Terry Borcheller - Birmingham preview

Student tips

Terry Borcheller will have two opportunities to race at the new Barber 
Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.  Borcheller, of Phoenix, will join 
Forest Barber of Fort Worth, Tex., in the No. 54 Bell Motorsports BMW M3 for 
a Grand-Am Cup GS race on May 17.   They will return to the 2.3-mile road 
course on May 18, driving the No. 54 Doran JE4 prototype car in the featured 
Rolex Sports Car Series race.

Borcheller hopes to walk the track Wednesday evening to get a headstart on 
learning the fast line.  He may get some tips from the track facilities 
manager, Jack Abbott, in an interesting role reversal:  Abbott was a student 
of Borcheller's at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in 
Arizona.

Strategy

Borcheller expects a steady pace for both races, on track and in the pits.  
With water and oil temperatures stabilized in the Rolex Series car and a 
fuel-pickup problem solved in the Grand-Am Cup car, the focus will be on 
performance.  That will be good news for his sponsors, K&N Performance 
Filters, Infinity2 Nutrition, Dark Dog, Alpinestars, Bell Helmets, Bob 
Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, Gatorz Eyewear and Goodyear.

"We're able to change the strategy for practice a little bit because the cars 
won't have to be developed on the race weekend," Borcheller said.  "I'll be 
able to do more coaching with Forest and overlays with our data acquisition.  
We're  going to be very systematic with our driver changes, which will 
probably be our biggest asset."

Baja-bound

Borcheller will compete in his first Baja 500 on May 31.  He'll be riding a 
Honda XR650 off-road motorcycle with former supercross rider James Simons and 
Buddy Stubbs, who owns the Harley-Davidson dealership in Phoenix.  
Borcheller's sponsors will join the California ride - all team members will 
wear K&N Performance Filters jerseys and Borcheller will sport Alpinestars 
boots, Gatorz Eyewear and a Bell MX helmet, painted with his traditional 
design. 

Borcheller started riding at age five, on a mini-bike.  He hasn't ridden 
competitively since 1989, when he won a regional motocross championship in 
His rookie year.

"I'm a little bit nervous with [the 24 Hours of] Le Mans coming up two weeks 
after that, and we're in the  middle of the championship in three different 
series," he said.  "But I'm going to have a good time and represent my 
sponsors.  We're running the sportsman class, which is an amateur class, so I 
have to keep in mind that I'm going to have fun.  It's hard for me to just 
enjoy it because I'm so competitive - especially on a bike - but I'm looking 
forward to the whole experience."  

Details

The Grand-Am Cup GS race is set for 4 pm to 6:30 pm on Saturday, May 17, and 
the Rolex Sports Car Series race for 1:30 pm to 4:15 pm on Sunday, May 18.  
Both races will be on the 2.3-mile Barber Motorsports Park road course.  
SPEED Channel will televise the Rolex Series race on Saturday, May 24 from 1 
pm to 4 pm.  The Grand-Am Cup GS race will air Saturday, May 31 at 1 pm on 
SPEED Channel (all times EDT).