Sports Car Grand Prix News & Notes

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (June 13, 2002) -- With the Sports Car Grand Prix just around the corner, teams are making final adjustments and packing up their transporters to begin the trek to Watkins Glen International. More than 100 race cars at the hands of some of world's best road racers will take to The Glen's historic 3.4-mile road course during Sports Car Grand Prix, giving fans a show they will not want to miss.

Victory Circle Open to Fans
For the second consecutive year, The Glen will open Victory Circle to fans immediately following the 6 Hours of The Glen on June 23. "The energy in Victory Circle after a six-hour endurance race makes it the place that everyone wants to be," said track President Craig Rust. "Fans don't usually have the opportunity to witness the energy and exuberance that occurs after a team has successfully conquered the track and the rest of the field. After the positive response we received last year, we are making a point to include our fans in the festivities again this year."

Victory Circle, located next to the Press Tower by the Pit Terrace grandstands, will open after the checkered flag waves. As is tradition, bottles of champagne will be given to each of the winning drivers, so fans entering Victory Circle should plan on experiencing every aspect - including getting sprayed with champagne.

Morgan Dollar's NASCAR Truck Driver to Join Two-Car Team
Morgan Dollar Motorsports will field two Corvettes in the 6 Hours of The Glen with help from its NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver. Dennis Setzer will partner with team regulars Andrew and Stephen Richards in the #46 Corvette, while the father-son duo of Rob and Charles Morgan take the controls of the team's newest entry - the #47 Corvette.

Setzer, who won a Craftsman Truck race earlier this season for the team, will race his #26 truck in Memphis on Saturday before hopping a plane to The Glen for Sunday's 6 Hours of The Glen. Although he will miss most of the practice sessions, Setzer has been testing the team's Corvette in preparation for the race and has extensive experience racing at The Glen. "I am really looking forward to learning something this weekend. Rob and Charles are both so talented and experienced, that I know I will be able to learn a lot from them," Setzer said.

Testing Accident Could Keep Intersport From The Glen
Intersport Racing's #37 Judd-powered Lola sustained severe damage in a testing accident at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course earlier this week. The team is unsure if they will be able to repair the Lola in time for next week's 6 Hours of The Glen. "We have decide to hold off on officially entering the race until we can access the damage from the wreck and parts availability," team spokesman Clint Field said. "We really wanted to race at The Glen, but we just don't know if its going to be possible now."

Lazzaro Returns to Rand Racing Lola
After missing the last two races due to an injury and a conflict with his Indy Racing League schedule, Anthony Lazzaro will return to the Rand Racing #8 Nissan-powered Lola for the 6 Hours of The Glen. Lazzaro won the SportsRacing Prototype II class with the team at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Nextel 250, as well as the 2001 Grand American Finale.

GT Field Offers Several Racing Favorites
The Grand Touring (GT) field will offer a wide variety of sports cars for fans to enjoy. While Porsche has shown to be a regular in the class, four teams have entered BMW M3s into the 6 Hours of the Glen, including Bell Motorsports, Marcus Motorsports and two by Allegra Motorsports. Other exotic GT entries include a Ferrari of Washington's Ferrari 360 GT, Perspective Racing's Mosler MT900R and two Marcos Mantis from Marcos Racing International USA.

Two New SRP Entries for The Glen
Pegasus Racing and Powerslide Racing will field two new SportsRacing Prototype entries at Watkins Glen. Pegasus will race the #64 Porsche-powered Lola with Oliver Kuttner and Julian Calvet behind the wheel, while Powerslide has entered the #52 Buick-engined Kudzu for Tim Gaffney, David Paqua and Daniel Kraus to race.

G&W, Law Returns to GT Ranks
G&W Motorsports and its lead driver Darren Law will return to the GT ranks in search of their third-straight 6 Hours of The Glen victory in the class. After sweeping the 2001 GT championships, G&W Motorsports retired its #81 Porsche GT3 R and moved into the SportsRacing Prototype II class this season. The #81 will be revived for the 6 Hour, this time being worn by the sister car of last year's championship-winning Porsche. Law will return i the #81 Porsche joined by Brent Martini. However, Law will not be giving up his seat in G&W's BMW Picchio. The Phoenix resident plans to jump between both cars during the 6 Hour race with the help of his Picchio-teammates Andy Lally and Armando Trentini.

New Name, New Car for Focus Team
Team Ford Focus Racing, formerly known as Prisma Racing, will add a second Ford Focus ZX3 to the Grand-Am Cup Sport Touring II field. Team owner Jim Harrell will debut the #99 Focus at the Sports Car Grand Prix, joining the team's #88 Focus. Harrell and Dean Martin, part of the Ford SVT chassis engineering team, will pilot the new entry, while former-AMA motocross racer Scott Turner and Dave Royce race the #88 entry.

Automatic Racing Joins Grand-Am Cup
Automatic Racing Team will make its Grand-Am Cup debut with its #09 BMW M3 at the Sports Car Grand Prix. Jep Thornton and David Russell will pilot the new Grand Sport II entry. The pair recently ran a SCCA-sanctioned event to shake down their new race car for its premiere Grand-Am Cup race and won the team's first-ever event.

Five Rolex 24 Winners to Race in Cup Races
While Grand-Am Cup has become known as a proving ground for up-and-coming drivers, it is also a place where the world's best road racers can be found plying their skills. Five Rolex 24 At Daytona winners will be racing at Watkins Glen for the series Twin 250s. Series regulars Doug Goad (AGT '02), Terry Borcheller (SRPII '02), Cort Wagner (GT '99) and Andy Lally (SRPII '01) will be joined by Randy Pobst (GT '01) in the field of more than 120 drivers competing in Grand-Am Cup at the Sports Car Grand Prix.

For tickets, reserved camping, and additional information about the Sports Car Grand Prix featuring the 6 Hours of The Glen, contact The Glen ticket office at 607-535-2481 or log on to the official Watkins Glen website at www.theglen.com. More information on the Rolex Sports Car Series and Grand-Am Cup Street Stock Series can be found online at www.grand-am.com.

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