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USA: Billy Johnson signs with PTG Racing

Billy Johnson Signs With PTG Racing for a Full Season of Formula BMW USA. Long Beach, California--After a successful test in Valencia Spain, where he won one of six $40,000 scholarships from BMW of North America, 17 year-old Billy Johnson from San ...

Billy Johnson Signs With PTG Racing for a Full Season of Formula BMW USA.

Long Beach, California--After a successful test in Valencia Spain, where he won one of six $40,000 scholarships from BMW of North America, 17 year-old Billy Johnson from San Clemente, California signed with Prototype Technology Group for the full Season of the 2004 Formula BMW USA. Formula BMW USA will have a 14 race series, over 7 weekends and will be the only open wheel series to support both North American F1 races. Billy Johnson comes from a karting background, winning a 125cc Shifter Kart National title last season. He has also competed occasionally in the Skip Barber 2-Liter series, winning a pair of races at Willow Springs in February.

In 2003, Billy Johnson was the lead driver of JM Racing/ Avanti in the Star's of Tomorrow series in ICC aboard the Alex Barron signature Avanti. He was also a Red Bull F1 driver search semi-finalist, and earlier this year was a runner-up in the annual Skip Barber Karting Scholarship where he received a prize worth $19,075. The following day, he flew to Valencia, Spain to participate in the Formula BMW licensing and scholarship program and walked away with a prize worth $40,000 from BMW North America.

"I'm very excited to be racing F.BMW this year," Said Johnson. "The car is great and to be racing in-front of F1 and Champcar team owners is fantastic. I'm especially looking forward to be racing at Indy in front of 200,000 fans. I'm thankful to PTG for giving me a fantastic opportunity. I can't think of a better scenario to be in for my first season in cars."

Prototype Technology Group plans on fielding 4 cars in the 2004 Formula BMW USA Championship. PTG has long history racing BMW's, winning four sports-car manufacturer championships. PTG, lead by Tom Milner, has been BMW's primary U.S. motorsports research and development team for the BMW M3 since 1995. This season, PTG is fielding two GT class BMW M3s in the 2004 Rolex Sports Car Series of the Grand American Road Racing Association. With more than 30 years of experience in the racing industry, Tom Milner has developed successful programs in a wide variety of racing venues, including IMSA, SCCA and NASCAR.

Formula BMW USA is being sanctioned by Open Wheel Racing Series, owners of the Champ Car World Series. The 2004 season starts on May 30th at Lime Rock, Connecticut, and ends on September 12th at Laguna Seca, California. Formula BMW USA will support Champcars in Cleveland, Road America, Denver and Laguna Seca. The series will also be supporting the Canadian and US Grand Prix. A $50,000 scholarship will also be awarded to the 2004 Formula BMW USA Series Champion that can be applied to a year of participation in the 2005 Formula BMW Germany Championship.

For more information on Formula BMW USA, Prototype Technology Group or Billy Johnson, please visit www.bmw-motorsport.com, www.ptgracing.com, www.Billyjohnsonracing.com, or www.jmracing.com

-bjr-

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