SPORTSCAR: Press Notes 73 - 85

Press Notes, Sunday, 73-85

20 April, 1997

73. PACE LAP begins at 12:03 for the Exxon Supreme GT Series Presented by Virgin Interactive two-hour race for GTS-1, GTS-2 and GTS-3 cars ... GREEN FLAG at 12:07 ... #91 Stu Hayner takes the lead followed by #66 Doc Bundy and #27 Jason Priestley misses the jump.

74. FULL COURSE YELLOW immediately on lap one for an incident in the first turn, involving the #00 Porsche GT-1 of Klaus Bytzek, the #10 GTS-3 BMW M3 of Derek Hill, the GTS-2 pole-sitting #56 Porsche 911 of Philip Collin and the #62 GTS-2 Porsche of Kelly Collins ... Collin and Collins pit for replacement of damaged wheels ... #80 GTS-1 Terry Borcheller also pits with frame damage ... #28 GTS-3 Porsche of Marvin Epps also goes off in turn 4 ... #6 GTS-3 BMW M3 of John Paul Jr., also pits and is replaced by Bill Auberlen ... #56 Collin also pits, as does #25 Terry Lingner.

75. GREEN FLAG on lap 7 at 12:30pm ... yellow lasted for six laps and 23 minutes ... #77 GTS-3 BMW M3 of Pete Halsmer starts smoking heavily ... #27 Jason Priestley, star of Beverly Hills 90210, and driving his first mega-horsepower race, blows by local favorite #66 Doc Bundy in the Panoz on the restart.

76. FULL COURSE YELLOW on lap 10 at 12:26 for an incident in turn 10 ... Running order is 91-23-27-66-01 ... #01 GTS-1 points leader Jochen Rohr pits and turns the Rohr Engineering Porsche Turbo over to Andy Pilgrim, who is going after his 93rd consecutive race finish in SportsCar-sanctioned competition.

77. GREEN FLAG at 12:45 on lap 13 ... Full Course Yellow was for 19 minutes and three laps ... #29 Epps pits again with clutch problems ... #66 Bundy re-passes #27 Priestley on lap 16 ... #91 Stu Hayner maintains a large lead in the Rock Island Camaro ... #23 McIntyre is off course, was running third ... #01 GTS-1 Andy Pilgrim has passed #27 Jason Priestley to take fourth position in the class; Pilgrim and Priestley were co-drivers in yesterday's SPEEDVISION Cup for Stock SportsCars race where they finished fifth and maintained their joint hold on the Grand Sports class points lead.

78. #12 GTS-2 Porsche goes behind wall ... #66 Bundy begins to close up on race leader #91 Stu Hayner ... makes a move on Hayner in turn one ... #39 GTS-3 Porsche pits, owner Jim Matthews gets out and David Murry of Atlanta gets in.

79. ONE-HOUR RUNDOWN GTS-1 GTS-2 GTS-3 91 Hayner 61 Peter 6 Auberlen 66 Bundy 99 Schumacher 55 Aase 50 Ruhlman 02 Ligonnet 15 Gagliardo

79. #93 Henry Taleb pits and stays in the Nissan ... Taleb pits again two laps later, and #02 Michel Ligonnet makes his only stop for gas, tires and turns the car over to 24-year old Zak Brown ... 1:12 p.m. on lap 34 and Doc Bundy pits the #66 Panoz, Andy Wallace is new driver, airgun is stuck on left front wheel, car begins to overheat ... team pushes away car and it restarts, but is now a half lap down to leader Stu Hayner.

80. #91 race leader Stu Hayner pits his Camaro on lap 35 at 1:15 p.m. and new driver is team owner Roger Schramm; the team is going for their second-ever GTS-1 win ... Schramm leaves the pits with half a lap leader over #66 Wallace , but #01 Andy Pilgrim is the overall race leader in the Rohr Engineering Porsche, by :14 over #27 Jason Priestley ... Priestley pits on lap 39 and Scott Maxwell is the new driver, putting Schramm back in second.

81. #6 BMW M3 of Bill Auberlen, the GTS-3 race leader, pull off course with mechanical problems in turn three and Auberlen is out of the car ... New GTS-3 leader is #55 Aase/Trejos ... #73 is now driven by Shawn Hendricks.

