Dominance and Disappointment at Daytona

Dated: January 28, 2007

Bryce Miller Sets Fast Time in Early Morning Rain Conditions

Image(January 28, 2007) -- The Farnbacher Loles Racing team came to Daytona with a mission: To run at the front and get back on the podium at this legendary endurance race. We nearly exceeded those lofty goals. After leading the race for the majority of laps and spending over 15 hours in first place in the GT Class, an oil leak and overheating ended the race for the #85 Shoes For Crews/Flamingo Resort/Recaro Porsche GT3 Cup of Dirk Werner, Pierre Ehret, Leh Keen and Jorg Hardt. With the race well in hand and little more than two hours to go, the incredibly talented German driver Werner was at the wheel to bring it home. Soon, smoke was reported coming from the car. Grand Am officials ordered the car into the pits where the oil leak was discovered, but with no way to fix the problem in time, the car was cleaned up and sent back out with many crossed fingers in the pits. But as it turned out, the problem was terminal and at the 22.5 hour mark officials ordered the 85 Porsche to be parked. The car completed 579 laps and, in spite of being out for the final 90 minutes, still finished in the 14th spot. The team however comprised a four-car effort. Two of those cars took the checkered flag and in a true test of man and machine, the #87 Recaro Porsche GT3 Cup of Christian Zugel, John Burke, Gunnar Jeannette and Ryan Eversley finished the race in the 19th spot. This was in spite of a prolonged stay in the garage to have a clutch replaced, midway through the race. The delay dropped the car well down in the running, but the team battled back to break the top 20.

The other car crossing the line was the #86 Bowman Racing/Bell Micro/Savvion Porsche GT3 Cup driven by Larry Bowman, Don Bell, Lance Willsey and Shawn Price. Their race got off to a challenging start when a first lap incident did considerable damage to the front suspension and cooling system. The car spent a lengthy period in the garage while the crew worked to get them back in the battle. Unfortunately their troubles were not over. The damage from the initial crash and two other incidents forced the car into the garage for most of the night. The mechanics need to repair or replace most of the front tub, the front suspension and most of the cooling system. This hard work paid off as the car ran flawlessly from then on as Larry Bowman took the checkered flag in his first Daytona 24.

The fourth car in the effort was running incredibly strong after an early spin and had battled back to 9th place. The # 88 Baysaver/MARQUIS JET/Quicken Loans Porsche GT3 Cup of Craig Stanton, Bryce Miller, Jan Charouz, Justin Jackson, and Tom Pank was looking like a podium contender. The drivers felt great in the car and it was running flawlessly. But endurance racing can be as deflating as it is rewarding. At 6:45 am on Sunday morning, after the team of drivers drove without incident through the night’s heavy rain, Justin hit the curbing coming out of the chicane which got the car a bit offline into the damp area of the track. The car veered right and made heavy contact with the outside wall. The #88 Porsche was very heavily damaged. Jackson was able to get out of the car under his own power and was sent for x-rays for a sore shoulder. The car also carried the The Children’s Tumor Foundation branding. The entire Farnbacher Loles team is helping the foundation raise much needed funds by having donors make pledges for laps completed. The effort can be followed at “Racing4Research.org” where pledges will be accepted as well.

Team owner Gregory Loles had time to reflect on the weekend after the race. “Certainly we are disappointed. We had the race in hand with the end clearly in sight. The #85 car had been perfect up until that point and Dirk had set the second fastest lap of the race on lap 284 with a 1:52.699. But this is endurance racing and luck does have a big role in the mix. Regardless of the outcome, I am very proud of this team. We had four very solid cars with a great mix of amazing pro racers and some very talented amateurs. For a considerable number of our drivers, this was there first Daytona 24 and I know this is an experience they will cherish for a very long time. The crew was phenomenal as always, working literally round-the-clock for this effort. Their preparation on the cars was outstanding and we feel confident that we had the tools to win the race.”

“I want to also thank our car sponsors: MARQUIS JET, Shoes For Crews, Baysaver, SONAX, Bell Micro, Bowman Racing, Savvion, O2, and PopCap Games. Some of them are returning from last year and for others this was their first foray into sportscar racing. We are also pleased to have some fantastic team sponsors who will be supporting the team and utilizing our global exposure as a significant component of their 2007 marketing plans: RECARO and Modified Luxury & Exotics Magazine. We also had a talented and tireless film crew form WebRidesTV.com who shot the entire weekend. Thanks to everyone for a superhuman effort. We will continue to pursue excellence in all our efforts and look forward to returning next year. In the meantime, we will be competing for the 2007 Rolex series championship with drivers and sponsors to be announced soon.”