Daytona II: Sigalsport BMW race report

LUGGAGE EXPRESS TEAM SIGALSPORT BMW MISSED TOP TEN FINISH BY SECONDS AT BRUMOS PORSCHE 250!

Los Angeles, July 8, 2007: The Luggage Express Team Sigalsport BMW, with co-drivers Bill Auberlen and Matt Alhadeff, finished 11th in Thursday's Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona International Speedway. The Daytona race was the eighth race of the 2007 Rolex Sports Car Series.

This event was a one-day event with practice sessions, qualifying and race all on the same day. Bill Auberlen was one of the fastest drivers in the first of the two morning practice sessions of the day. He was only 3 tenths slower than the fastest car, proving once again the outstanding, close competition between Rolex Sports Car series teams and the great battle between the best endurance drivers on the planet.

Early Saturday afternoon, Matt Alhadeff qualified the 05 Luggage Express Dinan BMW Riley Sigalsport machine in 15th place.

Matt took a good start in the race and stopped during the first and only caution flag of the race to check and solve a gearbox issue. Matt raced a great first stint before giving the wheel to Bill Auberlen for the last 70 minutes of the race.

Bill was on fire during his stint and started passing car after car but unfortunately since there was no yellow flag, which would have helped the 05 machine to catch up with the leaders, Auberlen was only able to finish 11th after a very busy night at Daytona. Bill missed the top ten by a handful of seconds.

"We were ready to have a great race" declared Luggage Express Team Sigalsport BMW owner Gene Sigal after the race. "We were counting on a second yellow to get closer to the leaders. We had a good race strategy and had an optimistic top seven goal" added Gene.

The Rolex Series reconvenes July 13 and 14 at Iowa Speedway in Des Moines, Iowa for split-class action, and then heads on to Barber Motorsports Park, Alabama July 20 through the 22.

-credit: sigalsport