Saturday June 29 - Auberlen's BMW on Speed Touring Pole at Rd. Atlanta; 5 BMWs in top 10

This morning's 20-minute qualifying session for Round 4 of the SCCA Pro
Racing Speed Touring Car Championship at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga., saw
Bill Auberlen record his second Touring Class pole of the season and his
second pole of the day, as he also put his BMW Team PTG M3 on the GT pole in
the prior session.

Auberlen needed only four laps to be the fastest of the 16 BMW 3 Series
entries in the field of 41, qualifying his No. 92 Turner Motorsport 325i on
the pole with a time of 1:39.320 around the 2.54-mile Road Atlenta circuit.
Speed Touring rookie James Clay will start fourth (1:40.108) in his No. 36
Bimmerworld 325i, and Nic Jonsson will start his No. 27 Lectricair/Techmark
325Ci fifth (1:40.158). Rounding out the top-10 for BMW, Ken Dobson
qualified his No. 7 Chili Pepper Racing 325Ci ninth (1:40.749) and the No.
37 Bimmerworld 328i of Matt Richmond will start 10th.

The 50-minute race is scheduled to start tomorrow, June 29,  at 12:30 p.m.

BILL AUBERLEN, No. 93 TURNER MOTORSPORTS BMW 325i (first):
"Qualifying in GT just before the Touring session was a big advantage. I
knew what the track was like when I left the pits. The tires come in and
give the fastest times in about four laps, so that is what I keyed on, and
four laps was all I needed. By the time the others had figured out the track
condition their tires were not at their optimum and my time held for the
pole."

NIC JONSSON, No. 27 LECTRICAIR/TECHMARK BMW 325Ci (fifth):
"Techmark has done an awesome job this week. We had a problem with a stuck
throttle that ended up costing us some bodywork, but the team worked hard
and got the car ready. We lost the power steering pump yesterday, so I had
to qualify without power steering today, but the car is handling very
nicely. I got stuck behind some slower cars in this session that may have
cost me some places, but we have made some real progress."

KEN DOBSON, No. 7 CHILI PEPPER RACING BMW 325Ci (ninth):
"Ninth today is a victory in itself, as we were a little down on horsepower
this weekend. The team worked until midnight last night to make some major
suspension changes to make sure we were handling the best we could. My
second to last lap was my fastest, but I had a tire going down and I could
not give it one more try."

BMW qualifying positions:

1    (93)  Bill Auberlen, Hermosa Beach, Calif., BMW 325i
4    (36)  James Clay(R), Blacksburg, Va., BMW 325i
5    (27) Nic Jonsson, Dankeryt, Sweden, BMW 325Ci
9    (7) Ken Dobson, Carmel Valley, Calif., BMW 325Ci
10  (37), Matt Richmond(R), Mooresville, N.C., BMW 328i
13  (50)  Matt Plumb(R), Newport, R.I., BMW 325
15  (92)  Will Turner, Newburyport, Mass., BMW 325i
17  (98), Neal Sapp, Ellicott City, MD, BMW 325Ci
19  (35), James Sofronas, Newport Beach, Calif., BMW 325i
22  (51)  Alfred duPont, Kennett Square, Pa., BMW 325
25  (94), Frank Selldorff, Boston, Mass., BMW 325i
26  (98), Robert Stretch, Dallas, Texas, BMW 325Ci
27  (63)  Mark O’Dell, Wake Forest, NC, BMW328i
28  (24)  Jim Osborn, Olltewah, TX, BMW 325Ci
40  (16) Phil Parlato, Commack, NY, BMW 325i
41  (33)  Brad Sofronas, Newport Beach, Calif., BMW 328i