Miller Gives Jaguar Its First Lime Rock Pole

May 24, 2003


LAKEVILLE, Conn. ‹ Trans-Am Series for the BFGoodrich® Tires Cup Driver
Johnny Miller has long claimed Lime Rock Park owed him something. He cashed
it all in Saturday as the driver of the No. 64 Eaton Cutler-Hammer Jaguar
XKR earned his first pole of 2003 and gave Jaguar its first pole at the
1.53-mile, eight-turn permanent road course.

For his efforts, Miller received two bonus championship points, and the
Jaguar Pole Award, a performance-based initiative that rewards drivers who
win the pole at each Trans-Am Series events this season.

³The car was really good. It was good yesterday,² said Miller, who backed up
his fast efforts in the first two practice sessions Friday with a pole speed
of 51.315 seconds at 107.337 miles per hour. ³We made a few changes to
figure out where it was going to go with old tires. We were really working
on the car, and ended up with a good qualifying car out a great race car.

³The track has changed quite a bit since yesterday,² added Miller, who¹s
last pole came at Road America in 2000. ³We had a push and (teammate Scott
Pruett) said he had a push, but we were able to pull off two or three good
laps without hurting the tires.²

Pruett, driver of the No. 7 Jaguar R Performance XKR, qualified second.

³We just carried too much push,² said Pruett, who leads the points going
into Monday¹s Trans-Am 100. ³We missed the setup a little bit, which
probably came from me not racing here for the last 14 years. I took a gamble
on the setup, and we were just a little bit off. We have a good rain setup
on the car for Monday, and if it¹s dry, we still have a little work to do.²

Hayner (No. 2 Trenton Forging/GMAC Commercial Finance Chevrolet Corvette),
who won the pole here last season, was third fastest.

³The car was great,² said Hayner. ³We learned a lot last year. We came out
of the box with a great setup and actually improved on it a little bit. We
have a new engine program this year, and with all of the changes we still
went four-tenths quicker this year than last year¹s pole speed. We¹re really
happy about that.²

Both Pruett and Hayner received one bonus point for qualifying in the top
three.

Brian Simo, who is driving the No. 3 Jaguar R Performance XKR this weekend,
was fourth quickest, ahead of rookie Jorge Diaz, Jr.¹s No. 8 Puerto Rico
Grand Prix Jaguar XKR.

Rookie Bobby Sak, Tomy Drissi, Michael Lewis, Randy Ruhlman and Paul Newman
completed the top-10 qualifiers.