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Sears Point Raceway 2002

19/05/2002

18/05/2002

Qualifying - Panoz

MIXED FORTUNES FOR PANOZ IN SEARS QUALIFYING SESSION

After setting the pace in the two morning practice sessions, Panoz Motor Sports endured a tough time during qualifying for tomorrow's second round of the American Le Mans Series at Sears Point Raceway in California.

The No 50 "Spirit of America" Panoz of David Brabham and Jan Magnussen were fastest in the two morning sessions, but Brabham was pushed back to third place behind the two Audis in the single qualifying session.

Bryan Herta endured an even tougher time, damaging the car early in the session and was unable to post a representative time. However, the third Panoz entry of Gunnar Jeannette and David Donohue pulled out a strong performance to push the older-model Panoz machine up to fifth place on the grid.

(Exactly what is he refuelling?) - ed

"The track is changing all the time and we picked up an under steer problem in the qualifying session," Brabham said. "We are still learning with this new aero/gearbox combination and we are obviously a little disappointed after being fastest in the morning, but tomorrow's race could be another story. I also got held up on one of my flying laps so that didn't help matters."

Herta damaged the left hand side of the car being forced off course on his first flying lap. "I went to go around another car, but I don't think he saw me coming and I ended up way off line with a lot of dust on the tyres. When I got to the next turn, the car just turned on me and slapped up against the wall. Bill and I will have our work cut out tomorrow to move through the pack from further down the grid."