Petersen/ White Lightning to Start Petit Le Mans In GT Top-Ten

Petersen/ White Lightning to Start Petit Le Mans In GT Top-Ten

 

BRASELTON, Ga., Sept. 24, 2004 - In pursuit of its first American Le
Mans Series (ALMS) championship title, Petersen Motorsports/ White
Lightning Racing will start tomorrow's Petit Le Mans ninth in GT class.
David Murry, of Cumming, Ga., qualified the No. 31 Westward Ho Casino/
MMPIE/ PAWS/ Michelin Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with a time of one minute,
24.168 seconds around the 2.54-mile, 12-turn Road Atlanta facility for
the ten hour or 1,000 mile endurance event. Murry, who will co-drive
with Long Beach, California's Craig Stanton, will take the green flag at
noon (eastern) with live coverage on SPEED. 

 

The Michael Petersen-owned team had regularly run in the top-five in
pre-event practice for the eighth-round of the nine-race ALMS season
prior to today's qualifying session. However, racing luck was not on the
side of the two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning team. Murry was blocked
several times by traffic aborting his hot laps in the Porsche while the
Michelin tires were at their best. Despite being relegated to its lowest
qualifying position in several seasons, the White Lightning
Racing-prepared Porsche has been primed since the first day with lasting
the endurance event in mind. The preparation has left the team
optimistic about the seventh-annual Petit Le Mans. Adding to the
excitement of tomorrow's GT chase for Petersen/ White Lightning is the
fact that Murry and Stanton will be the only two-driver team in the GT
class.  All of their competitors will utilize three-driver line-ups to
last the full race distance. 

 

quotes. 

David Murry: "Qualifying didn't go as well as I would have liked it to.
Our time was almost a full-second slower than I feel we could have gone.
I was trying to get a clear lap and the 78 car spun in front of me in
turn-one. So, by that time the tire pressure had gone-up too high. I
came in to the pits to bleed the pressure out, got back out and put up
the time that put us ninth. I am really disappointed for the crew guys
because they worked really, really hard to get the car together. We have
a great car. Unfortunately, we didn't get the lap we wanted to. We have
a good race car but it'll take more time to get the Petersen/ White
Lightning car up through the field. But, we can do that and have a good
run at the end."

 

Craig Stanton: "We are actually really optimistic about the race.
Qualifying went OK; we just got caught-up in traffic. It is literally
not David's fault. It's just one of those things. David has had some
wonderful qualifying runs this year and so have I. We have a good race
setup for tomorrow. We'll be fine. It's David's home track and he's
going start and roll right up through the pack. We're just going to keep
a good, steady pace right up through the whole event. Our goal is to
keep up the best mean average, stay on the track and take our first win
of the season. The Petersen/ White Lightning team is doing a great job
and we are just going to continue on with our plan."

 

For more, please visit www.petersenmotorsports.com.