American Le Mans Series Grand Prix of Portland

THE AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES

The Grand Prix of Portland

PIT NOTES: Page 4

SATURDAY AUGUST 4, 2001

Ron Fellows (#3-GTS Chevrolet Corvette C5-R) "We had no plan for the shock change. I did not anticipate going off in turn one and again in the traffic in the esses. We had four hard laps in the tires and were able to get a decent lap time at the end. Doug Fehan is responsible for getting us here. I have been begging and pleading to win the championship. On Sunday at Sears (Point) we were not coming, Doug made it happen. Hopefully it doesn’t come out of his pocket book at the end of the year."

Boris Said (#6-GT BMW M3 GTR) "It was a really good lap. We were lucky to outdo the Porsches. We have a much better handling car, now, than they do. I was more excited about Panoz kicking Audi’s butt."

David Brabham (#50-P Panoz LMP1 Roadster S) "Awesome. It was a secret we left the car in the garage for six months. We dusted it off and it seemed to find more speed. I know we had the quickest time in practice and we pushed like hell to get here. I had a series of good laps, it was a great effort by the team. We have a good race setup, it’ll be a long race tomorrow and we’ll just try and beat the Audis. We’re really pleased. We don’t have a big program so we have to test at the races. We had such a long year with the new car, to come back here with a car that we know and are comfortable in gives us much more confidence. We made a change to the front suspension (last year) after the Petit (Le mans), and that’s made the car more competitive. I’m very satisfied to be here, in front of the media, on the pole."

Didier de Radigues (#57-P675 Reynard 01Q/Judd) "We felt alone in the 675 program. We are preparing for next year and this new category. We’re happy to be on the pole and look forward to more competition."

Tom Kristensen (#1-P Audi R8) "Congratulations to David (Brabham). I did my best – I’m obviously disappointed."

Emanuele Pirro (#2-P Audi R8) "It’s been a tough day. Get the car straight was a struggle. I am not so happy, either, with the setup all day. Yesterday was much better. This grid (third) isn’t the best. But today’s qualifying did add to my confidence on this track. I am looking forward to a very good race."

JJ Lehto (#42-GT BMW M3 GTR) "The car balance is still off what I would like to have. With a full tank, the car is better, but it's still difficult to drive. But we will see. It's a long race, very hard on tires and equipment, so everything is open."

Jörg Müller (#42-GT BMW M3 GTR) "We didn't really concentrate on qualifying - we concentrated a little bit more on the race setup. I like that BMW has the pole position with Boris [Said]. We'll see tomorrow, but I think the race result will be different than qualifying."

Fredrik Ekblom (#43-GT BMW M3 GTR) "I have to applaud my mechanics for getting us on the track. It was unbelievable. I think we lost some advantage because we missed half of the last practice. Our time is very close to the pole, which is still pretty good considering the circumstances. But you're not really happy until you're on the pole. Our mechanics deserved that [pole position] today."

Dirk Müller (#43-GT BMW M3 GTR) "I'm really happy that we made qualifying. It was really tough for the guys to prepare the car for qualifying. They changed the engine and it was really, really perfect. Pole position was catchable. Fredrik did a good job, but it was just traffic."