Other's Recklessness Costs Diaz at Monterrey

       MONTERREY, Mexico (March 24, 2003) - The weather was perfect. The
race start was not, but Luis Diaz still proved to be the fastest Atlantic
driver at the Toyota Atlantic Championship season opener Sunday in the
Tecate/Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix.

        The 32-lap (67.2 mile) race around the challenging 2.104-mile,
12-turn street circuit in Monterrey's Fundidora Park was blemished with a
yellow flag start due to contact between Kyle Krisiloff and Romain Dumas
during the "parade" lap. Krisiloff's car suffered irreparable damaged to
its left rear suspension. This delayed an attempt for an official race
start under the green flag until Lap 2.

        Diaz, who started from the pole (his third career $1000 Toyota
"Pole Award") with a time of 1:24.960 (89.153 mph), expertly led the 15-car
field toward the Start-Finish line on Lap 2 when he was "waved off" due to
outside polesitter Joey Hand attempting to "jump the start."

        When Diaz accepted the green flag on Lap 3, he had hardly crossed
the Start-Finish line before rookie A.J. Allmendinger recklessly swept
right-to-left from his third place grid position behind Diaz and pounded
his nose cone into Diaz's right rear tire. The contact punctured the tire
and forced Diaz to return to pit lane. This time, Hand became a temporary
beneficiary by taking the early race lead. Meanwhile, Allmendinger only
suffered a paint-darkened nose cone and a brief off-course jaunt before
finishing 8th place.

        "I feel bad, obviously, because I believe we deserved no less than
a podium finish or a victory. I drove the fastest car in the field.
Unfortunately for me, Allmendinger made a move approaching the first corner
that took me out of the race. I ended up with a flat tire from the contact
and 10th place. I feel badly for all those who put in so much time and
effort to give me a great race car. I had problems beyond my control last
year at Monterrey so this is a little frustrating and bitter. We still have
11 more races and I  believe that there are podiums awaiting Dorricott
Racing this year.

        Diaz dropped from first place to 15th during the pit stop before
displaying just how fast the Dorricott Racing-prepared Telmex Swift was.
Diaz passed four cars in the next 27 laps and claimed the fastest lap on
Lap 27 before running even faster on Lap 30 at 84.708-seconds (89.418 mph).
Diaz was the only driver in the field who had descending lap times as the
race progressed. 

        If one excludes time lost during the pit stop, Diaz clearly ran the
fastest overall race thereby suggesting a clean race start would have
resulted in a victory. Diaz was the only driver to record laps under
1:25.00 and the only male driver to run faster than Atlantic rookie and
female driver Danika Patrick.

        Hand's day took a dramatic turn on Lap 5 when his car suffered a
mechanical problem. Canadian Michael Valiante jumped on Hand's misfortune
and claimed the lead on Lap 6 before holding off a late charge from fellow
Canadian Jonathan Macri to win the race 0.448-seconds ahead of Macri.
Patrick finished third.

        Diaz scored seven championship points including six points for 10th
place and one bonus point for winning the pole. 

        Round two of the 12-race Toyota Atlantic Championship will be at
the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Sunday, April 13.

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

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