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Indianapolis: Porsche names guest drivers

Porsche names guest drivers for Indianapolis Porsche Michelin Supercup races. INDIANAPOLIS, September 25, 2002 - Porsche has announced that Antonio Sabato, Jr., the Italian-born actor now living in Los Angeles, and Bill Adam, veteran road ...

Published: Sep 27, 2002, 7:31 PM

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Porsche names guest drivers for Indianapolis Porsche Michelin Supercup races.

INDIANAPOLIS, September 25, 2002 - Porsche has announced that Antonio Sabato, Jr., the Italian-born actor now living in Los Angeles, and Bill Adam, veteran road racer-turned-television anchor, will be the two guest drivers for this weekend's Porsche Michelin Supercup races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Sabato, who has numerous movies and television shows to his credit including "Jack of All Trades" with Paul Sorvino and "The Big Hit" with Mark Whalberg, has also done some sports car racing. Adam, who won the 12 Hours of Sebring twice during his illustri ous International Motor Sports Association career in the '80s and '90s, is now a television anchor on various networks for the American Le Mans Series, Trans-Am, and The Speed Channel Cup.

Of the 26 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars - all technically identical - two are reserved for guest drivers at each race. Last year, Indy Racing League champion Sam Hornish, Jr., and road racer David Donahue took those guest spots, with Al Unser, Jr. and ALMS sta r Randy Pobst filling the slots in 2000. Pobst had the highest finish among the Indy guest drivers so far with a fifth-place finish. Other American drivers who have raced for private teams at Indy since 2000 include Mario Andretti and Indianapolis TV pro ducer Terry Lingner. In addition to racing at Indianapolis, the Porsche Michelin Supercup, now in its 10th season, accompanies Formula One to 10 European events and is the only GT racing series to run exclusively as a support series to the Formula One World Championship. Races are approximately 43.5 miles (70 km).

All Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars are equipped with a 3.6-liter engines that produce 380 horsepower and can travel from 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) in less than four seconds. With the exception of the guest cars, which are prepared by the Porsche factory, all the entries are private teams which own their cars and hire professional drivers. The Porsche factory has built 131 of these cars in 200 2 for Porsche racing customers around the world, including entries in the Porsche Carrera Cup in Europe and The Speed Channel World Challenge and Grand-Am Cup series in the U.S. The current 911 GT3 Cup car is the fourth generation Cup car, with the origin al Carrera 2 Cup car producing 265 horsepower when it was introduced in 1990.

Top drivers in the series this year include former 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Stéphane Ortelli of Monaco, two-time Indianapolis 500 starter Alessandro Zampedri, Marco Werner of Germany, andWolf Henzler of Germany. Ortelli leads Werner, 140-116, in the series standings after ten races. Zampedri is third with 104 points. In the victory department, Ortelli has won three races (Barcelona, Hocken heim and Spa): Werner has three wins (Spielberg, Budapest, and Monza), and FIA-GT veteran Philipp Peter has won two events (Monte Carlo and Nurburgring).

Other drivers of note include Alex Job Racing regular Timo Bernhard - defending Porsche Carrera Cup champion and current ALMS star; Emmanuel Collard, the French driver currently piloting the ALMS factory Cadillac effort; and Christophe Bouchut, French GT v eteran.

The Porsche Michelin Supercup, the world's fastest international single-marque sports car series, will race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a support event during the SAP United States Grand Prix. Two rounds of the Porsche Michelin Supercup once aga in will take place on the Speedway's 2.606-mile Grand Prix circuit during the SAP United States Grand Prix, at 3 p.m. (EST) Saturday, Sept. 28, and 9:20 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 29. With 20 points awarded for first place, Ortelli could clinch the season series with a podium finish in Saturday's event.

Two Porsche Supercup events also took place during last year's Grand Prix, with Sascha Maassen of Germany winning Sept. 29 by 0.3 of a second over Jorg Bergmeister, also of Germany, who clinched the season title with his second-place finish. On Sept. 30, Bergmeister returned the favor by finishing three seconds ahead of Maassen for the victory.

-porsche-

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