LUHR/MAASSEN EARN HARD-FOUGHT FIFTH PLACE IN ALEX JOB RACING MCKENNA
PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS; NEW BMW M3 V8s TAKE PODIUM POSITIONS AT SEARS POINT
Andy Schupack (401) 739-5677
cell at the track (917) 864-8767
Fred Hammond (201) 750-3533
LUHR/MAASSEN EARN HARD-FOUGHT FIFTH PLACE IN ALEX JOB RACING MCKENNA PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS; NEW BMW M3 V8s TAKE PODIUM POSITIONS AT SEARS POINT
-The Porsches were lapped early, but the #23 Luhr/Massen Porsche 911 GT3 RS unlapped themselves with 15 minutes to go and actually took fourth place, but could not hold off the faster BMW during the final laps.-
SONOMA, Calif. - July 22, 2001 - Two of the top three Porsche 911 GT3 RS race cars ran mistake-free races, but the BMW M3 V-8 s took the first four positions in the GT class in Sunday's American Le Mans Series X-Factor Grand Prix of Sonoma.
Fifth in class was the #23 Alex Job Racing McKenna Porsche 911 GT3 RS with Lucas Luhr/Sascha Maassen sharing the drive, with the Petersen Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RS of Timo Bernhard/Johnny Mowlem sixth. Both Mowlem and Bernhard were chased all race by local veteran Kevin Buckler, who, with co-driver Tyler McQuarrie, maintained their position for the entire 2 hours and 45 minutes. Buckler/McQuarrie finished seventh in class, only one lap out of fourth.
The #22 Alex Job Racing McKenna Porsche 911 GT3 RS driven by Randy Pobst and Christian Menzel was the leading Porsche early in the event, but a loose throttle cable slowed them down early, and a broken drive shaft ended their day late in the race.
Other Porsche finishers included the #67 Rice/Corcutt Porsche (eighth), the #52 Collin/Burgess Porsche (ninth), and the #15 Wars/Willingham Porsche (10th).
The BMW win at Sonoma broke Porsche's ALMS GT victory streak dating back to Laguna Seca last October.
The next ALMS event will be at Portland International Raceway on Sunday, August 5 , and will telecast on the Speedvision Network on a tape-delay basis.
The official Porsche Web site - www.porsche.com - has final results and photos from X-Factor Grand Prix of Sonoma for all the Porsches entered. Porsche Web site users should choose "North America" on the home page when prompted to choose a country, then choose "motorsports," then "motorsport news" to find the ALMS updates for all events..
Other Web sites that follow ALMS include the American Le Mans site mentioned above, the ON TRACK ONLINE site, (www.ontrackonline.com), The Race Site (www.theRaceSite.com), the Speedvision site (www.speedvision.com), Motorsport.com (www.motorsport.com), TotalMotorsport (www.totalmotorsport.com) and the CompuServe site (www.motorsportsforum.com).
# # #
X-FACTOR GRAND PRIX OF SONOMA - Final GT class results
Car # Drivers Entry/Car #laps
42 Lehto/Muller BMW Motorsport M3 97
43 Ekblom/Muller BMW Motorsport M3 96
6 Stuck/Said PTG BMW M3 96
10 Auberlen/Jonnson PTG BMW M3 96
23 Luhr/Maassen McKenna Porsche Alex Job Racing 911 GT3 RS 95
30 Bernhard/Mowlem White Lightning/Petersen Motorsports Westward Ho! Porsche 911 GT3 RS 95
66 Buckler/McQuarrie The Racers Group Porsche 911 GT3 RS 94
67 Rice/Orcutt The Racers Group Porsche 911 GT3 RS 92
52 Burgess/Collin Seikel Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RS 88
15 Willingham/Wars Dick Barbour Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R 84
69 Wankum/Pabst Kyser Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RS DNF Accident
22 Pobst/Menzel McKenna Porsche Alex Job Racing 911 GT3 RS DNF Driveshaft
# # #