St. Pete: Autosport Development race notes

Hayner, ends St. Pete with an 18th place finish

St. Petersburg, Fla. -- April 3 2005 After starting 18th on the grid, Autosport Development driver, Stu Hayner [GMAC Commercial Finance / Trenton Forging #5 GTO], finished today's SPEED World Challenge GT race in 18th position. The Autosport Development team is in St. Petersburg for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, April 1st-3rd where the SPEED World Challenge Series is appearing with the Indy Racing League's debut road race. The track is a 1.8 mile street course. Today's World Challenge races will air on SPEED Channel Sunday April 10th with the Touring Cars at 1pm and the GT cars at 2pm.

"We had a good car today," said Hayner after the race. "This was the best the car felt all weekend. As we were working lap four, I came up on the #34 car in between turns one and two. I went to the inside on driver's left and was by him cleanly-- for some odd reason he came across the back of me and made contact causing damage to his right front. The contact put us both into a spin. Unfortunately, my car stalled. It seems the battery had dislodged and wouldn't restart. After a couple of laps the corner workers were able to reach me and pushed the car to restart it."

"The hit had also knocked the car out of alignment," Hayner continued. "After the crew made some changes I was able to go out and turn some respectable lap times. I think we can go to Atlanta and start getting a little more aggressive and see what we can do-- our confidence in the car is coming up and we're get a better understanding of its handling characteristics."

Hayner finished the race 3 laps down in 18th position. His fastest lap was 1:22.069 averaging 78.958 miles per hour. Time of race was 50 minutes, 21.322 seconds. Today's race will be broadcast on SPEED Channel April 10 at 2 p.m. (EDT).

SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT is back in action as part of the Sportsbook.com Grand Prix at Road Atlanta, in Braselton, Ga., April 15-17.

Autosport Development competes as part of the SPEED World Challenge GT Series. All events are nationally televised on SPEED channel (formerly Speedvision). In 2005 the SPEED World Challenge Series schedule will include street races in Denver and St. Petersburg, and make the traditional stops around the country at great tracks like Sebring, Road Atlanta, Lime Rock Park, Infineon, Mosport, Cleveland, Portland, Road America, Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca.

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