Tim Sauter California Preview

Lester Buildings team is looking to improve on Daytona finish

After beginning the 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series campaign with a tough 28th place finish at the season opener at Daytona, Tim Sauter is looking forward to his return to the California Speedway, a fast two-mile D-shaped oval located just east of Los Angeles. Most importantly, Tim is anxious to prove the mechanical failure at Daytona is behind the Green Light team and the promise of better runs is just around the corner.

The finish at Daytona was disappointing but not upsetting to the Wisconsin driver, “I’m really happy with the teamwork and the effort of this crew. We struggled when we unloaded at Daytona and the guys worked hard during practice to get the truck better and better. When we got in that deal on lap two they did a great job repairing the damage to truck so I could hang with the lead draft, we showed some great potential.”

The schedule is very demanding for the first two weeks with back-to- back races all the way across the country, especially for a smaller team like Green Light Racing, but Sauter is not concerned. He’s more interested to get back to the track, “Anytime you have a mechanical problem like we had, it’s just best to get right back to the track and get into a rhythm again. It’s real important for the morale of the team to get right back to it. We’ll have a couple weeks to catch up after California.”

The #07 will use a crew chief by committee again this week with Tim’s brother Jim Jr., spotter Carl Hartman and Tim all giving input. "We'll have an announcement in the next few weeks on our permanent crew chief," Sauter said. "We're bringing a different Silverado than we ran at the Homestead test, it looks like a real good piece. We were pretty good at the test, so I think you'll see some Chevys closer to the front than we saw at Daytona."

This will be the fourth time Tim has competed at California, the previous three were in the Busch Series.

Tim's best finish at California was 7th in April 2002 – NBS Auto Club 300 from the 18th starting position.

This will be Tim's 5th career NCTS start, and 117th career NASCAR start.

Green Light Racing's best finish at California is 15th, in 2001 and 2002 with Bobby Dotter at the wheel.

Tim Sauter's thoughts on the California Speedway: "I really like California, it's similar to Michigan, pretty much flat out. In the Busch car you have to breath the throttle just a bit on entry, we'll see if that is any different in the truck. I'm excited to get to the track and find out."

Thirty-three trucks are pre-entered in the San Bernardino 200, which will be televised live on Speed TV at 8:30 eastern on February 23rd and also broadcast on MRN radio. Mark Martin is the defending race winner.

Affordable associate sponsorship opportunities for the entire season, multi-race packages or single events are still available on the Lester Buildings #07 of Tim Sauter. For more information contact Perry Hintz at phintz36@wi.rr.com. To learn more about Lester Buildings, one of the largest manufacturers of engineered post-frame structures in the United States visit lesterbuildings.com.