Luhr Returns to Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning
Racing for Final Two ALMS Races
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Luhr Returns to
Petersen Motorsports/
White Lightning Racing for
Final Two ALMS Races
3-Time Champ to Team with Dumbreck and Müller in Petit Le Mans Defense Effort
BRASELTON, Ga. September 19, 2007 - Two-time defending Petit Le Mans GT2 class victor
Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing
announces the return of three-time American Le Mans
Series Champion Lucas Luhr (born in Koblenz,
Germany but now living in Ermatingen, Switzerland) to
drive for the program at Petit Le Mans and in the
Monterey Sports Car Championships. Luhr has been
given special permission by Audi AG of Germany to
join the Michael Petersen (Las Vegas, Nev.) owned
team at the two endurance events that close the 2007
North American sports car season. The factory Audi
pilot will co-drive at the October 6th 10 Hour or 1,000
mile Petit Le Mans with Toyota factory driver Peter
Dumbreck (born in Scotland but living in Adderbury,
England) and Ferrari factory ace Dirk Müller (a native
of Germany now living in Monaco). Due to prior
commitments Müller will miss the Series' finale on
October 20th at Laguna Seca where Luhr and
Dumbreck will pair behind the wheel of the No. 31
MMPIE/PAWS/Petersen Holdings/Michelin Ferrari
F430 GT.
The Road Atlanta (Braselton, Ga.) hosted 10th
Anniversary of the Petit Le Mans will not be Luhr's first
time behind the wheel of the Dale White (Bozeman,
MT) managed No. 31. In fact, the combination has
overwhelmed the competition each time it has worked
together in the past. Together, the Nevada-based
team and Luhr have three GT/GT2 class victories in
three attempts at the world's most challenging
endurance sports car events: the Daytona 24 ('01), 24
Hours of Le Mans ('03) and the 12 Hours of Sebring
('05). Petit Le Mans also marks the return of one of the
most formidable driving duos in early American Le
Mans Series history. In 2000, Luhr and Müller
combined for four class wins and seven podiums.
Müller took the GT class, now known as GT2,
championship over Luhr by only seven points that
season.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Impressively, Luhr has won 23 of the 54 American Le
Mans Series races he has entered to-date. 19 of
those titles came in GT/GT2 placing him second, all-
time on the class victories list. The remaining four
victories came last season in the LMP2 prototype
category. Luhr has earned 15 pole positions across
the two classes since joining the American Le Mans
Series in 2000. He also holds the distinction of
winning five of his first six attempts, including the first
four straight, at the 12 Hours of Sebring. That tally
includes the '05 title with Petersen Motorsports/White
Lightning Racing.
Luhr won the GT class of the Petit Le Mans in 2002
and has stood on the podium there two other times
('03 in GT and '06 in LMP2 class). He has four class
wins (GT- '02,'03,'05 and LMP2- '06) at the Monterey
Sports Car Championships at Mazda Raceway
Laguna Seca.
Audi Motorsport signed the 2004 FIA N-GT Champion
to a contract entering the 2007 season. Since that
time he has been racing the Audi A4 DTM in the
German Touring Car Championship and drove in the
24 Hours of Le Mans 2007 with the diesel powered
sport prototype Audi R10 TDI.
Quotes
Michael Petersen, Owner: "We are looking
forward to Lucas' return to Petersen
Motorsports/White Lightning Racing and to the Series.
It will be a great pairing of drivers. We are really going
to put our best foot forward and try to get to the top for
the last two races of the year. This year has been very
tough on the entire team and with the opportunity to
add Lucas, Dale and I could not pass him up. I know
that the entire team is looking forward to getting to
Atlanta to get the Petersen/White Lightning Ferrari to
the top spot on the podium."
Dale White, Team Manager/Entrant: "We knew
that we needed to have a driver to replace Dirk at
Laguna. We had spoken to a number of really talented
drivers when Lucas' name came up. I contacted him
not knowing what Audi's position on this would be.
Fortunately, they were very supportive and we want to
thank Audi AG for giving us the opportunity to bring
Lucas back to the team for Petit and Laguna. We have
learned this year the importance of having the right
drivers and the right driver pairings in the car. Dirk and
Peter have a great relationship and Lucas and Dirk
have a strong past driving together. For once this
season everything seems to be dropping into place
with drivers. This brings a lot of additional excitement
to the team to close '07 on the right foot."
Lucas Luhr, Driver: "I am really looking
forward to working with Petersen/White Lightning
again and to drive the GT Ferrari is for sure
something. I asked Audi about this and they were very
generous and let me do it. So when Dale and Mike
asked me I said 'OK, why not?' To join the team was
easy because I have known Dale and Mike since 2000
and I know how they work. So that made it easy. I have
seen a lot of the races this year on MotorsTV. In the
GT2 class it was always a good fight and I like that."
The 10th Anniversary Petit Le Mans will start at 11:15
AM (ET) on Saturday, October 6 with live television
coverage on SPEED Channel. The event can also be
heard live on the American Le Mans Series Radio
Web, available through the American Le Mans Series
web site.
Live timing and scoring of each on-track session and
the race can be found at
www.AmericanLeMans.com (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=wuixwecab.0.986o49bab.dxcsbzbab.141&ts=S0280&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.AmericanLeMans.com).
More on Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning
Racing can be found at
www.PetersenMotorsports.com (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=wuixwecab.0.ijy7bzbab.dxcsbzbab.141&ts=S0280&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.PetersenMotorsports.com)
Lucas Luhr's web site is available in both English and
German at
www.Lucas-Luhr.com (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=wuixwecab.0.wg6ywecab.dxcsbzbab.141&ts=S0280&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.Lucas-Luhr.com)
To learn more about Ferrari's road cars as well as
their remarkable motorsports history, please visit
www.FerrariWorld.com (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=wuixwecab.0.z5ipx5bab.dxcsbzbab.141&ts=S0280&p=http%3A%2F%2F).
For more on the ALMS, please visit
www.AmericanLeMans.com (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=wuixwecab.0.986o49bab.dxcsbzbab.141&ts=S0280&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.AmericanLeMans.com)
091907
Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=wuixwecab.0.ijy7bzbab.dxcsbzbab.141&ts=S0280&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.PetersenMotorsports.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing
Tom Moore
Sporting Relations Manager
email: tom@petersenmotorsports.com
office: 615-778-1614 cellular: 615-509-5000
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Digital images and complete team and driver bios
available at the Petersen Motorsports Online Media
Center
www.petersenmotorsports.com/mc_l
ogin.htm (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=wuixwecab.0.5olesacab.dxcsbzbab.141&ts=S0280&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.petersenmotorsports.com%2Fmc_login.htm). Login information available upon
request.
Editors, please do not publish any contact
information other than web sites. Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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