Marc Lieb - Mid-Ohio race

Marc Lieb of Leipzig, German, had mixed results in his first race at Mid-Ohio 
Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. The Porsche factory driver returned to 
Alex Job Racing for the second race in the 2004 American Le Mans Series. He 
quickly learned the challenging 2.25-mile Mid-Ohio road course, and qualified 
the No. 24 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR third in the GT class with a lap time of one 
minute 23.588 seconds.

Lieb drove the first race stint, but his efforts were hindered by a problem 
with the car's sequential transmission. Just past the first hour of the 
two-hour 45-minute race, he had contact with a rival Ferrari, forcing an emergency 
pitstop during the resulting caution period. Romain Dumas took the second stint 
and stopped for a penalty incurred on the caution stop. He returned to the 
track ninth in class, then moved up to finish seventh.

"I had some problems with the sequential gearbox," Lieb said. "I couldn't get 
it in gear every time, so I couldn't drive the pace of the other guys. Then I 
had a fight with a Ferrari - he overtook me, I gave him room, then I tried to 
follow a prototype and overtake him and he didn't give me room, so we crashed 
and I landed in the gravel.  We then had to pit or we would have been 
spreading gravel around the track. I'm really disappointed because we had a good 
qualifying."

Lieb will travel to Lakeville, Conn., for the next American Le Mans Series 
race, at Lime Rock Park on July 5.