Dorricott Racing Preview - Portland

        PORTLAND, Ore. (June 13, 2002) - Dorricott Racing's return to
Portland International Raceway could be a curse or a blessing in seeking
its fourth consecutive Portland victory in round five of the 12-race Toyota
Atlantic Championship, Saturday, June 15.

        The 35 lap/68.915 mile Atlantic sprint around Portland's 10-turn,
1.969-mile road course will be the inaugural running of Atlantic at PIR.
The green flag is scheduled to drop at 3:30 p.m. (PT), and is the featured
support race in the CART FedEx Championship G.I. Joe's 200 to be run on
Sunday.
        
        The curse is a thought along the lines of "familiarity breeds
contempt." Dorricott Racing has had a monopoly on the Portland podium since
1999 including three consecutive wins and pole positions. A blessing would
be past success creating a pathway for Dorricott Racing's driver trio of
Jon Fogarty, Alex Gurney, and Luis Diaz to return to the Portland podium
for a fourth consecutive year - a modern day track record for a
CART-sanctioned support series and team.

        A retrospective look of Dorricott Racing's dominance in Portland is
in order. It began in 1999 when FedEx CART driver Oriol Servia, of
Catalonia, won the pole in the Dayton Indy Lights Championship. His
Dorricott Racing teammate, Philipp Peter, of Austria, won the race. 

        The 2000 Indy Lights race mirrored 1999. Dorricott Racing prevailed
with current Patrick Racing CART Fed Ex rookie Townsend Bell, of San Luis
Obispo, Calif., winning his first career Indy Lights pole. His teammate
Jason Bright, of Australia, won the race after starting on the outside
pole.

        Bell followed his pole position in 2000 with an encore pole last
year in setting an Indy Lights track record of 1:04.991 = 109.067 mph. 

        Meanwhile, Damien Faulkner, of Ireland, who started third on the
grid, led 22 of 38 laps to cross the finish line an astounding
16.134-seconds ahead of Rudy Junco, of Mexico. The 25 year-old Irishman
toured PIR at an average race speed of 76.116 mph. It was Faulkner's second
career Indy Lights victory in only his fifth Indy Lights start. 

        For Fogarty, of Portola Valley, Calif., returning to Portland will
be bitter-sweet. He was new to Dorricott Racing last year and came to
Portland in 10th place in the Dayton Indy Lights Championship with 22
points. Unfortunately, his season took a disturbing twist when he was
forced to withdraw from the race due to a herniated disk located between
his C-3 and C-4 vertebrae. He missed the following five races before
returning for round 10 at Road Atlanta.

        What a difference a year can make. This time, Fogarty, who is
currently in second place in the Atlantic championship with 46 points, aims
to regain the series lead - a distinction he held since his season opening
victory at Monterrey, Mexico, until last Saturday at Monterey, California.
While running an uncontested second place with six laps remaining at the
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Fogarty was sidelined and relegated to a "DNF"
due to a blown engine on the Thomas Fogarty Winery & Vineyards Swift 014.a 

        Gurney, of Newport Beach, Calif., continued to close the
championship margin with a sixth place finish at Laguna Seca. This was on
the heels of fourth place in round three at Milwaukee. Combined with his
second round runner-up finish at Long Beach in the Behr-Castrol Swift
014.a., Gurney is in a tie for fifth place with Rodolfo Lavin with 39
points. 

        Diaz, of Mexico City, had tough luck at Laguna Seca though little,
if any, was his fault. After finishing ninth at Milwaukee, Diaz was running
strong at Laguna Seca before accidental and incidental contact with Gurney
while entering a tight corner caused him to run off course and lose a
couple of positions on lap 15. Diaz pitted for a precautionary inspection
of his car's rear suspension before resuming.

        Trouble resurfaced later in the race when he was struck by Jonathon
Macri. Although he lost more positions, Diaz was able to continue for a
hard-earned 15th place finish in the Telmex Swift 014.a

        "I have high expectations about this race because we tested well at
PIR and I feel like this is my type of track," said Diaz. "It is also
important to me to show why Dorricott Racing has faith in me and to prove
to it and my sponsors that the last few races were matters of bad luck."

        Diaz proved his skill on a road course earlier this year when he
won the pole at Monterrey, Mexico, in a blistering record time of 1:27.089
(86.973 mph) around the 12-turn, 2.104-mile Fundidora Park. It was his
first career pole position in a major international racing series. Diaz is
eighth place the TAC with 27 points

        Fogarty holds a slim three-point lead for Atlantic
Rookie-of-the-Year honors over Roger Yasukawa, 46-43. Diaz is in fourth
place with 27 points.

        Portland will hold added motivation for Dorricott Racing in light
of the recent passing of beloved team owner, Bob Dorricott. Dorricott
passed away Friday, April 26, at his family home in Los Altos Hills,
Calif., of cancer. He was 65. Besides being one of most respected names in
North American formula-style, open-wheel racing, Dorricott was directly
responsible for his team winning two Dayton Indy Lights Championships in
1999 and 2001, and Indy Lights runner-up honors in 2000.

                Dorricott Racing is a year-round professional motorsports
organization with its race shop located in Bakersfield, Calif. Detailed
race results, team, and sponsor information are available on Dorricott
Racing's official web site, http://www.dorricottracing.com.

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