BMW Team PTG: Mid-Ohio Qualifying

BMW Team PTG/BMW of North America
Notes and Quotes
 ALMS Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
August 24, 2001

Friday Qualifying:
The quartet of BMW M3 GTRs will start in the second, third, fourth and sixth positions of the GT class for the two-hour-and-forty-five-minute American Le Mans Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio tomorrow.
 
Today's late afternoon twenty minute qualifying session saw the No. 42 BMW Motorsport M3 GTR of JJ Lehto the quickest of the BMWs around the 2.25-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with a time of 1:24.459 -- just eight one-thousandths of a second off of the pole time of Sascha Maassen's Porsche (1:24.451).  Only a quarter of a second separated the third quick No. 6 Team PTG M3 GTR of Boris Said (1:24.507) and the fourth fastest No. 43 BMW Motorsport M3 GTR of Fredrik Ekblom (1:24.756).  The No. 10 Team PTG M3 GTR of Niclas Jönsson finished the session in sixth (1:25.124)

Boris Said, driver No. 6 PTG M3 GTR
"I put two good laps in, but the track was more slippery than this morning.  I think there was a lot of rubber on the track from all the previous SCCA groups.  Qualifying could not have been any closer.  I'm happy to start third - we tried one more run at it, but the edge was off the tires - you have to get the quick one on your second or third lap."

Niclas Jönsson, driver No. 10 PTG M3 GTR
"It took a bit of time for the tires to come in and I also tried a few different things that I spoke to Boris about between practice and qualifying.  I tried different gears in different corners and I think that will work well for the race.  Bill usually qualifies and my role is to consistently quick in the race, but I'm only about one-half second off of Boris' time so I am pleased with that."

Tom Milner, owner Prototype Technology Group
"Six cars within six-tenths of a second and the top three within a half-a-hundredth is a tight qualifying session and will make for a very good race.  We are pleased with third and sixth as we went out with our race set-up.  I think our competition may pay a little more attention to qualifying than we do."

Tom Salkowsky, motorsports manager, BMW of North America, LLC
"The qualifying times here certainly reflects the competitiveness of the GT class.  I can't remember a qualifying session with numbers this close in a very long time, but it is qualifying, not the race and there are not any extra points for the pole."