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Hot News & Press from Doran Racing

Feeds the Need/Doran Racing Team Finishes Fifth
With Kodak EasyShare DORAN JE4 Ford in Mexico


MEXICO CITY, Mexico, March 4 - Hopefully the Feeds the Need/Doran Racing
photographer took lots of Kodak EasyShare digital photos of Terry Borcheller and
Harrison Brix's run in Saturday's Rolex series race at the Autodromo Hermanos
Rodriguez in the Kodak EasyShare/Amp'd Mobile/SIRIUS car, because it was
certainly memorable.

Both of the Feeds the Need/Doran Racing drivers, Terry Borcheller and
Harrison Brix, have vacationed in Mexico in the past but neither had competed in a
Rolex series race previously at this 2.5-mile track in Mexico City.  This trip
wasn't a vacation but it was one neither they nor the other members of the
Lebanon, Ohio-based team will soon forget, as their DORAN JE4 Ford No. 77 advanced
five positions in the last 17 laps of the 100-lap race to finish fifth.

To say it was stirring is putting it mildly.

Brix, of Campbell, Calif., started seventh and was in tenth place under heavy
pressure from Shane Lewis when he got loose and spun in turn four on lap 23
in what turned out to be a 100-lap race.  Lewis did a masterful job to avoid
him and luckily Brix didn't hit anything.  The yellow didn't even wave so Brix
soldiered on, with the only consequence being that he'd lost five spots.

Brian Frisselle passed him in the other DORAN JE4 in the field on lap 36 to
push him to 16th, but Brix hung tough despite torrid battles with Trans-Am star
Paul Gentilozzi and Mark Patterson.  Just when the teams were starting to
think about pit stops there was a full-course yellow on lap 46 for a problem with
the Michael Shank Racing No. 60 in turn one.

Team owner Kevin Doran wisely left Brix out on the track for awhile while
some of the other teams pitted under yellow so as not to lose a lap, and the
entry rose to eighth.  After Brix pitted on lap 51 for Borcheller to take over the
entry was 13th for the restart on lap 53.

A couple of cars ahead of the No. 77 then had some problems, and Borcheller
was in 11th on lap 62 when he ran what to that point was the car's fastest lap
of the race, at 107.191 mph.  Ironically that was exactly the same speed that P
aul Tracy ran two laps earlier for his fastest lap until that point in the
car that eventually finished third.

Borcheller still had more to show, although with 30 laps to go the
Gainesville, Ga.-based driver was playing it as cool as a poker player back in 11th
place.

A wreck in turn eighth on lap 73 and subsequent fistfight between JC France
and Chris Bingham added some extra drama, and Borcheller quickly passed Burt
Frisselle for tenth after the restart on lap 79. Borcheller then passed Memo
Gidley for ninth on lap 84 and started to draw a bead on Adrian Fernandez in
eighth place.

Lap 87 was a rousing one for anyone rooting for him.  That was the lap that
the fifth-place car had to serve a stop-and-go penalty and Borcheller
simultaneously got by Fernandez, which vaulted the No. 77 to seventh with just 14 laps
remaining.

Ahead in sixth with his friend and former teammate, Christian Fittipaldi, and
that pair had the best battle on the track at that point. Then another yellow
waved on lap 92 when the Matt Connolly Motorsports BMW No. 21 crashed into
the wall in turn eight, setting up a five-lap dash to the checkered.

The Pacific Coast Motorsports No. 89, which had been fifth, dropped back to
eighth to advance Borcheller to sixth with three laps to go, but Borcheller
hardly noticed because he was busy taking stock of where and when he might be
able to pass Fittipaldi. He figured it out and accomplished it with just two laps
to go and took the checkered in fifth, just a half of a second behind fourth
place.

The team's fastest lap of the race ended up being the one it ran on lap 84
when Borcheller was battling Gidley, which was done in 1:23.508 at 107.774 mph. 
That was faster than the fastest laps recorded by the cars that finished
third and fourth.

The race, which was won handily by the CompUSA team of Scott Pruett and Luis
Diaz, was broadcast on a tape-delayed basis Saturday night on SPEED.

  The other DORAN JE4 in the field, the Synergy Racing No. 8, finished tenth.

The team's Web site is at doranracing.com.  Additional information is on line
at grandamerican.com, fordracing.com, tborcheller.com and
feedstheneedracing.com.

The next Rolex series race is coming right up on March 23-25 at
Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla., when the Rolex series shares the card with the
Indy Racing League.

Post-race quote:

Harrison Brix: "Today was a great day!  To come out of Mexico and be in the
points chase is fantastic!

"It was not without problems for us.  We had brake issues when I was driving,
possibly due to too much tape covering the brake ducts. As soon as we stopped
they pulled the tape off and we were able to move forward.

"Terry had a HEROIC drive today.  I think that we are going to have a
fantastic year!"


 
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