Las Vegas BMW notes and quotes 97-09-19

PTG BMW M3 NOTES AND QUOTES Exxon Supreme GT Series -- GTS-3 SportsCar Grand Prix Presented by FAO Schwarz Friday, Sept. 19, 1997

FOLLOWING FIRST PRACTICE SESSION:

BORIS SAID, No. 10 Yokohama BMW M3 (and also the No. 5 Conoco/Interstate Batteries/Budget Car Rental BMW M3 owned by Eduardo Pellerano, which is being tested here by Boris and John Paul Jr.):

ON THE CIRCUIT: "They did a good job repairing the course, bec ause the patches they put down are really grippy -- there's more grip than there was yesterday. The track is fine, it's real smooth. For a stadium type of road course I think it's really good. It's very challenging, real tight in some parts, real wide open in other parts. It should make for a very interesting race."

ON DRIVING THE NEW NO. 5 FOUR DOOR SEDAN: "The new car is great. It's good to be able to drive the new car and then get into the No. 10 race car. We will probably make our setup for th e 10 car like the one in the new car. It's good to have a comparison between two different cars that are set up differently. We had a softer setup on the No. 5 car, we're going to try to qualify with that setup on the 10 car. The No. 5 car suited my style better, so hopefully Bill (Auberlen) will like it better (in qualifying.)"

BILL AUBERLEN, No. 10 Yokohama BMW M3: ON THE CIRCUIT: "When you first come here you think it's not a challenging track. Then you realize you have to make lap after lap without making any kind of mistake, because you're talking about tenths of seconds or even half tenths of seconds between you and the other cars' times. The trick is to make perfect laps 30 laps in a row. Then they repaved it and made it even more tricky going from asphalt to concrete, to asphalt to concrete. That makes the car very hard to setup because you're trying to make traction. It's hard to make traction when you can't count on the surface you're running on. It changes. You always have this changing variable."

ON THE EXTRA WEIGHT THE M3s ARE CARRYING: "There are tracks that our car does good on and others the car is bad on. Our car has done well on every track we have been on until this one. This is not a track that really suits our car and then coupled with the fact that we now have extra weight, these two things are making it doubly hard for us to do our job. I think it's going to be tough to outqualify the Porsches. But, we're always optimistic that we'll qualify well. We definitely have the team, the drivers, and the tire to outdo the Porsches in race distance. The one thing that has been consistent is our tire throughout all the practice. We have worked our way through five different types of tires here. One of them stands out above the rest. Temperatures are good, they're very long lasting. I think we're going to have an advantage tirewise over the distance of the race. The Porsches may have an advantage over a very short period of time. This is the type of track that the Porsches' weight decrease and their wider rear tire is going to benefit them. The critical turns are very tight, you have to get a whole lot of traction off the turn, and that's what their wider tire is going to do for them."

ON DRIVING THE MASSARI-MULLER RACING BMW M3 IN THE SPEEDVSION CUP: "I'm a floater. Whichever car (of the three M3s they're running) they tell me to go in I will run. These M3s are working very well. You would be surprised how similar they are to the GTS-3 cars, they're almost identical, just a little less. We learned some things from our GTS-3 car and brought it to the Speevision Cup M3 and it's working. They're great fun to drive. It's going to be a great race, with, what ? 70 cars!"

M3 MANIA: In the Speedvision Cup race this evening, Bill Auberlen, his brother Geoff, Javier Quiros and Chris Miller from Yokohama will drive the Massari-Muller Racing BMW M3s in the Grand Sports Class. Derek Hill will drive the No. 9 BMW 328is in the S ports Class of the Speedvision Cup. Bill Auberlen, Quiros and Hill drive the PTG BMW M3s in GTS-3.