Panoz Pushes Audi in Opening Practice at Portland
PANOZ PUSHES AUDI IN TIGHT
OPENING PRACTICE FOR GRAND PRIX OF PORTLAND
PORTLAND, Ore. (August 3, 2001) -- The rejuvenated Panoz Motor Sports team
pushed the dominating Audis hard on Friday at Portland International
Raceway as practice got underway for Sunday's American Le Mans Series
Grand Prix of Portland.
Emanuele Pirro of Italy, driving an Audi R8 Prototype, turned a lap of 108.118 mph around the 1.944-mile Portland circuit, barely beating the fast lap of 108.103 mph turned by Audi teammate Tom Kristensen. But it was the fast laps posted by Panoz driver Jan Magnussen late in the session that turned heads on pit road. Magnussen, driving a 2000 Panoz LMP-1 Roadster, was clocked at 107.057 mph and was pushing the Audis for most of the 90-minute session. The Panoz team returned to its 2000 car at the most recent ALMS race two weeks ago in Sonoma, Calif., temporarily parking its troublesome 2001 LMP 07 machines.
The LMP 675 class for smaller, less-powerful Prototypes was paced by a lap of 100.756 mph turned by Didier de Radigues in a Reynard 01Q-Judd, good enough for sixth-fastest overall.
The tight GTS class was led by the Saleen S7R of Terry Borcheller, clocked at 97.582 mph. The two-car Corvette team was close behind.
Porsche reasserted itself in the GT class as Christian Menzel was the fastest on the day at 94.993 mph in a Porsche 911 GT3 R. His Alex Job Racing/McKenna Porsche teammate, Lucas Luhr, was second-fastest, followed by the four BMW M3 GTR machines that dominated the Sonoma race. Less than a second separated the six cars.
Qualifying will be held on
Saturday afternoon for Sunday's two-hour, 45-minute sports car endurance
race. There will be no live television coverage of the race, but the
American Le Mans Series Radio Web broadcast can be heard online at www.americanlemans.com
beginning at 1 p.m. (PDT). The Speedvision Network will have tape-delayed
coverage at 8:30 p.m. (EDT) on Monday, August 6.
FRIDAY PRACTICE SPEEDS (Car # in parentheses)
1. (2) Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro, Audi R8, 108.118 mph (1:04.729).
2. (1) Rinaldo Capello/Tom Kristensen, Audi R8, 108.103 (1:04.738).
3. (50) Jan Magnussen/David Brabham, Panoz LMP-1, 107.057 (1:05.371).
4. (51) Klaus Graf/Franck Lagorce, Panoz LMP-1, 106.038 (1:05.999).
5. (38) Johnny Herbert/Andy Wallace, Audi R8, 105.681 (1:06.222).
6. (57) Didier de Radigues/Milka Duno/John Graham, Reynard 01Q-Judd,
100.756 (1:09.459).
7. (26) Franz Konrad/Terry Borcheller, Saleen S7R, 97.582 (1:11.718).
8. (4) Andy Pilgrim/Kelly Collins, Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, 96.690
(1:12.380).
9. (3) Ron Fellows/Andy Pilgrim, Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, 96.329
(1:12.962).
10. (22) Randy Pobst/Christian Menzel, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 94.993
(1:13.673).
11. (23) Lucas Luhr/Sascha Maassen, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 94.918 (1:13.978).
12. (11) Mel Hawkins/Steven Knight, Lola B2K-Judd, 94.561 (1:14.009).
13. (42) JJ Lehto/Jorg Muller, BMW M3 GTR, 94.393 (1:14.141).
14. (45) Jeff Altenburg/Shane Lewis, Dodge Viper GTS-R, 94.336 (1:14.162).
15. (10) Bill Auberlen/Niclas Jonsson, BMW M3 GTR, 93.912 (1:14.521).
16. (43) Fredrik Ekblom/Dirk Muller, BMW M3 GTR, 93.885 (1:14.542).
17. (6) Hans Stuck/Boris Said, BMW M3 GTR, 93.795 (1:14.614).
18. (30) Johnny Mowlem/Timo Bernhard/Michael Peterson, Porsche 911 GT3 RS,
92.138 (1:15.956).
19. (15) Randy Wars/Mark Neuhaus, Porsche 911 GT3 R, 85.247 (1:22.096).
20. (69) Kye Wankum/Joe Foster, Porsche 911 GT3 R, 84.135 (1:23.848).
21. (44) Tom Weickardt/Kevin Allen, Dodge Viper GTS-R, no speed.
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MEDIA CONTACT: Andy Hall, American Le Mans Series Director of Media &
Communications, at Portland International Raceway media center (503)
240-9210.