TOURING: BMW Team PTG Petit Le Mans provisional qualifying
29 September 2000
BMW Team PTG notes: provisional qualifying, Sept. 28, 2000 Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta race nine of 12, American Le Mans Series BMW Team PTG qualified third and fifth on the provisional GT grid for Saturday's 1000-mile, 10-hour race. Boris Said qualified the #7 BMW M3 third in one minute, 24.662 seconds. He is driving with Hans Stuck and Johannes van Overbeek. Brian Cunningham, sharing the #10 M3 with Peter Cunningham and Nic Jonsson, qualified fifth (1:25.053). Boris Said, driver, #7 BMW M3 "That's the closest we've been all year on a horsepower track. This track's kind of funny because it's half horsepower and half handling. The guys have worked on the motors and Yokohama's worked on the tires, and it's all coming together." Brian Cunningham, driver, #10 BMW M3 "We have one more qualifying to go, so I guess it's a good place to start. We just really need to work on the setup. We haven't got the understeer out of the car yet." return to racing Hans Stuck returns this week after missing the Portland race to heal an injury to his sixth and seventh vertebrae. It was only the second race he has missed in his 32-year career. "It was good to have three weeks off because I had to do isometric therapy to stabilize my spine and the vertebra," he said. "I missed Portland, of course, and I was nervous about what was going on there. But I was more anxious to get back in the car. I'm fine again, everything is okay. The old dog is back!" record run BMW Team PTG driver Peter Cunningham is also competing in the Speedvision World Challenge GT race this weekend, in a BMW M3. He scored his 19th series victory earlier this season, tying him for all-time series victories. A win this weekend will give him the series record, and edge him closer to his 11th professional driver championship. BMW Car Club BMW of North America, Inc. will host 420 BMW Car Club members and their guests during the Petit Le Mans. The company hosts car clubs at each ALMS race, but the biggest crowd attends the annual event at Road Atlanta. Guests will enjoy hospitality in the BMW Car Corral, meet the BMW Team PTG drivers and crew, and catch all the action from Spectator Hill between turns 5 and 6.