Sebring Has Multiple Benefits For Petersen/ White Lightning

 

SEBRING, Fla., March 18, 2005 – The importance of tomorrow’s 53rd Annual
Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is significant for reasons deeper than
simply winning one of the sport’s most prestigious events. For the
race’s GT2 class pole position winners, Petersen Motorsports/ White
Lightning Racing, the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season-opening
race- the longest on the ten-stop schedule- acts as a perfect
steppingstone to potential team milestones that could occur this season.
Included in the Michael Petersen-owned team’s objectives for the season
is a record third-straight LM GT2 class victory at the 24 Hours of Le
Mans in June, the ALMS GT2 team and driver championships and the GT2
IMSA Cup for privateer entrants. Jörg Bergmeister (Langenfeld, Germany)
and Patrick Long (Las Vegas, Nev.) will pilot the No. 31 Westward Ho
Casino/ MMPIE/ PAWS/ Michelin Porsche 911 GT3 RSR for the full season
starting with the 10:45 am (EST) green flag at Sebring. Four-time
Sebring winner Lucas Luhr (Monaco) will join the team for 12 hour
classic. 

 

Sebring’s fast straightaways, variety of turns and the daylight-to-night
nature of the event are good indications of what the team can expect to
see at Le Mans. While the French classic is twice the length of Sebring
and its track is over twice as long, the punishing Sebring track surface
puts more strain on the drivers, crew, Porsche race car and Michelin
tires. The common feeling is that, if it is going to break, it will
break at Sebring before it would break at Le Mans. Sebring, the
traditional “baptism by fire” season-opener for the nine-man Petersen/
White Lightning crew, will also prepare the team well for the remaining
races of the ALMS season. 

 

With top-three performances in each of the race’s dry practice sessions,
including the final session today where Luhr put in the fastest GT2 lap
of the weekend at two minutes, 4.037 seconds, the Petersen/ White
Lightning Porsche has served notice of its intent to fight for control
of the GT2 class in 2005. Bergmeister earned the team its first ALMS
pole position this weekend when he turned a lap of 2:04.960 seconds in
Wednesday morning’s opening practice after Thursday scheduled qualifying
was rained out. 

 

While rain wreaked havoc with Thursday activities- including canceling
qualifying forcing sanctioning officials to revert to the weekend’s
practice sessions to set the grid- no such problems are expected
Saturday. Clear weather and a race strategy honed after years of
off-road experience and victories at endurance sports car events at Le
Mans (GT2; 2003, 2004), Road America, Watkins Glen and Daytona as well
as two-straight podiums at this event, play well into the hands of team
manager Dale White (Las Vegas, Nev.) and the Las Vegas-based race team. 

 

For more, please visit www.petersenmotorsports.com. 

Live race coverage can be seen on PEE at 10:30 am (ET).

Michael Petersen, team owner: “I think it’s important to start off the
season on a good note. You can’t afford to have a bad finish in any of
the races. This is a good preparation for the guys for Le Mans. It is
only a 12 hour race but it is a 24 hour race on equipment. We’re looking
forward to the race. If we can stick around through the thick of things,
we’ll have an opportunity for good finish.”

 

Dale White, team manager: “Sebring is an important race for us as a
team. Not only is it the start of our season and one of the most
important endurance races in the world, but it also helps prepare us for
Le Mans. 12 hours at Sebring is far tougher on the car and the team than
24 at Le Mans. Every aspect from logistics to preparation to daily
organization and strategy during the race helps us prepare for Le Mans.
I don’t mean that to diminish the importance of Sebring because it is
huge, but we can use Sebring to help us at Le Mans from a lot of angles.
So, to me, that makes this race even more important to do well at. We
don’t hold back here at all. It is a great place to get a feeling for Le
Mans and for the season.”

 

Jörg Bergmeister, driver: “Looking at the times that Lucas did today
with the race setup I think we should have a really good car. So, I am
pretty optimistic. Now we just need some luck and we should be fine. I
think we have really good chances, a strong driver lineup and a really
strong car. So, I think we are one of the three or four cars that have a
really good chance for winning this thing.”

 

Patrick Long, driver: "Obviously, the speed is there so just
consistency, reliability and teamwork will win this race. Starting from
the pole is a bit of an advantage but I think that will be gone by the
end of the first stint. After that I think it will be time to get down
to business. We don’t want to try and go too hard at the beginning. The
goal is to make it to the finish without any problems and that is,
obviously, what we’ll be striving for. We should be in it at the end for
a really good finish.”