Guy Smith at Daytona

					GUY SMITH OPTIMISTIC FOR DAYTONA RACE

Britain’s Guy Smith continued to shine during testing for the Rolex 24 Hour
race at Daytona next month lapping the Sebring circuit within half a second
of last year’s qualifying session for the 12 hour race.  The Jim Matthews
Panoz-Ford Riley & Scott MkIIIC, which runs in the heavier Grand-Am trim,
completed 600 trouble-free miles following a very successful three days and
4000 miles at Daytona the previous week.

The 27 year-old from Hull, was delighted with the progress made and remains
optimistic of being able to secure his first victory in the classic
endurance race, which takes place on February 2nd/3rd.  “The car is great
and is consistently quick.  This is going to be a great advantage during
qualifying and especially the race.  It was a bit of a surprise to be so
quick this early on so I’m obviously very happy about our chances.  It’s
going to be a tough race, there’s no doubt about it but we’ve proved we have
the pace and now the reliability too so I’ll going be flat out to get that
win.”

Team boss Bill Riley was also pleased with the performance of the young
Briton, “I’m very happy with how testing has gone.  Guy’s feedback during
the test sessions was fantastic and he’s a real hands-on driver, which is
great.  He’s very professional and a pleasure to work with and I really
believe now it’s up to the other teams to lose this race not us to win it.”

The Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona International Speedway starts at 1.00pm  local
time on February 2nd following qualifying on Thursday and Friday, January
31st/February 1st.


Ref: GS0013							 				     	 17th January 2002

Editors note:	Photographs of Guy driving at Daytona are available from the
contact below.  If you require any additional information, please let me
know.  Further details about Guy, including photographs and career history,
may be found at www.guysmith.com


For media information: 	Cathy Metcalfe, MPR Associates, The Bothy,
				20 Jenkinson Road, Towcester, Northants NN12 6AW ENGLAND
				Tel:  +44 (0) 1327 352199  Fax: +44 (0) 1327 352908
				E-mail: cmetcalfe@mprassociates.net