Jennifer Tumminelli's Mid-Ohio Race Report

(June 8, 2000) San Francisco, California  -- Jennifer Tumminelli, Tiburon, California resident completed her first Grand-Am race at Mid-Ohio this past weekend.

It would be many firsts for the high spirited single mom who caught the attention of the "Oprah Show" and who flew a film crew to Mid-Ohio to tape her for their upcoming show "Choose Your Life" to air on Wednesday, June 21st.  

Of her many firsts this past weekend, Jennifer drove for the first time a Porsche 996 GT, raced at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and qualified and started the Grand-Am race.

Jennifer Tumminelli proved her lack of endurance racing experience was no downfall producing respectable times ( with less than 1 hour in the car) amongst her Racers Group teammates (Kevin Buckler, Philip Colins and Bob Nagel).  Qualifying her #67 Scient Porsche 996 36th out of 41, Jennifer produced a qualifying time of 1:32.233, exactly two seconds off her teams fastest qualifier, Philip Colins.

Suffering a cut tire during qualifying Jennifer was required to start at the back of the Grand-Am field.  Jennifer quickly charged back up through the field while staying on the lead lap.  Running in 6th in the GT class, she quickly caught up to the GT battle for 4th & 5th position while recording her fastest race lap all weekend. 

Under yellow flag conditions, Jennifer's Buysellandhold.com co-driver, Bob Nagel took over driving duties.  A flat tire and later a broken ball joint would disrupt their current 5th place position putting Jennifer Tumminelli and Bob Nagel in 11th out of 14th place in the GT category and 32nd out of 41 overall. 

"While it was unfortunate the car didn't finish as well as we hoped I thought the entire weekend was an overall success.  I am happy with my times, results and I thought the Racers Group team gave us a great car." stated Jennifer.

Jennifer's teammates, Philip Colins and Kevin Buckler drove their Racers Group #66 to a 2nd place GT finish and 17th overall with a fast time of 1:29.500.

Jennifer Tumminelli next race is on July 23rd in the American Le Mans Series at Sears Point Raceway, California - her hometrack.

Jennifer Tumminelli is a former Star Formula Mazda driver and the first polesitter for the Women's Global GT Series.  She also served as a member of the CART / PPG Pace Car Team.   Jennifer is sponsored by Scient, Compaq and Wyle Systems.  For more information go to www.jennifertumminelli.com