BAM! - Sebring race final

top five

BAM! survived an eventful second half of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring 
to finish fifth in GT. The demanding 3.7-mile Sebring (Fla.) International 
Raceway road course and large international field exacted their toll on many in 
the 44-car field, including the No. 43 YES Network Porsche 911 GT3 RS driven by 
Leo Hindery, Jr., Peter Baron and Mike Rockenfeller.

Hindery was in the wrong place at the wrong time, as he encountered a 
prototype car stalled on track at 6h12. As he swerved to avoid the stopped car, he 
clipped the right rear of the YES Network Porsche and lost part of the rear 
wing. Replacement of the wing cost the team four laps, dropping them to sixth in 
class. Baron started his second stint at 6h14 and pitted for a wing adjustment 
at 6h54, which cost another lap. Rockenfeller, who took the wheel at 8h32, 
moved up to fifth, then had a long pitstop at 9h27 to replace the rear wing with 
a 2003 wing (required on the 2003 chassis) borrowed from the PK Sport team. He 
regained his position and finished fifth, eight laps behind the GT leader. 
Rockenfeller drove the final three hours 28 minutes of the 12-hour race for a 
total driving time of 6:56.

Peter Baron

"It's truly a special fifth place when you look at all the adversity. This 
wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for the crew and all the work they've 
put forth. Even when you look at the two incidents we had to take care of, the 
crew was absolutely flawless in repairing the car. Had it not been for their 
organization and skills, we wouldn't have had this fifth place. We learned tons 
from this one; we'll take it to the next race in [Le Mans,] France."

Leo Hindery, Jr.

"Sebring is a very special place. To just race at Sebring is an honor and a 
privilege; to do well is really special. This is BAM!'s first race, it's Mike 
Rockenfeller's second in the ALMS and, but for a little gremlin here and there, 
we'd have had a podium. We started 43rd and finished 13th overall. We picked 
up more spots overall than everyone but the class winner. GT is by far the 
hardest class in this series - it's the biggest and the most competitive, and 
fifth in class out of 19 is a real compliment to [team owners] Tim Munday and 
Peter Baron and to the crew. Start to finish, it was a team effort, and it was 
fun."

Mike Rockenfeller

"First of all, thanks to Leo and Peter, who gave me the chance to do my first 
12 Hours of Sebring. And thanks to the guys, they did a great job the whole 
week. We had two little incidents during the race and they fixed the car 
really, really fast. Without the two little incidents, we could have finished on the 
podium. We started from the back of the grid and we finished fifth, so I'm 
really, really happy with my first race here. We finished the race! Even this is 
great - 12 hours here in Sebring is very hard, so overall I'm pretty happy."

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Sylvia Proudfoot
spur07@cs.com
403 287 3945