USTCC: MPACT Motorsports San Jose summary

SAN JOSE GRAND PRIX, San Jose, CA (July 31, 2005) -- The MPACT Motorsports BMW 328is scored a second place finish at the US Touring Car race at the San Jose Grand Prix. In front of 55,000 fans attending the inaugural CHAMPCAR street race in downtown San Jose, Dale Sievwright drove to his best finish of the season.

After a 3 hour delay on Friday while waiting for the street course to be completed, Dale quickly learned the track, being second fastest in practice and finally putting the BMW on the inside of the second row after qualifying.

Dale had this to say about the new street course, "The course is fun, I actually like it. It is a driver's track. A wall on both sides left little room for error. It was technical but had a couple of huge braking zones. Instead of driving like a mad man you have to think more."

At the start of the race the rear-drive BMW had a great launch and Dale was able to hold on to third place down the long front straight. Sievwright's speed on cold tires and the phenomenal braking performance from the Stoptech brakes allowed him to make a clean pass on Erickson's GTI for second position. The MPACT 328 then began closing the gap to Dave Brown's Spoon/Opak JDM RSX but was unable to get close enough to make a pass for the win.

In an interview after the race Sievwright was excited to be on the podium, "First I would like to say thanks to MPACT Motorsports. Rob and Dan gave me an awesome car to drive. It was an easy race, we just didn't have the power to run down the RSX. Also thanks to Hankook for giving us great tires that were strong all race. The Stoptech brakes really made the difference all weekend. We didn't have any fade issues with the Cobalt Friction pads and were able to out-brake any other car out there. That is why some other guys couldn't keep up. Ground Control and Moton Suspension gave us a suspension that soaked up the rough track with ease. The car was perfect, it rotated whenever I wanted."

The USTCC race at the San Jose GP will be broadcast on The SPEED Channel in September.

The next race for the MPACT Motorsports Team will be at the US Touring Car Race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA on August 6-7.

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