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Hot
News & Press from Doran Racing
Lienhard to Start 14th in Food City 250
at Phoenix Int'l Raceway Tomorrow Night
PHOENIX,
April 9 - Fredy Lienhard Sr. of Niederteufen, Switzerland
put the
Doran-Lista DORAN JE4 Lexus #27 firmly in the field Friday
afternoon for
tomorrow night's Food City 250 Rolex series race at Phoenix
International Raceway.
Lienhard's
best lap in the 15-minute session was his 12th one. It
took him
just a tick more than a minute - 1:00.341 - to travel
over the 1.51-mile,
11-turn road course, which computes to an average speed
of 90.088 mph.
That
was good enough for 16th overall and in the Daytona Prototype
class, but
Lienhard will actually start 14th because two drivers
who ran faster were
sent to the rear for infractions. Lienhard will take the
green in row seven
tomorrow, beside the Essex Racing Multimatic Ford #5.
"I
was working hard, but only one lap counts in qualifying!"
said Lienhard
after the qualifying session.
"The
car still has a bit of understeer in the banking, but
I was able to
drive normally. For me it's important to have good, consistent
laps, so for me it
was OK.
"I'm
not far off from the fastest drivers," he noted.
"If I could pick up a
half-second I'd be with the next group, but I need to
practice more to be able
to do that. I haven't driven since the Rolex."
Max
Papis won the pole with a new track record of 56.005 seconds
(97.063 mph).
Lienhard
said he likes the track, which is near co-driver Didier
Theys'
hometown of Scottsdale, Ariz., but noted that avoiding
accidents and other troubles
will be crucial to finishing well in the two-hour-and-45-minute
race tomorrow
night.
"Our
goal tomorrow will be to stay out of trouble and have
no problems to the
finish. That's my style, and that's our strategy,"
he said.
The
three other DORAN JE4s in the field will start third (Michael
Shank
Racing DORAN JE4 Lexus #6); fifth (Rx.com/G&W Motorsports
DORAN JE4 BMW #81) and
12th (Bell Motorsports Kodak EasyShare DORAN JE4 Pontiac
#54).
The
race will be broadcast live on SPEED at 9 p.m. Eastern
time.
For
more information see www.listaintl.com, www.lista.com
and
www.doranracing.com.
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