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Road Atlanta: BMW qualifying notes

Auberlen's BMW on Speed Touring Pole for round 4 at road Atlanta; five BMWs in top-10. This morning's 20-minute qualifying session for Round 4 of the SCCA Pro Racing Speed Touring Car Championship at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga., saw Bill ...

Published: Jun 29, 2003, 9:00 PM

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Auberlen's BMW on Speed Touring Pole for round 4 at road Atlanta; five BMWs in top-10.

This morning's 20-minute qualifying session for Round 4 of the SCCA Pro Racing Speed Touring Car Championship at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga., saw Bill Auberlen record his second Touring Class pole of the season and his second pole of the day, as he also put his BMW Team PTG M3 on the GT pole in the prior session.

Auberlen needed only four laps to be the fastest of the 16 BMW 3 Series entries in the field of 41, qualifying his No. 92 Turner Motorsport 325i on the pole with a time of 1:39.320 around the 2.54-mile Road Atlenta circuit. Speed Touring rookie James Clay will start fourth (1:40.108) in his No. 36 Bimmerworld 325i, and Nic Jonsson will start his No. 27 Lectricair/Techmark 325Ci fifth (1:40.158). Rounding out the top-10 for BMW, Ken Dobson qualified his No. 7 Chili Pepper Racing 325Ci ninth (1:40.749) and the No. 37 Bimmerworld 328i of Matt Richmond will start 10th.

The 50-minute race is scheduled to start tomorrow, June 29, at 12:30 p.m.

BILL AUBERLEN, No. 93 TURNER MOTORSPORTS BMW 325i (first): "Qualifying in GT just before the Touring session was a big advantage. I knew what the track was like when I left the pits. The tires come in and give the fastest times in about four laps, so that is what I keyed on, and four laps was all I needed. By the time the others had figured out the track condition their tires were not at their optimum and my time held for the pole."

NIC JONSSON, No. 27 LECTRICAIR/TECHMARK BMW 325Ci (fifth): "Techmark has done an awesome job this week. We had a problem with a stuck throttle that ended up costing us some bodywork, but the team worked hard and got the car ready. We lost the power steering pump yesterday, so I had to qualify without power steering today, but the car is handling very nicely. I got stuck behind some slower cars in this session that may have cost me some places, but we have made some real progress."

KEN DOBSON, No. 7 CHILI PEPPER RACING BMW 325Ci (ninth): "Ninth today is a victory in itself, as we were a little down on horsepower this weekend. The team worked until midnight last night to make some major suspension changes to make sure we were handling the best we could. My second to last lap was my fastest, but I had a tire going down and I could not give it one more try."

<pre> BMW qualifying positions: 1 (93) Bill Auberlen, Hermosa Beach, Calif., BMW 325i 4 (36) James Clay(R), Blacksburg, Va., BMW 325i 5 (27) Nic Jonsson, Dankeryt, Sweden, BMW 325Ci 9 (7) Ken Dobson, Carmel Valley, Calif., BMW 325Ci 10 (37), Matt Richmond(R), Mooresville, N.C., BMW 328i 13 (50) Matt Plumb(R), Newport, R.I., BMW 325 15 (92) Will Turner, Newburyport, Mass., BMW 325i 17 (98), Neal Sapp, Ellicott City, MD, BMW 325Ci 19 (35), James Sofronas, Newport Beach, Calif., BMW 325i 22 (51) Alfred duPont, Kennett Square, Pa., BMW 325 25 (94), Frank Selldorff, Boston, Mass., BMW 325i 26 (98), Robert Stretch, Dallas, Texas, BMW 325Ci 27 (63) Mark O'Dell, Wake Forest, NC, BMW328i 28 (24) Jim Osborn, Olltewah, TX, BMW 325Ci 40 (16) Phil Parlato, Commack, NY, BMW 325i 41 (33) Brad Sofronas, Newport Beach, Calif., BMW 328i

-bmw-

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