umlaut


Qualifying Saturday
Round 3, American Le Mans Series
21 July 2001, Sonoma, Calif.


record pole position for BMW Motorsport

Munich/Sonoma. BMW Motorsport driver Dirk Muller (D) broke his own track 
record to qualify on the GT pole position for Sunday's American Le Mans 
Series race at Sears Point Raceway.  Müller covered the 2.52-mile road course 
in one minute 33.763 seconds to take his third-consecutive GT pole position 
in the new No. 43 BMW M3 GTR.  He also won the poles at the European Le Mans 
Series races in Donington, England, and Jarama, Spain.  He will share driving 
duties with Fredrik Ekblom (S) in the two-hour 45-minute race.  JJ Lehto 
(FIN) and Jorg Muller will start fourth in class, after Lehto qualified the 
No. 42 GTR in 1:34.448.  BMW Team PTG drivers Bill Auberlen (USA) and Niclas 
Jonsson (S) will start second in class in the No. 10 BMW M3 GTR (1:33.910), 
and Hans-J. Stuck (D) and Boris Said (USA) will start third in the No. 6 GTR 
(1:34.149).

BMW Motorsport team manager Charly Lamm: "It is good to be back at the race 
track and competing again after a two-month break in our race schedule.  It's 
also nice to be back in the United States and the ALMS for a very intense 
period of racing, starting with the race at Sears Point.  We're happy for 
Dirk to score another pole with the 43 BMW.  JJ didn't have an ideal 
qualifying, as he was fighting some oversteer.  We'll have to address that 
tonight to give him a good race car for tomorrow."

JJ Lehto #42: "We can't get it dialed in.  Normally, we have a lot of 
understeer and now we have a massive oversteer.  We'll just have to get it 
right."

Jorg Muller #42: "At least we're in front of the Porsches.  JJ had a bit of 
traffic and we still have some problems with our car -- we can't find the 
proper setup yet.  It's going to be a late night to work on it."

 Fredrik Ekblom #43:  "Dirk did a fantastic job.  I've never been to this 
track and it's quite difficult with all the hills and crests.  Dirk won here 
last year, so I knew he would do a good job in qualifying."

Dirk Muller #43:  "I'm really, really happy to be on pole for the third time 
in a row.  I'm really happy to race with Fredrik again.  Both of us are quick 
over here and the Schnitzer team did a fantastic job all weekend.  They got 
better and better from practice to practice and finally in qualifying, we are 
on the pole.  With the whole team effort we've had in the past, I'm quite 
confident for tomorrow."

 
BMW Press:  Guido Stalmann, tel +49 (0) 89 382 23401, fax +49 (0) 89
382 27563, e-mail: Guido.Stalmann@bmw.de

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Sylvia Proudfoot
spur07@cs.com
403 287 3945