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BMW Team PTG Readies for Grand American 400 |
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Written by Jeff Seabrook
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Friday, 01 April 2005 |
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Fontana, Calif. – April 1, 2005… As the Rolex Sports Car Series begins a two-race month of April in the Golden State, BMW Team PTG is working hard to turn around its frustrating start to the 2005 season. The 2004 GT champions are looking to leave Sunday’s Grand American 400 at the California Speedway with a much better finish than their current seasons best of seventh. Last year, in the season-ending race here, BMW Team PTG capped a 10-win season with a 1-2 M3 finish. This year, rules changes requiring significant performance reductions have meant the construction of all-new M3s. Despite extraordinary effort to even be prepared for the beginning of the season, it has been a very difficult start for the team that has delivered 46 wins and 14 sports car racing championships in nine years of competition. A withdrawal from the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona was followed by a struggle just to keep pace at Miami-Homestead Speedway. Adjustments made by Grand American in the middle of March have allowed the use of a 3.4-liter engine, the same powerplants used last season.
“We did not really have a fighting chance at even a podium finish in the first two races,” said Tom Milner, BMW Team PTG owner. “Every one of our drivers is fast, but no one can tell me that Bill Auberlen has ever driven a BMW M3 anything but flat out. Bill and Joey finished seventh at Miami. We needed some help from Grand American and we appreciate the move to allow us the larger engine. Of course, we used these 3.4-liter engines last season, but not in the new chassis. There is always a need to tune and, unfortunately, yesterday’s test was called due to high winds. The practice sessions today and tomorrow will now have even more importance for us.” Official practice begins today and continues tomorrow, with qualifying scheduled for 1:45 p.m. Saturday. The 400-kilometer race is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. PDT on Sunday and will televised live on Speed Channel. Background: 2005 marks the tenth season of competition for BMW M3s of BMW Team PTG and 30th anniversary of BMW of North America’s motorsport programs. In nine seasons of competition, BMW Team PTG has won a total of 46 races in both sprint and endurance racing series and 14 sports car racing championships. In 2004, BMW Team PTG swept the Rolex Sports Car Series GT class Manufacturer, Driver and Team Points championships, winning 10 of 12 races.Only registered users can write comments.
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