Pruett Fastest in First-Round Practice at Cleveland

CONTACT: Justin Anderson
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July 3, 2003

PRUETT FASTEST IN FIRST-ROUND PRACTICE AT CLEVELAND

CLEVELAND ‹ Scott Pruett, driver of the No. 7 Jaguar R Performance XKR,
recorded the fastest time in first round practice for the Trans-Am on the
Tarmac, Round 6 of the Trans-Am Series for the BFGoodrich® Tires Cup,
Thursday at Burke Lakefront Airport. The two-time Trans-Am Series champion
turned the 2.106-mile temporary road course in one minute, and 14.328
seconds at an average speed of 102.002 miles per hour.

Pruett, who set his quick lap just before the checkered flag waved on the
45-minute session, led rookie points leader Jorge Diaz, Jr. (No. 8 Don Q Rum
Jaguar XKR), Michael Lewis (No. 12 Westward Tools/The Crank Jaguar XKR),
Paul Gentilozzi (No. 3 Jaguar R Performance XKR) and Stu Hayner (No. 2
Trenton Forging/GMAC Commercial Finance Chevrolet Corvette).

³It was a good session,² said Pruett, who won this race in 1994 en route to
his second Trans-Am title. ³I¹m not going to say it was great, but it was
good. I know we can get more out of the car. I will work with my
Rocketsports crew to get this Jaguar XKR ready for action.

³We made a planned shock change half way through the session and now were
going to focus on qualifying,² added Pruett. ³We will make some conservative
changes. When you make the changes for qualifying you have to remember that
you also need a good race set up so we will make sure what ever we do is
good for our race set up as well as qualifying.

³It was just dirty out there,² concluded Pruett. ³We were the first cars to
run on the track this weekend so it will get better as the weekend goes on.²
Qualifying for Friday¹s Trans-Am on the Tarmac is scheduled for today at 3
p.m. The Trans-Am on the Tarmac, part of the U.S. Bank Presents Cleveland
Grand Prix, is scheduled to start at 5:40 p.m., prior to Champ Car World
Series practice on Friday, July 4. The race will air on a tape-delayed basis
on SPEED Channel, on Sunday, July 6 at 3:30 p.m.

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