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Birmingham: Doran Racing qualifying report

Bobbi Qualifies Fourth Saturday At Barber Motorsports Park In Crown Royal Special Reserve DORAN JE4 Ford No. 77 BIRMINGHAM, Ala., July 30 - Matteo Bobbi qualified fourth Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park in Doran Racing's Crown Royal Special ...

Edited: Jul 31, 2005, 10:32 PM

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Bobbi Qualifies Fourth Saturday At Barber Motorsports Park In Crown Royal Special Reserve DORAN JE4 Ford No. 77

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., July 30 - Matteo Bobbi qualified fourth Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park in Doran Racing's Crown Royal Special Reserve DORAN JE4 Ford No. 77, but unfortunately in trying to get that last little bit of speed he needed for the pole he crashed and damaged the right side of the car. The Doran Racing crew is now busy making repairs so that Bobbi and his teammate, Fabrizio Gollin, came make their first starts at this beautiful facility in tomorrow's Porsche 250 Rolex series race presented by the law firm Bradley Arant.

Bobbi's qualifying time was 1:22.656 for an average speed of 101.174 mph to cover the 2.3-mile road course. He took only three-tenths of a second longer than Alex Gurney did on his fastest lap to win the pole.

"I'm OK," Bobbi said after climbing from the car, which ironically ended up against the inner concrete wall on the frontstretch right in front of the Crown Royal pit area after it spun. "It was a good lap, but I hit the frontstretch wall. It was understeering and I made a mistake; I got off on the grass and then into the wall.

"I was happy with the balance of the car; the car was good," he continued. "We had a top car today and I was fighting for the pole position. I always try my best to be first. I made a mistake, but I was trying hard for first. I'm sorry for the guys that they have to work now and fix it for tomorrow. It was quite a heavy hit."

Bobbi did have the pole for a few laps Saturday, but then Gurney, Christian Fittipaldi and Max Angelelli went a little faster. The session was shortened due to the accident.

Earlier in the day the entry was fifth in the third practice session with a 1:22.560 (100.291 mph).

A 15-minute warm-up is slated for 9:40 a.m. tomorrow, and then the 250-mile/109-lap/two-hour-and-45-minute race is scheduled to start at noon.

The race is scheduled to be televised on SPEED beginning at 1 p.m. ET tomorrow.

For more information, please see doranracing.com and crownroyal.com. Matteobobbi.com has information on that driver, while Gollin's Web site is at fabriziogollin.com.

Other interesting information can be found at grandamerican.com, barbermotorsports.com, speedtv.com and restartcommunications.com.

-dr-

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