Petersen/ White Lightning Destroys Track Record At Le Mans Pre-test

Petersen/ White Lightning Destroys Track Record At Le Mans Pre-Test 

 

LE MANS, France, April 25, 2004 – The No. 90 Petersen Motorsports/ White
Lightning Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR obliterated the LM GT class track
record, set last year in qualifying, by over one second here in
preliminary testing for June’s 24 Heures Du Mans. The four minute, 5.975
second lap, turned in by Jörg Bergmeister of Langenfield, Germany, was
done in the closing lap of the day’s second of two, four- hour practice
sessions. The eight hour test of the Westward Casino/ MMPIE/ PAWS/
Mail2Web.com/ Michelin Porsche is the sole time that the Petersen/ White
Lightning crew is able to run on the Circuit Des 24 Heures Du Mans in
preparation for the world’s greatest sports car race. Bergmeister,
Patrick Long (Oak Park, Calif.) and Michael Petersen, (Las Vegas, Nev.)
all took turns in the 2004 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR familiarizing themselves
with the course and preparing for the team’s return to compete in the
72nd Annual 24 Heures Du Mans on the weekend of June 12-13. 

 

Earlier in the day, Bergmeister was the first in the car for the morning
session at 9 am turning a 4 minute, 12.398 second lap of the 8.6-mile
facility. The time was good for the third position of the session. Long,
a rookie at Le Mans, attended to the 10 laps required by the Automobile
Club De l’Ouest (ACO) to be cleared to participate in the event and then
quickly brought his lap times down to times competitive with
Bergmeister. Sascha Maassen, the 2003 LM GT class pole sitter and race
winner here at Le Mans, will join Bergmeister and Long for final
qualifying and the race in June. Petersen will return as a reserve
driver for the race.

 

The team adjusted quickly to Michelin’s new 28 71 18 rear tire. The
tire, designed to reduce wear and improve overall performance through a
larger circumference, was immediately quick and proved to be fast,
durable. The new racing slick was a superior performer over even
Michelin’s preceding, excellent design.

 

The 2004 24 Heures Du Mans will take the French Tri-Color signaling the
start of the event on June 12 with a local start time of 16:00 (4 pm).

 

Mike Petersen, team owner/ driver: “We’re really happy with the way
things turned out as Jörg pulled out another awesome performance. It was
pretty close most of the day as we were just working on race setup and
going over different tire combinations that we’ll use in different parts
of the race. The team will savor this short-lived practice session but,
ultimately, to do good in the race is why we are all here. I’d like to
thank the sponsors and the crew for all their hard work and support. We
can hardly wait to get back for the race in June. Now if I can just have
Jörg show me how to go that fast. ”

 

Dale White, team manager: “I want to thank the guys. We have all been
working on this, as a team, since the end of last season. I can’t
explain how much work is really involved in getting here. Everyone, from
the drivers to the crew to the guys from Porsche and Michelin, performed
extremely well. It shows how strong we are and how we are watching every
detail. We are very eager to get back to race in a couple of months.”

 

Jörg Bergmeister: “The team did a really great job. At the beginning of
the day we had some handling problems but we really improved upon that
and that is the way it should be. At the end we put on some qualifiers
[Michelin tires] and I had a clear lap and the car felt really, really
good. We worked a lot on the race setup during the day and I think we
have a good car for the race. We’ll see. Hopefully it will go that good
at the race as well.” 

 

Patrick Long: “For the team it’s great to have both an excellent race
car and a great qualifying pace, as we showed in the end of the day.
Jörg drove flawless and got a really good setup. That allowed me to get
settled in the late afternoon and put up some really consistent laps
together.  I came out of the day with what I wanted to accomplish and I
am quite sure that the team did as well with that great lap of Jörg’s.
So everyone is happy. I’m thankful to Mike and Dale for the opportunity
and I’m looking forward to the race.”

 

For more, please visit www.petersenmotorsports.com.  

 

### 

Digital images and complete team and driver bios available upon request.

Editors, please do not publish any contact information other than web
sites.  Thank you.

 

contact: Tom Moore, Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning Racing,
615-778-1614 (office), 

404-229-3703 (cell), tom@darkhorsecom.com