ALMS: BMW Team PTG Qualifying Notes and Quotes
6 August 2000
BMW Team PTG notes: final qualifying, Aug. 5 globemegawheels.com Grand Prix at Mosport, Mosport International Raceway race six of 12, American Le Mans Series Loose gravel on the track hurt BMW Team PTG's final qualifying effort, so the team will start third, fourth and eighth on the GT grid for Sunday's race. Brian Cunningham, co-driving with Peter Cunningham, qualified third in class in 1:22.111 in the #10 BMW M3. Boris Said, paired with Hans Stuck, was fourth in the #7 M3 in 1:22.497. Johannes van Overbeek, driving with Brian Simo, qualified the #6 M3 eighth in class in 1:23.536. Brian Cunningham, driver, #10 BMW M3 "Boris and I were running together and he saw something out there, turned in early and dropped two wheels off the track. I was right behind him and I caught all the debris. I didn't have any grip and I went into the next corner and spun. Unfortunately we caught a rock and it broke the radiator." Boris Said, driver, #7 BMW M3 "Somebody dug a bunch of gravel up onto the road in turn four, so it was quite a moment for me and I guess Brian spun behind me. Other than that, I made a few mistakes, so I left some time out there. But we have a good race setup, we have a real conservative tire compound that can run hard all day. Hopefully, we'll just wear those Porsches out." Johannes van Overbeek, driver, #6 BMW M3 "Qualifying was a bit disappointing -- the morning session was better. We've been struggling with the car balance all weekend. Actually, in qualifying the balance was very good, but the grip level seemed to be very low. I just wasn't able to get any more time out of the car. We need to look at the data, see what it is and fix it for the race." Tom Salkowsky, motorsport manager, BMW of North America, Inc. "I'm happy with third and fourth, but I wish we could have moved up one more place to the outside pole. I feel like we're keeping some of the momentum that we had at Sears Point, which is very important. The drivers like the course and it seems like the cars are running even better than we expected before we got here." Canadian canoeing Peter Cunningham, Said, Simo and Stuck rented two canoes Friday evening, and set out in search of adventure. "We had to race, of course," said Stuck. "I was second with Peter and Boris was leading with Brian. Then we went to a little nude beach, but there was nothing going on."