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ALMS: BMW Team PTG on to Portland next

4 September 2000

          FORT WORTH, Tex. (Sept. 3, 2000)   The American Le
Mans Series Grand Prix of Texas was a tough race for BMW.

    The 2.324-mile Texas Motor Speedway road course took its
toll as both BMW V12 LMR cars experienced difficulties during
Saturday's two-hour 45-minute race.  Jean-Marc Gounon of
France and Bill Auberlen of Redondo Beach, Calif., finished fifth
after problems in traffic that forced pitstops for repairs.  A clutch
problem and contact with another car slowed the No. 42 V12,
driven by JJ Lehto of Finland and Jorg Muller of Germany.  They
finished fourth.
 
   BMW Team PTG, with sponsorship from Flextronics
International, Level One and Yokohama, finished sixth and seventh
in the GT class, hampered by record temperatures, high track
banking and debris that taxed the team's tires.  (The team wasn't
alone, as other manufacturers experienced tire problems.)

    Brian Cunningham of Danville, Ky., and Nic Jonsson of Aliso
Viejo, Calif., started eighth and raced in fourth place for much of
the race in the No. 10 BMW M3.  They finished sixth after losing
second gear.  Hans Stuck of Austria and Johannes van Overbeek
of Danville, Calif., started ninth in the  No. 7 M3, moved to fifth at
the start of the race, but finished seventh, slowed by mechanical
problems.

    "It just wasn't our weekend," said Tom Salkowsky,
motorsport manager for BMW of North America, Inc.  "We knew
going in that this track wasn't ideal for BMW.  But hats off to the
team.  The drivers endured 150-plus degrees in the car and the
team worked all Friday night to get an engine repaired.  The best
thing we can do is put this in the rear-view mirror and get to
Portland."

    BMW Team PTG owner Tom Milner is also looking forward to
the next race. "Obviously, it was not our race," he said of the
Texas event.  "We had a total of four flat tires, so of course that
puts you behind.  One of the flat tires ruined our system for the
cooling system for the differential so we had to slow down in order
to save the differential.  Portland is a different race track and it
won't be quite as bad there for us because of the straighaways
here for us.  We'll take it one at a time and see what we can do."

    Jonsson, who drove the first and final stints in the No. 10
M3, said the team gave him a solid race setup.  "We had a pretty
good race car.  We had one of the fastests car in the infield, but
coming onto the banking and the front stretch, we lost too much
to the Porsches," he said.  "But what killed us was the first cut tire
because we had a prototype car slide into us and cut the tire on
the third or fourth lap of the race."

    Van Overbeek drove the first hour in the No. 7 M3, then
handed over to veteran Stuck, who double-stinted and drove the
final hour and 45 minutes.  Despite the high temperatures, Stuck
said the race was "too short" for him.
 
   "It was a frustrating race," van Overbeek said.  "But both
Hans and I bear the heat and Hans did a great job.  I'm happy that
we even finished with the circumstances."