BMW Team PTG Lime Rock Friday Practice Notes

BMW Team PTG
Notes and Quotes
SPEED GT World Challenge Round 3
Practice
Lime Rock Park
Friday, May 23, 2003
Race Date: Saturday, May 24, and Monday, May 26, 2003
Auberlen and Said top Friday's Speed GT Practice

A light mist to a steady rain fell through out the first of today's two
20-minute practice sessions for Round 3 of the SCCA Pro Racing Speed GT
Championship as 22 competitors took to the slippery 1.53-mile Lime Rock Park
circuit to begin the Lime Rock Grand Prix weekend.

It was a good start for BMW Team PTG as Boris Said paced the field with a
lap of 1:09.10 in his No. 6 BMW Team PTG M3 with teammates Bill Auberlen
(1:10.559) and Hans Stuck (1:10.984) in third and fourth. Justin Marks
finished the
session in eighth (1:14.107).

Although the weekend's forecast is a wet one, the afternoon session started
under cloudy but brightening skies and allowed Team PTG to put dry tires on
its four M3s and adjust the suspensions for a drying track.

Bill Auberlen led the field with a lap of 55.009 followed by Boris Said at a
55.243. Hans Stuck finished fifth (55.734) and Justin Marks was 10th
(56.916).

BILL AUBERLEN, NO. 7 BMW TEAM PTG M3:
"I am not completely happy yet, but it is very difficult to know which way
to go for tomorrow as no one knows what the weather will bring. It looks
like the rain set-up I am heading toward is very close to what Boris ran
this morning, so that proves we are both heading in the right direction if
it rains. We do now have a dry set-up and a rain-set up so when we look up
at the sky tomorrow and see the conditions we'll adjust accordingly."

BORIS SAID, NO. 6 BMW TEAM PTG M3:
"This track is very slippery in the wet and takes a long time to dry so,
depending on this weekend's conditions, we will definitely have to pick the
set-up correctly. I do have a friend at the track, whose name I won't say or
everyone will be talking to him, who has showed me the rain line, so that is
why I think I was quickest this morning. In the second session we tried a
half-dry, half-rain set-up and it was OK, but we saw that we will have to
pick one or the other."

HANS STUCK, NO.8 BMW TEAM PTG M3:
"I am quite happy with where we are right now. We stayed with the softer
setting from this morning and it proved to not be so bad in drying
conditions as well. I had good grip on the front tires and the car was fast
in the long turns. We might think about one or two small changes before
qualifying and possibly look at a longer top gear."

JUSTIN MARKS, NO. 80 BMW TEAM PTG M3:
"This session may have been a throw-away, as it looks like it may be the
only dry session of the weekend. But because there is a chance that Monday's
race may be dry we went out with a partial dry set-up in the car to use this
session hopefully to Monday's advantage. I ran almost the entire session to
get heat in the tires and see how the M3 will behave after 20 or so
laps. We now have dry-condition data to review, so if we do get a break in
the weather on Monday we will be ready for it. This is the third time I have
been to Lime Rock and I learned a great deal following Hans."