Hot News & Press from Doran Racing

Doran-Lista Racing Battles Back to Finish Second
In Top Class Sunday in Rolex 24 at Daytona

    DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Feb. 1 - Doran-Lista Racing battled back from a 31st
starting spot and two accidents to finish fourth overall and second in the
Daytona Prototype class in the Rolex 24 this weekend at Daytona International
Speedway.

    As an acknowledgement of its accomplishment, the team received the
SunTrust Hard Charger Award for being the Daytona Prototype team which improved its
starting position the most during the race.

    What's more, team owner Kevin Doran added the title of winning Rolex 24
car manufacturer to his long list of accomplishments, as the Bell Motorsports
DORAN JE4 won the race overall.

    Doran-Lista's lead driver, Didier Theys, carefully but swiftly picked his
way through the field at the start on Saturday, and by the end of hour two of
the 24-hour enduro he was in third overall.

    Co-driver Marc Goossens had tussles with two different Porsches during
his first stint, one of which caused quite a bit of damage to the DORAN JE4
Lexus #27. By the end of hour four the team was almost as far back as it had
started, as it was in 29th place, nine laps down.

    From that point on Theys, Goossens and fellow drivers Jan Lammers and
Fredy Lienhard Sr. did their best to keep the car running and to work their way
back up  through the field.  Although they consistently had the fastest car on
the track many times, it was clear that their game of catch-up was just that. 
After hours and hours stuck 12-14 laps back, it became evident that the team
needed their main rivals to experience some of the same problems they'd had if
they were ever going to catch up to them.

    As luck would have it, they did. The most notable was the Howard-Boss
Motorsports team of Andy Wallace, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr., which
appeared to have the event firmly in control until just 20 minutes from the end on
Sunday afternoon when their Crawford's left-rear Goodyear came off its rim
and turned sideways, causing Stewart to spin out.

    In the last hour the Doran-Lista team went from sixth overall and fourth
in the Daytona Prototype class, nine laps down, to finish fourth overall and
second in the Daytona Prototype class only to the overall winners, the Bell
Motorsports DORAN JE4 Pontiac team of Terry Borcheller, Forest Barber, Andy
Pilgrim and Christian Fittipaldi.

    A third DORAN JE4 in the field, making its first start ever, was seventh
overall at the finish.  All three of these cars were built by Doran Designs,
Lebanon, Ohio.

    Most of the race was held under steady to driving rain which kept the
drivers' visibility to a minimum and caused a three-hour full-course yellow and
another three-hour red. In addition the car lost its windshield wipers and had
radio problems almost from the start, as the drivers could hear the pit crew
but the pit crew couldn't hear the driver or vice-versa.

    But the team's perseverance paid off when two of its main rivals had
problems late in the race, allowing the Doran-Lista squad to move up dramatically
in the final standings.

    Although his three co-drivers have all won this race before, some twice,
Goossens was making his first start both at the Rolex 24 and at Daytona.

    "It was a new challenge to me and a big challenge to go on the banking,"
he said. "The poor visibility in the car due to the weather was our biggest
obstacle.  My contact with that Porsche did a lot of damage.  I simply didn't
see the guy, but that basically destroyed our chances for the overall victory. 
We tried our best to catch up, and for my first time here and to be on the
podium, I'm pretty happy."

    "It was a tough race," agreed Theys.  "We lost some laps on Saturday.  We
caught up some but not enough.  That happens with Daytona many times, but
it's not over until it's over."

    "Given the circumstances and starting from 31st, I think we did well,"
said Lammers. "When you're an ambitious driver with an ambitious team and you
come close to winning it again it's easy to be disappointed with second in class
instead of the victory, but you have to block away that thought and be
satisfied."

    "Kevin and everyone on our team did a great job during very difficult
conditions," said Lienhard.  "Our team never stopped trying.  You must never stop
trying if you want to succeed in anything."

    "It was the hardest 24 hours in my 20th anniversary year of this race,"
acknowledged team owner Kevin Doran.  "The weather conditions and the
competition made it incredibly difficult.  It was a fantastic race, and just a taste of
things to come in the Grand American Rolex Series this year."

    For more information see www.lista.com , www.listaintl.com , and
www.doranracing.com . Lammers' Web site is at www.janlammers.com and Goossens' is at
www.marcgoossens.com .

For more information:
Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
E-mail: [email protected]