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PSCR: BMW M3 Racing Notes, Sebring

20 March 1999

BRIAN CUNNINGHAM, #7 PTG BMW M3:

"The biggest difference at night is getting your braking points, getting your visual cues. Sometimes a [daytime] visual cue is now out of sight, so you need to go out there and find out where your new cues are and realize what traffic is going to be faster and what the lights are like.

"Traffic's always bad at night. You see some guy behind you and you think it's a WSC car so you give him a little extra berth. It turns out it's the guy you just passed. That's kind of a pain, but I like racing at night.

There's a lot of solitude there, it's like being in space. You can't see anything except what's in front of you."

PETER CUNNINGHAM, #10 PTG BMW M3:

"Our BMW has special Hella xenon-gas headlights. These are lights that you can get in certain BMW road cars, but Hella has made a special set for this car that gives us a much-improved, brighter light than what most of the other cars have. We have an advantage in being able to see better than the other guys, so we can go faster at night than some of our friends."

BORIS SAID, #10 PTG BMW M3:

"I like the night. But it's kind of a pain in the neck for us because the BMW is faster than just about anything out there through the slower- to medium-speed corners. At night, there are so many headlights out there, it's hard for us to tell who's coming up behind us. And it's hard for slower cars to see that it's the fast BMWs coming up. It would be great if we were out there alone."

JOHANNES VAN OVERBEEK, #7 PTG BMW M3:

"It was my first time at night without the benefit of artificial light. It went extremely well. Traffic was murder, but the Flextronics/Level One BMW performed perfectly. Traffic is the most critical part of driving at night. You have trouble gauging how quickly a car behind is approaching." HOW DO YOU HANDLE IT? "If you don't feel a vibration next to you, turn in."