BMW Team PTG - Mosport ALMS Qualifying

BMW Team PTG/BMW of North America
Notes and Quotes
 GT3 Grand Prix of Mosport
Mosport International Raceway
August 18, 2001

Saturday Qualifying:
Hans Stuck will start the No. 6 BMW Team PTG M3 GTR he shares with Boris Said second in the GT class in tomorrow's GT3 Grand Prix of Mosport.  Stuck's time of one minute 19.428 seconds around the 2.45-mile Mosport International Raceway was the third fastest of the twenty-minute GT qualifying session, but was moved to the second starting position after the pole winning time of JJ Lehto's No. 42 BMW Motorsport M3 GTR was disallowed following post-qualifying inspection.  The car will start at the rear of the grid.

Dirk Müller and Fredrik Ekblom will start at the front of the GT class in the No. 43 BMW Motorsport M3 GTR after recording a time of 1.18:873 and be credited with a new class qualifying record.
The No. 10 Team PTG M3 GTR of Bill Auberlen and Niclas Jonsson missed qualifying and will start from the back of the field tomorrow.  The car was damaged in the first practice of the day when Bill Auberlen impacted the turn nine barrier after being hit by the No. 8 Cadillac LMP of Max Angelelli.  Auberlen was taken to the infield medical center where he was checked by both the track physician and BMW Motorsport's doctor.  He returned to the track just before the qualifying session after being transported to a local hospital for precautionary x-rays.  He will be unable to compete in the race tomorrow as well as next weekend's race at Mid-Ohio.

Tom Milner, owner Prototype Technology Group
"Bill is back at the track with no serious injury and that is the most important thing to me.  I am very unhappy about what happened to my driver.  The disrespect shown for our car today was unnecessarily dangerous.  That said, we will repair the No. 10 M3 tonight and see where we are tomorrow in morning warm-up.  Joe Foster will substitute for Bill tomorrow.  Joe is an ALMS series GT regular and the chief instructor of the Panoz Racing School."

Tom Salkowsky, motorsports manager, BMW of North America, LLC
"It is unfortunate that careless action resulted in injury to our driver.  Most importantly for BMW and Team PTG is that Bill Auberlen is not seriously injured and he is back at the track with the team.  We will take the precautionary measure that Bill not race tomorrow or next weekend at Mid-Ohio.  Taking everything into consideration we are pleased with Han's effort in qualifying and I cannot say enough about every member of the PTG team." 

Hans Stuck, driver No. 6 PTG M3 GTR
"I certainly know my way around Mosport now with some three hours of practice over the last two days.  The car is quite sharp for the race.  I did not go out with a special qualifying set-up.  I think what we have is a good race set-up that will suit myself and Boris."

Niclas Jönsson, driver No. 10 PTG M3 GTR
"I am confident that the team will make the car one-hundred percent for the race tomorrow and in Joe's abilities.  The race will be a challenge, but I had a good start at Portland and am confident I can do it again tomorrow."

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