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ALMS: Brian Simo Las Vegas qualifying report

29 October 2000

Brian Simo of Carlsbad, Calif., drove the No. 88 Tommy Bahama Qvale Mangusta 
to third on the grid for the penultimate BFGoodrich Tires Trans-Am Series 
race this season.  Simo's qualifying time of one minute 17.502 seconds was 
fastest of the first group of qualifiers, but two drivers in the second 
session were able to better the time.  Boris Said of Carlsbad took the pole 
position in 1:17.077 and Kenny Wilden of Oakville, Ont., was second 
(1:17.236).

"I think that was the shortest-lived pole I've ever had," Simo said.  "We 
came in with a six-tenths [of a second] lead over everyone else.  We knew we 
had Kenny Wilden in the second session, but the sleeper was Boris and he 
picked it away from us.  We probably would have had a better benchmark if 
Boris had been out with us.  But we'll just deal with it during the race."