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<body> <Table Width="550" border="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" cellpadding="0"><TR><TD Width="35"><IMG SRC="//www.totalmotorsport.com/images/spacer.gif" WIDTH="35" HEIGHT="1"></td><td> <CENTER><Table border="0" width="100%"> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="5">GRAND AMERICAN ROAD RACING ASSOCIATION</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2">03/07/2002</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="4">Leitzinger quickest at Daytona</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="3">Riley & Scott lead the way in practice</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="1">  </FONT></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2"><B>Leitzinger Quickest In Practice at Daytona</B><BR> <BR> Following the second practice session for the Jani-King Paul Revere 250 this afternoon the Ford-powered Riley & Scott of the Dyson Racing Team leads the field with the fastest lap time. Butch Leitzinger was behind the wheel of the Ford when it clocked a 1:42.126 lap at a speed of 125.492 mph. Jack Baldwin was the second fastest in the Judd-engined Riley & Scott of Robinson Racing with a lap time of 1:43.328. Third quickest, by only a hundredth of a second, was this year's Rolex 24 At Daytona winner, the Doran Lista Racing No27 Judd-powered Dallara. Didier Theys piloted the Judd to a lap time of 1:43.349. <BR> <BR> In the Sports Racing Prototype II class, Rand Racing dominated finishing one-two with its Nissan-powered Lolas. Anthony Lazzaro clocked the fastest lap with a 1:48.362 in the No7 car, while the second Nissan finished tenths of a second behind with a 1:48.672 lap at 117.933 mph.<BR> <BR> Heritage Motorsports led the American GT class with a 1:52.584 lap in the Mustang driven by Tommy Riggins. Earning second in the class was the Corvette of LG Motorsports. Lou Gigliotti drove the Vette in its quick lap of 1:53.036.<BR> <BR> Continuing to dominate the GTS class was Park Place Racing's Saleen S7R. Driven by Chris Bingham, the Saleen ran the fastest lap of 1:53.047. Second in the class, with a lap of 1:59.617, was the Porsche GT3 Cup of Jack Lewis Enterprises. <BR> <BR> Perspective Racing led the GT class with its Mosler MT900R. Despite an encounter with a turtle on the track, Joao Barbosa managed to record the fastest lap with his 1:56.272 lap earlier in the session. Finishing the practice session second in the class was The Racers Group No66 Porsche GT3 R driven by Kevin Buckler with its 1:57.168 lap.<BR> <BR> <BR> <B>Driver Quotes...</B><BR> <BR> <B>Butch Leitzinger, Dyson Racing Team #20 Ford Riley & Scott, Fastest Overall:</B> <BR> "It's always nice to come to Daytona. I've been coming here since I was a kid. You still get that kind of charge when you drive into the speedway and look up at the banking. We all look forward to coming here. <BR> <BR> "The track session went alright. The infield doesn't get must work here. The first session is usually pretty bad, because there's no rubber laid down on the track at all. Everyone, including myself, comes in from the first time on the track panicking that the car's got no grip. It generally takes a couple of sessions for some rubber to get laid down. We made some gains on the car towards the end of the session. I think everyone will go a lot faster in the next few sessions. Qualifying is next, and its pretty early. We are making a lot of changes, and I'm sure everyone else is, so it could shake up the order a bit. I think, come race time, we will be set. <BR> <BR> "The car worked beautifully at The Glen. It was one of the best cars I've ever driven there. These guys do a very good job at that. There is no reason we shouldn't expect that here. James (Weaver) and I were having a fun race there, and I hope we can repeat that here. <BR> <BR> "James' car, actually, didn't even get out the first session because they were doing an engine swap. So, they'll be relying on some of the information that we learned. We keep an open book here. There's no hiding anything from anyone."<BR> <BR> <B>Chris Bingham, Park Place Racing #5 Saleen S7R, Fastest in GTS Class:</B> <BR> "This is my favourite track... not when it's this hot though. The track conditions are pretty good. I was actually the first car out there this afternoon. I was the first car on the track, and it was really dirty and dusty. It was slippery like it always is here. Every time we come here, for the first couple of cars on the track it's really slippery out there. It's really humid, and because of that, the car is running really slow. The car is down on power. We're fighting it, but so is everybody else. So, we're not abnormal."<BR> <BR> <B>Tommy Riggins, Heritage Motorsports #48 Mustang, Fastest in AGT Class:</B> <BR> "I've raced in the Paul Revere 250 a long, long time ago, back when I was racing in the Kelly American Challenge. I ran my Kelly car, and I'm sure it didn't last very long. This weekend, our goal is to finish. This is our fourth race, and we've only finished one of them, and that was a third at Phoenix. We're definitely in the hunt. We should be pretty competitive. This afternoon we tried a number of different things on the car. I just threw down one fast lap. I don't know if there's much more speed in the car, but with the cooler air tonight, everyone should speed up some."<BR> <BR> <B>Joao Barbosa, Perspective Motorsports #24 Mosler MT900R, Fastest in GT Class:</B> <BR> "We were working on the setup of the car. In the middle of, what I think was NASCAR three, I saw a big dark thing in the middle of the track. I couldn't avoid it, so I ran over it. Then I found out it was a turtle. It damaged all of the front of the car. We had to change the splitters. Luckily, it didn't damage the radiator at all. But, there's a lot of work to be done because of a turtle in the middle of the track. <BR> <BR> "We will have it ready for qualifying, but we had a whole hour of practice that we missed. We had some adjustments that we wanted to do on the car, and we didn't have time to do that. We are going to have to go into qualifying not knowing what to expect from the car. <BR> <BR> "I love this track. I love to be here at Daytona. But, each time we come here, the track changes a little bit. The surface is not the same. So, we have to keep searching for the right setup for the car. I think we have plenty of track time, and we can get it ready for the race." </FONT></TD></TR> </TABLE><BR> </CENTER> <BR><CENTER><font size="1" color="#808080" face="Tahoma">Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport</font></CENTER> </td> </tr> </table> </body>