Dallara
   
   

 


Hot News & Press from Doran Racing

Doran Racing's Report Thursday from Miller Motorsports Park

TOOELE, Utah, Aug. 31 - Two Doran Racing cars participated in practice
sessions at Miller Motorsports Park here Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for
Saturday's Rolex Series season finale on the longest road course in the country.

Harrison Brix of San Jose, Calif.; Michel Jourdain Jr. of Mexico City, Mexico
and Oriol Servia of Miami all got their first laps under their belts on the
4.486-mile road course here in the Feeds the Need/Doran Racing DORAN JE4 Ford
No. 77 on Wednesday.  That day was designated as a promoter's test day and no
official times were released.

Doran Racing's red DORAN JE4 Pontiac No. 78 is also in action here.  Oliver
Kuttner of Charlottesville, Va.; Tony Ave of Mooresville, N.C. and James Gue of
Athens, Ga. are driving that car.

The No. 77 carries the colors of the Kodak EasyShare System, Amp'd Mobile and
SIRIUS.  The No. 78 is advertising two Web sites: yououghttoknowthis.com and
nycshuttle.com, as well as Venom Synthetic Lubricants.

So far the fastest time posted by the Doran Racing camp was a 2:42.533
(99.362 mph) recorded by the No. 77 Thursday afternoon.

Harrison Brix's parents treated the No. 77's crew to a gourmet steak dinner
in downtown Salt Lake City Wednesday night.  Jourdain's birthday was also
celebrated, as he'll turn 30 on race day.

On Friday at the track there's a practice session at 10 a.m., an autograph
session at 11:30 a.m., and then qualifying for the Daytona Prototype class at 2
p.m.

There are 26 DPs and 17 GT cars entered in Saturday's nine-hour Discount Tire
Sunchaser race, which starts at noon.  It will be broadcast live on SPEED in
two segments beginning at 2 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Eastern time, respectively.

For more information see doranracing.com and grandamerican.com.  The latter
Web site will have live timing and scoring and live audio reports.

The results so far:

First Official Practice Session (12:15 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Thursday):
    21. No. 77, 2:42.894 (99.142 mph)
    26. No. 78, 2:46.639 (96.914 mph)

Second Official Practice Session (4:45 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday):
    17. No. 77, 2:42.533 (99.362 mph)
    24. No. 78, 2:46.262 (97.133 mph)

Third Official Practice Session (8 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. Thursday):
    15. No. 77, 2:43.618 (98.703 mph)
    26. No. 78, 2:49.540 (95.255 mph)

Thursday Combined Practice Report:
    21. No. 77, 2:42.533 (99.362 mph)
    26. No. 78, 2:46.262 (97.133 mph)
   
Driver quotes follow:

Harrison Brix (after night practice): "It's treacherous.  Any time the camera
crews need to use night vision, you know there's a problem.

"You can see the turn-ins but you can't see the exits.  The track is too flat
and there are no lights.

"I think the car has progressed significantly since we got here.  We've
picked up almost five seconds.  We'll continue to get the balance as good as we can
and then we'll race what we've got on Saturday."

Michel Jourdain Jr. (after night practice): "We're making progress with the
car.  There is a problem with the lack of lights at night and the lack of
reference points on the track.  Hopefully a solution will be found before the race.

"None of us have raced here before; it's a new challenge for all of us."

Oriol Servia (after night practice): "I couldn't see anything tonight. 
There's nothing on the track to tell you where to turn.  In the dark it's
impossible.

"The dash was too bright too.  We can put some tape or paper or something on
that at night, but hopefully the officials will find a solution to the problem
before Saturday's race.  Maybe we could shorten the race or change the
starting time or something, but the lack of lights coupled with the dust and the
lack of reference points is a real problem."

Oliver Kuttner (before night practice): "We're OK. 

"This is a really nice racetrack.  I think the hardest part is coming onto
the frontstretch.  I think there will be a fair amount of contact in the race,
but the track is designed with a lot of run-offs so I think it will be fairly
forgiving contact. 

"I really like this track because it doesn't intimidate me.  There are few
reference points though, and as people get tired they will forget where they are
on the track and they'll run out of road.  If that happens you have to be
very careful on how you come back onto the track so you don't hit anybody.

"It's nice to know that the guy who owns this track is a big Ford GT fan, as
am I.  We have an exciting project underway for next year that I'd like to
talk to him about.

"I think I have very good co-drivers here in Tony and James, and I think the
DORAN JE4 is the best car here. I really believe in this car.  It's well
designed, it's well built and I feel safe in it."

Tony Ave (before night practice): "Basically we're just trying to work some
bugs out.  We're making gains; we're improving every session.  Now we have to
get all the drivers comfortable, and before the weekend gets away from us, work
on reliability.

"I did a two-day test here in July in the CyberSpeed Riley, and that was a
big help because this weekend I didn't have to learn the track.  I didn't run
many laps during the test but testing here before still helped a lot.  I love
this track.

"As far as CyberSpeed goes, I think the Riley Daytona Prototype is sold, and
we have four basically done ARCA cars.  I tested the stock car last week in
Chicago, and we're looking forward to Talladega."

James Gue (before night practice): "We've made a lot of progress.  There's
still a lot of room for improvement, but each session we do better, so you can't
ask for much more.

"This is my first time at this track and my first time in a DORAN JE4. The
track is long; it's a great place.  It takes a few laps to get it all down, but
after a few laps it's OK.

"There are few reference points and it's relatively flat so that's a
challenge, but it's a good track."
   


 
powered by cyberspeed