Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning Racing Chases IMSA Cup from Sixth on Petit Grid

Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning Racing 
Chases IMSA Cup from Sixth on Petit Grid

BRASELTON, Ga., October 17, 2003 - With an American Le Mans Series
(ALMS) GT class victory at the Road America 500, Petersen Motorsports/
White Lightning Racing finds itself in a heated points battle going into
tomorrow's Petit Le Mans. The No. 31 Westward Ho
Casino/MMPIE/PAWS/XtraJet/Justice Brothers/Michelin Porsche GT3 RS,
which qualified sixth in today's wet time trials, has been one of the
few programs to regularly challenge the official Porsche factory team of
Alex Job Racing (AJR). In fact, the Las Vegas-based team- which teamed
with AJR to win the 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans- is the first team in the
class to beat AJR since the middle of 2002. In a reduced schedule of
only five races, versus eight of their competitors, the Michael
Petersen-owned and White Lightning Racing-prepared Porsche has finished
in the top-five in each event. Drivers Johnny Mowlem, of Warfield,
England, and Craig Stanton, of Long Beach, Calif., will again pair at
Road Atlanta tomorrow to fight for the GT class IMSA Cup- a season-long
award given to the highest finishing, non-factory team. Mowlem and
Stanton are also challenging for third in the driver pairing points
championship. The 10 hour or 1,000 mile Petit Le Mans, the
season-closing event for the ALMS, will decide the final points
standings. Petersen/White Lightning's nearest competitor for both the
IMSA Cup and the driver standings is the Risi Competizione Ferrari of
Ralf Kelleners and Anthony Lazzaro. Going into the endurance event on
the 2.54 mile facility, the red, white and yellow No. 31 will need to
finish two positions in front of the red Ferrari to take the IMSA Cup as
well as third in the team driver standings.  

A rain shower minutes before today's GT/GTS class qualifying forced the
Petersen/White Lightning team to run rain tires at the beginning of the
session. In wet conditions, Mowlem, who qualified the car, quickly
placed second in the running order. The track continued to dry over the
20-minute session with several cars switching to intermediate tires- a
tire that takes characteristics of both a slick tire and a rain tire-
towards the end of the session. However, the No. 31 had no intermediate
tires available to them. Therefore, Mowlem continued to run rain tires
waiting for the track to dry. 

"I was very pleased that we set such a fast time in the rain," said
Mowlem about qualifying. "However, we had no intermediates available to
us and I got the call too late in the session to switch to dry tires. I
was actually quite surprised that our time on the rain tires, which I
set in fairly wet conditions, held-up for sixth. It is a very long race
and the Petersen/White Lightning boys have given Craig and me a
tremendous car for the race."