Road Atlanta PTG BNW Petit Le Mans 6-Hour Update

PROTOTYPE TECHNOLOGY GROUP BMW M3 TEAM - SATURDAY, OCT. 10, 1998 The Inaugural Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta, Braselton, Ga.

TWO PTG BMW M3s STILL 1-2, THIRD TEAM CAR STRUGGLING AFTER SIX-PLUS HOURS

The No. 10 Yokohama/Fina BMW M3 four-door of Bill Auberlen, Mark Simo and Andy Pilgrim was back in the GT3 lead (10th place overall) after 61/2 hours of today's inaugural Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta while the No. 6 Yokohama/Fina BMW M3 coupe of Ross Bentley, Darren Law, Jeff Shafer and David Besnard was second in GT3 (12th overall). The No. 1 Yokohama/Fina BMW M3 four-door of Peter Cunningham, Brian Simo, Terry Borcheller and Javier Quiros, which fell off the pace while the team replaced its differential during the fourth hour, stopped on course at the end of the sixth hour with ignition problems. PTG crew members raced to the scene in the grass off Turn 5 to offer verbal assistance to driver Borcheller, who by the rules is required to perform all work on the car himself while it is out on course. The No. 1 PTG BMW M3 stopped on course shortly after only the third full-course caution period of the race, caused by a spectacular crash that saw the pole-sitting and race-leading No. 26 Porsche prototype fly end-over-end, high in the air on the backstraight. The car was heavily damaged but driver Yannick Dalmas was uninjured.