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Crown Royal Special Reserve; Friday Practice Report from Laguna

MONTEREY, Calif., April 29 - The Doran Racing team worked hard on the set-up
of the Crown Royal Special Reserve DORAN JE4 Lexus No. 77 Friday at Mazda
Raceway Laguna Seca. Drivers Matteo Bobbi and Fabrizio Gollin also got acclimated
with the track, which will host its first Rolex series race ever on Sunday
afternoon.

The race will be televised live on SPEED.

The team was 16th in the first practice session Friday with a 1:27.676
(91.893 mph).  In the second session, held in the afternoon, it was 14th with a
1:27.405 (92.178 mph).

The field is very close.  The Gainsco/Blackhawk Racing No. 99 of Bob Stallins
and Alex Gurney had the fastest lap of the day with a 1:25.286 (94.468 mph),
set in the afternoon.

Bobbi was in the car for both sessions Friday when the GT cars were on the
track in conjunction with the Daytona Prototypes, and he was not pleased with
all the traffic.  There are 54 cars entered in Sunday's race: 24 Daytona
Prototypes and 30 GT cars.

"It's like New York City at 6 p.m., only faster," he said.  "The traffic was
really, really bad.  The track is too narrow for all that traffic.  It was
really not too enjoyable.  Plus, we had some trouble with the balance of the car
today; we're quite slower than we want to be.

"There were so many cars on the track that time that you were dodging
somebody the whole lap," he said.  "There just is no room.  There will be a lot of
contact on Sunday, I'm afraid."

Gollin said that it wasn't as bad for him when he was behind the wheel on
Friday because only the Daytona Prototype class was on the track at that time. He
believes his teammate, however.

"It is a very challenging race track," he agreed. "I wanted to get in the car
when both classes were together too, but we ran out of time this afternoon. 
We were working on the set-up, and that is more important."

The car has qualified second for the last two Rolex series races.

Both drivers said that they got an idea of what Laguna Seca would be like
before they arrived by playing a Playstation computer game that simulates the
2.238-mile road course.

"It was really quite close," Gollin said.  "It gave us a good idea of what
the track would be like, except for the elevation changes.  It couldn't convey
how that would feel.  But really, it did help us to play that before coming
here."

Bobbi will qualify the car tomorrow afternoon and then be interviewed live on
the SpeedFreaks' radio show on the Sirius satellite radio network at 2:20
p.m. local time.

The weather was perfect Friday. The weatherman is hinting there may be rain
on Saturday night and Sunday, but says if it comes it will be light.