BAM! - Infineon (Sears Point) preview

mileage plus

BAM! (British American Motorsport) should be collecting frequent-travel 
miles. The team returned from the 24 Heures du Mans in France last month and 
immediately launched a two-month road trip, crossing North America from Florida to 
Ohio, New York, Connecticut, California, Oregon, Canada and Wisconsin. BAM!'s 
transport driver, Rick MacQueen, said the biggest challenge is to keep the rig 
rolling - which means dealing quickly with problems.

The transporter's gearbox failed in Salt Lake City last week, en route to the 
American Le Mans Series race at Infineon (Sears Point) Raceway in Sonoma, 
Calif. The transmission replacement added an extra day to the five-day journey, 
but MacQueen was lucky to find a dealership nearby. He reported, "It happened 
to be 10 miles down the road from where I broke down. Coming across country, 
you can go for two hours and not see a thing. I just happened to luck out, it 
broke down in a big area."

Leo's laps

BAM! driver Leo Hindery, Jr., now living in New York, started his career in 
San Francisco and lived in the area for 20 years. But his focus this week won't 
be on memories of the 80s. He is more concerned with the recent past, when he 
was caught in heavy rain and crashed the No. 43 YES Network Porsche 911 GT3 
RSR at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut on July 5.

"I would love to just talk about how Infineon Raceway is a remarkable track 
in the wonderful Bay Area where I lived for many years and still have many 
friends," he said. "But all that matters to me about this race is not crashing 
before my co-driver, the remarkable Lucas Luhr, gets to redeem the 43 car's 
damaged reputation from my (far too) early crash at Lime Rock. Go Lucas!"

long commute

Lucas Luhr is looking for his fourth class victory in Sonoma. He first won on 
the 2.53-mile road course in 2000, then again en route to ALMS GT 
co-championships in 2002 and 2003. He will travel for almost 20 hours from his home in 
Monaco to Sonoma, including 15 flight hours. But he won't notice; he'll be 
resting for the race. He has had a lot of practice already, logging 119,000 air 
miles since Jan. 1, not including this week's trip to California.

"I can sleep anywhere at any time," he said. "On my first overseas flight, to 
Australia in '99, we went from Frankfurt to Singapore, which takes 12 or 14 
hours. I slept. Then we went from Singapore to Melbourne, which is another 
eight or nine hours. I slept. Then it was another four-hour drive to the test 
track. I slept then, as well."

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Sylvia Proudfoot
spur07@cs.com
403 287 3945