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Hot
News & Press from Doran Racing
Theys Qualifies Second in Doran-Lista DORAN JE4 Lexus
For Tomorrow's Grand Prix of Miami
HOMESTEAD, Fla., Feb. 27
- Friday afternoon Didier
Theys of Scottsdale, Ariz.
waited until his Goodyear Eagle tires and his Lexus
engine were warm, picked
a good spot in traffic, and then recorded a lap in
1:14.159 (111.652 mph) to
qualify second for tomorrow's Grand Prix of Miami
Grand American Rolex series
race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
His Doran-Lista Racing DORAN JE4 #27 was just one
of four Lexus-powered cars
to qualify in the top five for tomorrow's 250-mile
race on the 2.3-mile,
11-turn road course.
Scott Pruett's pole-winning lap (1:13.375 or 112.845
mph) was an automatic
new track record because the track has been altered
since David Donohue ran a
1:16.982 (112.234 mph) to win the pole here last
February.
"The weather today was perfect to run fast," Theys
said. "We could use the
softer compound of Goodyear tires, and the engine
likes these temperatures. I
couldn't get another second out of it, but we're
in good shape, I think."
Theys also spoke of the improvements that Toyota
Racing Development, Lexus
and Doran-Lista Racing have made since the Doran-Lista
DORAN JE4 debuted last
year. "There has been a big improvement of the
driveability of the engine and
the electronics," he explained. "We have worked
hard to get the best mapping
and the best fuel management for the engine. From
the hairpin corners to the
fast corners, every acceleration has to be smooth,
and we've improved that a
lot.
"We definitely have more horsepower than we did when
we started, but we've
made improvements in other areas too, like the suspension,
the shocks, the
springs...we improve every time out," he added. "The
faster lap times you're seeing
are just the program's normal development."
The Lebanon, Ohio-based team was fourth-fastest during
Thursday's practice
session with a 1:16.179 (108.691 mph) and also fourth
Friday morning with a
1:15.817 (109.210 mph). It moved up to third
in Friday afternoon's practice
session with a 1:15.381 (109.842 mph).
Jan Magnussen is co-driving with Theys here this
weekend. It is his first
start with this team, his first time driving a Daytona
Prototype, and his first
time driving at this track.
"So far I'm very happy," Magnussen said prior to quals. "It's
hard to come
to a new team, a new car, and a new track, but this
team works really well
together. Everybody is trying to make it easy
for me, and every lap I do I get
faster. I'm sure that by the race tomorrow, we'll
have a good chance of
winning."
When asked what the team has concentrated on since
practice opened here
yesterday, team owner Kevin Doran said "We've worked
a lot on our shocks and done
some aerodynamic tuning. Things are going good."
The three other DORAN JE4s in the field qualified
third (Michael Shank
Racing); seventh (G&W Motorsports) and 14th (Bell
Motorsports). The latter lost an
engine here Thursday, but it should be all set for
tomorrow's race too.
The event will be broadcast on SPEED at 4 p.m. Eastern
time March 7.
For more information, see Lista's Web sites at www.lista.com and
www.listaintl.com ,
and Doran-Lista Racing's recently revamped site at www.doranracing.com .
Jan Magnussen's Web site is at www.janmagnussen.com .
Zippo live timing and
scoring will be featured on www.grandamerican.com during
tomorrow's race, which
begins at approximately 3 p.m. Eastern time.
For more information:
Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
E-mail: [email protected] |
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