Laguna Seca Track Record Lowered for Third Time by Zonta

Laguna Seca Track Record Falls Again …
Three Days in a Row for Zonta

	Salinas, Calif. (August 20, 2006) – On the final day of the Rolex
Monterey Historic Automobile Races Presented by Toyota, Ricardo Zonta and
the Panasonic Toyota Racing Team F1 car continued to lower the record for
the 11-turn, 2.238 mile Laguna Seca Raceway.  Sunday’s record-breaking
time was 1:06.309 at an average speed of 121.504 mph on lap four of four
flying laps.  Zonta, traveling on slicks for the first time this weekend,
laid down four consistent laps for an average of 1:06.640.  His Saturday
best time was 1:06.596 and Friday’s best time was 1:07.587.  On all three
days, Zonta bested the previous track record of 1:07.722 set by Helio
Castroneves at the CART Honda Grand Prix of Monterey in 2000.
Castroneves’ speed was 118.969.

“This has been a very satisfying weekend,” said Zonta after the session. 
“This experience has brought up a lot of good memories from when I was
here in ‘98 and won the FIA GT Championships. And, of course it’s always a
good feeling to come to a circuit and leave knowing you’ve set a new
record.”

Zonta had to pilot the F1 car through the Raceway’s famous and
gut-wrenching “corkscrew” at Turns 8 and 8A, which is considered one of
the motorsport world's most challenging turns, due to the drop in
elevation as well as its blind apex.  Sunday also brought slightly windy
and cooler weather conditions, as well as oil laid down on the track by
the historic cars after a day and a half of racing.

“The older cars dropped oil in places on the track and I didn’t want to
challenge the car because I couldn’t be certain where the oil was.  I
needed to assume there was a high possibility that oil was in many places.
 It was also more windy today than before and the blowing dust made the
track slippery in places.”

After one installation run, Zonta brought the car into the pits for new
tires. “We put slicks on after the installation lap, but the sun came out
later today and the track didn’t heat like it did the last several days. 
Unfortunately, the tires couldn’t work as well as possible.”

Previous to the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races Presented by
Toyota, Zonta last drove on the Laguna Seca track in 1998 when he won the
FIA GT Championships behind the wheel of a Mercedes.

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Jan Fambro
RWB, LLC
(310) 826-2962
(310) 826-0472 fax
jan@rwb-llc.com