82. FULL COURSE YELLOW at 1:26 p.m. on lap 43 for mishap in turn 11 involving the #26 Porsche of Angelo Cilli and Anthony Lazzaro ... multi pit stops during the lull with race leader #01 Andy Pilgrim pitting and turning the Porsche over to Jochen Rohr ... #7 BMW M3 new driver is Dieter Quester, replacing Duez ... #55 GTS-3 is now driven by Jorge Trejos.

83. GREEN FLAG at 1:41 on lap 48 with #91 Roger Schramm holding the lead, followed by #66 Andy Wallace and #01 Jochen Rohr ... GTS-2 is led by #99 John O'Steen and GTS-3 is led by #33 David Murry ... On lap 50, #66 Wallace takes the lead ... New GTS-3 leader as of lap 56 is #76 Porsche 911 of Tim Moser and Cort Wagner, with Moser driving ... with ten minutes to go, #76 Moser and #7 Quester are having a dandy fight for the GTS-3 lead.

84. Major spin and #76 Moser, the GTS-3 leader, spins and other cars behind him slow, including second place #7 Quester ... New leader in GTS-3 is #39 David Murry, who almost won yesterday's three-hour race.

84. CHECKERED FLAG and #66 Panoz driven by Doc Bundy of Gainesville and Andy Wallace of England take the Exxon Supreme GT Presented by Virgin Interactive race win in the GTS-1 category; this is the first win for the Panoz in only its second race ... The GTS-2 win goes to John O'Steen and 1996 season titlist Larry Schumacher in their Porsche 911 ... GTS-3 goes down to the wire and the win goes to #39 David Murry and Jim Matthews in the Carolina Turkey Porsche 911.

ANDY WALLACE: "The Panoz handled very well, the problem was the heat in the cockpit. During our driver change stop, a wheel wrench was stuck on the left front and while they worked to get it freed, the water temp kept going up and I had to switch off the engine to prevent it from overheating."

DOC BUNDY: "As my career is on the windodown, I'm very fortunate to be teamed with a driver of Andy Wallace's quality. The Panoz is absolutely an infant in terms of development; we're literally still putting it together, and that's why it never turned a wheel this weekend until the second session Friday. It is very reminiscent of a TransAm car because of the front-engine concept and the noise from the big V-8 engine, but it is also reminiscent of a GTP car because of the handling. It's a very confidence-inspiring car."

JOHN O'STEEN: "Larry (Schumacher) did the hardest part today because he drove the first 80 minutes and waited for the yellow flag to come out. We knew the Konrad Porsche would be faster because of their larger intercooler and their smaller rear wing, but their car was also thirstier than our's too." LARRY SCHUMACHER: "It was a perfect car, a perfect day to go racing, and we didn't make any mistakes. "

DAVID MURRY: There were four of us running in a pack on the last lap, Tim Moser wernt inside Kevin Butler and I followed him. Tim took the brunt of the crash and spun sideways. I feel very bad for him, but I hope they know I wouldn't do anything like that on purpose. In last night's three hour race, I had second place all the way to the checkered flag but I got passed in the last turn. Racing is a chess game.

JIM MATHEWS: It was three years ago next week at this track that I went through my first thre-day Skip Barber Racing School. I'm just tickled to be SportsCar's first turkey farmer race winner, but we had to really work for it. Today's engine was our third one of the weekend. I got tapped early in the race by Doc Bundy, who was one of our drivers at Sebring, but he said he wouldn't have done it if he had known it was me."

84. PACE LAP begins for Exxon World SportsCar race at 2:57 pm ... GREEN FLAG waves at 3:01 and #30 Hermann takes the lead in the Ferrari, followed by #16, Butch Leitzinger in the Dyson Racing R&S Ford, who quickly moves past Hermann to lead the opening lap... Eduardo Dibos is third in the #3 Ferrari.

85. Lap 6 and #43 Rob Morgan spins in turn one, no harm ... lap 11 and #2 Dan Clark pits the Screaming Eagles R&S Ford to remove grass from the radiators ... #16 Butch Leitzinger continues to lead #30 by :24.176 as we are 14 laps into the race ... Running order after 22 laps is #16 Leitzinger, #30 Hermann, #3 Dibos, and 1 Taylor.