Orbit Racing final qualifying report

crowded pace

Orbit Racing will start the 2003 24 Heures du Mans from third on the GT grid. Marc Lieb of Germany qualified the No. 87 YES Network Porsche 911 GT3 RS in four minutes 8.913 seconds on the 13.65-km French course. He will share driving duty with Americans Leo Hindery and Peter Baron, who started fifth in the class last year.

"On one hand, I'm a bit disappointed because of the lap time. There was so much traffic, I couldn't get a clear lap," Lieb said. "But on the other hand, the car is very good and it should be okay for the race. We had a problem with the oil pressure, but the car still definitely had the pole in it."

Lieb has had a strong start to the 2003 race season. Competing in the American Le Mans Series, the FIA GT Championship and the Rolex Sports Car Series, he has collected four class poles, a victory and two podium finishes to date.

expert assist

American Le Mans Series regulars may be surprised to see Tim Pendergast in the Orbit Racing garage at Le Mans. The International Motor Sports Association's special projects director took a vacation from his duties with the sanctioning body to join Orbit Racing for the 24 Heures du Mans. He was team manager for the Manthey Porsche team in 2000, but has more varied duties this week.

"I'll do anything! The reason I want to work is that I'm not a spectator - I've got to work," he explained. "This beats sitting in my office listening to Radio Le Mans and watching the computer. My father used to race vintage cars and he always had cars that ran at Le Mans. In sports-car racing, this is THE race."

racing to relax

How does the Orbit Racing crew relax? With race cars, of course. The team built a 1/32 slot car track in its Florida, USA race shop. With 90 feet of track, it takes up most of the showroom floor. Team members race a collection of their all-time favorite cars.

The team hobby started with release of of the Orbit Racing scale model car. It quickly sold out its first run, so manufacturer Scalextric has ordered another 2000 cars for sale.

-or/sp-