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Hot News & Press from
Doran Racing
Gollin Qualifies Fifth at Mont-Tremblant
In Doran Racing's Crown Royal Special Reserve
DORAN JE4 Lexus No. 77
MONT-TREMBLANT, Que., May 20 - Although neither he nor his co-driver, Matteo
Bobbi, had ever even seen Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant before Thursday's test
session, Fabrizio Gollin qualified fifth Friday afternoon in Doran Racing's Crown
Royal Special Reserve DORAN JE4 Lexus No. 77 for Saturday's six-hour Rolex
series race here.
Gollin's fastest lap in the 15-minute qualifying session was 1:30.820 for an
average speed of 105.043 miles per hour at the 2.65-mile road course.
Tomorrow's six-hour race will be televised live on SPEED beginning at 11 a.m.
Eastern time.
Gollin only did four laps compared to polesitter Scott Pruett's six because
he spun at the end of turn one on what was going to be his fourth flying lap.
Although there was a lot of grass on and in the car afterwards he still made
it back to the pits, and team owner Kevin Doran said he hadn't really hurt the
car.
The excellent qualifying result was recorded after a tough day that saw the
car only make about a dozen laps despite the opportunity for two-and-a-half
hours of practice before qualifying. It wasn't because the Doran Racing
pit crew
wasn't plenty busy all day, however. Bobbi was in the car in the morning
session when the engine made a peculiar sound, so the team wisely changed engines
prior to qualifying. The team worked very hard to get the car back out
on the
track for the practice session right before qualifying, but that session was
cut short for the team too when an alternator hose let go. It was in a
difficult spot to access so the car reported to qualifying a bit late, but Gollin
got
to work quickly and recorded the top-five qualifying run.
"Two [fast] laps for all day for me; it's OK," Gollin said after qualifying.
"I understood the car was very good, so I pushed a lot and on the last lap I
tried but I made a mistake. [I believed] it was possible to be very close
to
the pole position, but I spun after the first corner. I touched the grass
and
I spun, but I didn't really hurt the car.
"The engine was good, and I'm happy in any case," he added.
The other two DORAN JE4s qualified 12th (Rx.com DORAN BMW) and 16th (Kodak
EasyShare DORAN Pontiac). The latter was rebounding from a crash in practice
on
Thursday.
For more information, please see www.doranracing.com and www.crownroyal.com .
Bobbi's Web site is at www.matteobobbi.com and
Gollin's is at
www.fabriziogollin.com .
Other interesting information can be found at www.grandamerican.com ,
www.lecircuit.com , www.speedtv.com and www.restartcommunications.com .
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