Watkins Glen press notes #16-26 Saturday

31 May, 1997

16. Good morning and welcome to the second day of activities for the First Union Six Hours of The Glen. Today's activities feature final qualifying for the Exxon World SportsCars and Exxon Supreme GT cars racing in Sunday's six-hour feature race, as well as qualifying for Sunday morning's 40-minute Black Magic Pro Series race. The day will finish with the 3-hour SPEEDVISION Cup for Stock SportsCars race, which is set to take the green flag at 2:00 pm.

17. Change to the SPEEDVISION Cup qualifying grid: In post-qualifying technical inspection, the #79(GS) Mazda RX-7 Turbo of Towery/Sessions (third fastest qualifier) was found to be over the turbo boost limit and has been moved to the 29th position on the grid. (The team's other two Mazda RX-7 Turbos (#70 & #71) were in compliance.)

18. ENTRY LIST CHANGES

SPEEDVISION CUP CAR CLASS CHANGE 16 GS ADD Art Pilla/Ridgewood, NJ 91 T DELETE Rob Vining

BLACK MAGIC PRO SERIES CAR CLASS CHANGE 15 WSR CHANGE car number to #05

19. 8:15 am, GREEN FLAG starts a 30-minute practice session for the Black Magic Pro Series ... This is their final practice before qualifying at 11:00 am ...#22WSR Toyota of John Warner brought in with possible fuel leak problem, liquid turns out to be water...#83WSR Toyota of Mike Davies is fastest in early going with lap time of 2:05.334=97.659 mph, followed by #10WSR Toyota of David Tenney at 2:07.303=96.149...CHECKERED FLAG ends practice session at 8:45 am...Davies fastest with time of 2:05.300=97.686 mph. Second was #13WSR Toyota of Gary Gibson at 2:06.019=97.128 mph, followed by #13WSR Toyota of #10 Tenney at 2:06.479=96.775 mph.

20. 8:45 am, GREEN FLAG starts half-hour warmup for SPEEDVISION Cup cars...GS cars take top 11 spots and 22 of top 23...#21GS Ford Cobra of Steve Pfeffer and Chuck Snipes fastest with a best lap of 2:13.757=91.509 mph.

21. 9:30 am, GREEN FLAG starts half-hour practice session for Exxon World SportsCar Championship cars..#1 WCS Oldsmobile R&S MK III of Wayne Taylor and Eric van de Poele fastest car in first part of session at 1:42.445=119.479 mph, two seconds faster than second-place #20WSC Ford R&S MK III of Rob Dyson, John Schneider and Andy Wallace...#30WSC Ferrari 333SP of Andrea Montermini, Antonio Hermann and Gianpiero Moretti is just seventh fastest at 1:45.767=115.726 mph...Montermini had won the pole position during Friday's initial qualifying session...CHECKERED FLAG drops at 10 am to end practice session. 22. 22. 10:15 am, GREEN FLAG drops to start half-hour practice session for Exxon Supreme GTS-1, GTS-2 & GTS-3 cars...#66GTS-1 Ford Panoz GTR-1 of Doc Bundy/Andy Wallace/David Brabham fastest in first half of session with a time of 1:51.100=109.188 mph, good enough for 12th overall...#91GTS-1 Chevrolet Camaro of Stu Hayner and Roger Schramm second fastest at 1:56.107=105.420 mph...#27 Ford Mustang of Jason Priestley/Scott Maxwell third fastest at 1:57.514=104.158 mph..#59GTS3 Ford Mustang Cobra of Lou Gigliotti/Simon Gregg/Matt Turner spins, blocking pit entrance, won't restart and results in CHECKERED FLAG two minutes early...#66GTS-1 Ford Pantos of Bundy/Wallace/Bradham remains fastest of GTS cars.

23. 11 am, GREEN FLAG drops to start half-hour qualifying session for Black Magic Pro Series cars...#83 WSR Toyota of Mike Davies breaks his own track qualifying record (2:07.700) on very first lap with a time of 2:05.592=97.458 mph...#10WSR, David Tenney also under old record with a time of 2:06.333=96.887 mph...top five cars all break previous record within first five laps...#83WSR Davies, drops record to 2:05.326=97.665 mph...#83 WSR Davies drops record even further to 2:04.669=98.180 mph before half-way mark of session...top 12 cars all under previous track record...#83WSR Davies breaks his own record again, this time with a time of 2:04.436=98.364 mph, then comes into pits and shuts down and gets out of car with 7 minutes left in session...#10 David Tenney trying to catch #83 on last lap after turning in previous best of 2:05.204=97.760 mph but can't do it but #13 Gary Gibson moves into third place on grid with final-lap time of 2:05.405=97.604 mph...CHECKERED FLAG ends session at 11:30 am.

24. 12:30 pm, GREEN FLAG starts 20-minute qualifying session for Exxon World SportsCar Championship cars for positions three through end of grid...11 cars on the track...#63WSC Mazda Kudzu, Downing out of car after 7 minutes, Katz in...#28 in for tire pressure check, no driver change...#4 into pits, driver change...#20WSC Forbes-Robinson out, Dyson in with five minutes left in session...#4 WSC Oldsmobile R&S MK III fastest car on circuit with lap of 1:41.274=120.860 mph...#4 pulled off at station 5, taken back to garages on flatbed...#03 also off track...CHECKERED FLAG ends session at 12:50 pm...#4 WSC Oldsmobile R&S MK III fastest car of session with time of 1:41.196=120.953, followed by #1WSC Oldsmobile R&S MK III of Wayne Taylor/Neto Jochamowitz...cars that went faster today than Friday are: #3, #4, #17, #28, #33, #63.

25. 1:03 pm, GREEN FLAG starts 20-minute final qualifying session for Exxon Supreme GTS-1, GTS-2, GTS-3 cars. Start of session held up while crews cleaned up oil spill left from #4WSC in previous qualifying...#27GTS-1 Ford Mustang of Priestley/Maxwell into pits...#91GTS-1 Chevrolet Camaro of Stu Hayner/Roger Schramm dropping oil at station #15, causing black flag while crews clean up spill...#7GTS-3 BMW M3 also towed back to pits...10 minutes left in session when track re-opens at 1:28 pm...Wallace in #66GTS-1 Ford Panoz, didn't go back out after black flag...#91GTS-1 Chevrolet Camaro of Schramm/Hayner fastest GTS-1, Martin Snow qualified #56GTS-2 Porsche 911 and Bill Auberlen drove #10GTS-3 BMW M3 to respective pole positions for Sunday's First Union Six Hours of the Glen.

26. ENTRY LIST CHANGES

EXXON WORLD SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP

CAR CLASS CHANGE 19 WSC ADD Mark Montgomery/Gainesville, FL 28 WSC ADD Oliver Kuttner/Charlottsville, VA

EXXON SUPREME GT Series Presented by Virgin Interactive

CAR CLASS CHANGE 2 GTS-3 ADD Craig Stanton/Seal Beach, CA 15 GTS-3 ADD Kenper Miller/Pittsford, NY

SPEEDVISION CUP

CAR CLASS CHANGE 80 GS ADD Henry Gilbert/Miramar, FL 00 T ADD Bob Munao/Long Island, NY, DELETE Steven Hooks 06 T ADD Frank DelVecchio/Trumbull, CT, Jerry Thompson/Manheim, PA & Chris Thompson, Manheim, PA, DELETE Chad Zahniser