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Pre Rolex Material

Rolex

04/02/2001

SRPll

Lola & Pilbeam Prospects

Alfred Kobacker, CEO at Pilbeam Racing America and J.Michael Johnson President of Archangel Motorsport Services, Inc. were asked to comment on their experiences with their fascinating SRPll projects at the Daytona Test Days.

Alfred Kobacker explained that “the two cars ran very few laps at Daytona testing. While the chassis and aeros were excellent, we had a number of small but ultimately debilitating problems with the motors, and opted not to push the issue, preferring to pack the cars up, bring them home, and work it all out. Everything, however, is very solvable, and because the basics of the car, its response to set-up changes, and its general handling proved outstanding, we're very optimistic about the cars' potential in the 24 hour race.

”As far as the race goes, we expect to campaign only one of the two cars, and will announce the final driver line-up shortly.

”Please check our website for press release info. As much as we're running around these days, we may fail to fully communicate to everyone who is interested, but will always make an effort to post timely updates and press releases on the website... the address is www.pilbeamracing.com.

J.Michael Johnson at Archangel reports that, “the test actually went very well for us. The #21 car didn't arrive for the test, so we had to put 11 drivers in one car for the weekend. Some drivers are confirmed while others were testing for one of the remaining seats. We should have a final driver list and press release by the end of the week.

”Running that many people, we didn't have the time to work on finding ultimate lap times, but it's a 24 hour race, so we weren't very concerned. We know we have fast cars and drivers. All we did is make sure each driver could comfortably run a reasonable race pace without using up, tires, brakes, or revs. We put a hard limit on the revs the drivers could use, and we monitored the brake pressure to keep life in the brakes.

”I think we are in good shape for a great finish at the Rolex. If our luck continues from last year, then we will be in excellent shape. I think the great thing about the Test Days was seeing so many other SRPll cars. I think the 2001 Season will be great for SRPll and Grand-Am. Hopefully our success will continue.”