Sebring: BAM! Friday report

appeal denied

BAM! officially appealed the decision made late Thursday that disallowed the qualifying time of the No. 43 YES Network Porsche 911 GT3 RS for Saturday's Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. It was the decision of the race stewards that the car's plastic front-end splitter, which had swelled in the heat of the qualifying session, was two millimeters out of specification. The appeal was denied. Leo Hindery, BAM!'s lead driver, commented:

"We appreciate the stewards' willingness to revisit their decision late yesterday to disallow the 43 car's record-setting pole performance based on a violation that had absolutely no impact on the car's performance. Nonetheless, we still believe that the decision first made yesterday and confirmed today is wrong. We hope that in the future the post-qualifying inspection process will allow, as it should, for the direct involvement of a team's technical director and for more timely and thoughtful appeal. Mike Rockenfeller won the pole yesterday in a record-setting time, and it's a shame that because of a decision which came down an hour and a half after the car left tech, he will not receive the formal recognition he so richly deserves. Now, however, it's time to go try to win a race."

ready to race

BAM! is ready to race with a near-perfect car, according to drivers Peter Baron and Mike Rockenfeller. The crew made a few fine-tuning adjustments and simulated a strong race stint during the final practice on Friday.

"We have the car to a spot where it's pretty much perfect right now," Baron said. "We did some full-tank runs with a very hard, conservative setup and we were able to do a race pace very easily in traffic. In qualifying, we showed we have a quick car; now we showed we have a car that can do a good endurance run. As long as we don't get caught by a yellow [caution period] and go a lap down early, by the time we get to the two-hour mark, we should be challenging for the lead, working the reliability and keeping the pace."

close look

Mike Rockenfeller likes a close view when he visits a track for the first time. At Sebring, he logged his early morning runs on the 3.7-mile Sebring International Raceway road course, giving him valuable information for race day.

"I run the track because you see more when you stop in the corners and have a look at the curbs. In the car, you can't see these things," he said. "I can see all the tricky things of the track and I can have a deep look at the bumps. It helps with the race, and we have to do exercise anyway, so it's two in one."

-sp-