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Sears Point BMW Team PTG Qualifying Notes

BMW Team PTG notes: final qualifying, July 24 American Le Mans Series Grand Prix of Sonoma race four, American Le Mans Series Boris Said posted BMW Team PTG's quickest qualifying time at Sears Point on Friday, covering the 2.52-mile road course ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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BMW Team PTG notes: final qualifying, July 24 American Le Mans Series Grand Prix of Sonoma race four, American Le Mans Series

Boris Said posted BMW Team PTG's quickest qualifying time at Sears Point on Friday, covering the 2.52-mile road course in one minute, 36.645 seconds at an average speed of 93.869 miles per hour. He and Hans Stuck will start the new #9 M3 third on the GT grid. Christian Menzel, driving with Brian Cunningham, had the team's fastest qualifying time on Saturday, putting the #7 M3 fourth in class. Darren Law and Johannes van Overbeek will start Sunday's race fifth in the #10 car, and Mark Simo and Peter Cunningham will start seventh in the #6 M3.

Boris Said, driver, #9 BMW M3

"We just went out and tried some race stuff. We checked our fuel cell just to make sure the reserve worked because it's a new car. We weren't really going for lap times and we ran out of fuel after four laps. But that's what we intended to do. We have a good race setup and I think it's going to be a good race. Porsche will be hard to beat, but we'll just drive flat out and see what happens.

"The biggest thing here for all the GT cars is going to be how you work traffic without getting in the way of the LM cars. There are a lot of LM cars and some of the guys are great drivers, but some of them are a little newer at getting by slower traffic. It's gonna be kind of a crapshoot, but hopefully we'll be smarter than the Porsche guys and get to the end of the race before they do. That's what it's all about."

Christian Menzel, driver, #7 BMW M3

"I must say thank you to [team owner] Tom Milner.  Yesterday, I was very
disappointed with my performance.  He came and said, 'No problem.  
Tomorrow is another day.  You'll do it!' We made a few modifications in
the setup and my feeling was good.  I had trust in the car and this was
the result.  The circuit is fantastic.  It is a problem when you are slow
and you find the circuit nice.  But when you are fast, then it is okay."

Darren Law, driver, #10 BMW M3

"Being the new guy to a team that's been running all year, the team has been very open and supportive. Everyone is professional and the cars are prepped well. We all sit down and discuss lines and methods for driving the cars. We usually have a group discussion afterwards, and the engineers are really good at going over all the graphs so we can compare against anyone on the team. It's a real open forum."

Sears Point strategy: Ina Gastesi, engineer

"The biggest strategy for us is the tires. The biggest advantage we have right now is probably the lasting of the [Yokohama] tires. We'll discuss the race strategy tonight, knowing who is in what position and also based on how many laps we can go with the fuel. We may have to stop twice, so that will also be part of the strategy."

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