Patrick Carpentier & Cheever Racing to Start 13th at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Friday, Jan. 27, 2006) - The 
Cheever Racing Lexus Crawford team completed 
final preparations today for Saturday's 
first-ever attempt to conquer the traditional 
Rolex 24 at Daytona season-opening Grand American 
Rolex Series sports car race.

Christian Fittipaldi, Patrick Carpentier and team 
owner Eddie Cheever, Jr., put the #39 Cheever 
Racing Crown Royal Special Reserve Lexus Crawford 
through its final pre-race practice this 
afternoon, turning a fast lap of 1 minute, 46.604 
seconds (an average of 120.221 mph) around the 
3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road 
course.  They'll start from the 13th spot on 
Saturday's 67-car starting grid after 
Fittipaldi's qualifying lap Thursday of 1:45.189 
(121.838 mph).  Fittipaldi co-drove to victory 
here in 2004 while this will be Carpentier's 
first-ever 24-hour race, and Cheever, the 1998 
Indy 500 champion, drove his only previous 
Daytona 24-hour in 1988.

Race time Saturday is noon EST.  SPEED-TV will 
televise the first six hours live, as well as 
three nighttime hours of the race from 8-11 p.m. 
EST Saturday.  Its live coverage concludes with 
the final four hours of the race from 8 a.m. to 
noon EST Sunday.

CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI
  "Do we have the quickest car out there?  No.  Do 
we have a solid car?  Absolutely.  The more we 
run, the better we get, so after 24 hours of 
racing this weekend, that would mean we'll be 
great shape.  If only it was that easy.  So far, 
so good in our preparations this weekend.  The 
Crown Royal car has been pretty bulletproof Š 
knock on wood.  So we just need to stick with our 
plan, hope everything goes well, and we're there 
at the end.  If that all happens, I really 
believe we could finish in the top three. 
Basically, we'll just run as hard as we can 
within a certain margin of safety and see where 
that puts us when it's all over.  I'm really 
happy to see all the great work done by the 
Cheever Racing crew."

PATRICK CARPENTIER
  "This will be a first for me, but I'm really 
looking forward to it.  I've never raced a car 
with a roof over my head.  I've also never done a 
24-hour race.  But I'm surrounded by some really, 
really good people.  It should be a lot of fun. 
I really like it.  If we get through the race 
relatively cleanly, I think we could end up with 
a really good finish.  I've had a few hours in 
the car in practice this weekend, and it's really 
fun to drive.  Really comfortable.  It's a little 
unusual sitting on the right side.  The traffic 
probably was the hardest thing to deal with.  But 
I'm used to it and I'm ready to go and do my 
part.  I love new experiences."

EDDIE CHEEVER, JR.
  "I'm really happy with how our cars are 
handling.  The engineers and all the drivers are 
comfortable with where we are for our first 
24-hour race.  I'm very disappointed with the 
many silly little problems with the 51 car.  Most 
of them have been unforced errors, but hopefully 
we learn from them and that will make us better 
in the end.  It's a big, tall order that we've 
undertaken here, trying to field a strong, 
two-car effort in a big race like this.  It's a 
learning process we're trying our best to get 
through, and, in general, I think we're doing a 
good job.  There will be almost 70 cars out there 
trying to get along out there, but we will 
approach it like every Indy 500 we've every 
competed in ... we'll just stick to our plan 
while all those other cars out there are just a 
hindrance."