ALMS @ Road America News & Notes

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GENERAC 500 AT ROAD AMERICA NEWS & NOTES

· The 2006 Generac 500 at Road America marks the fifth consecutive visit to historic Road America for the American Le Mans Series. The 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course - the longest circuit on the Series' schedule prior to Miller Motorsports Park - first played host to the Series in 2002.

Five drivers with starts in all four Series Road America events are entered for the 2006 event: Jorg Bergmeister, Timo Bernhard, Ron Fellows, Oliver Gavin and Johnny O'Connell. And, all five have posted at least one win there.

· Twelve (12) drivers entered in this year's Generac 500 at Road America have scored a total of 17 previous Series victories in Elkhart Lake: Olivier Beretta (2004-05 GT1); Jorg Bergmeister (2002, 2004-05 GT2); Timo Bernhard (2002, 2004 GT2); Frank Biela (2005 P1); David Brabham (2003 GT1); Rinaldo Capello (2002 P1); Chris Dyson (2003 P2); Oliver Gavin (2004-05 GT1); Patrick Long (2005 GT2); Chris McMurry (2005 P2); Emanuele Pirro (2005 P1) and Andy Wallace (2003 P2).

· The 2005 Generac 500 at Road America featured winning margins of less than 4 seconds in three of the four classes. In GT2, Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister won for Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing by just 0.298 seconds, the closest finish in the class in Series history, over Alex Job Racing's Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas.

In GT1 Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin beat their Corvette Racing teammates, Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell across the line in their Corvette C6.R by 0.142 seconds, the third-closest finish in the production-based class. Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro took the overall victory by a scant 3.239 seconds in the Audi R8 over Chris Dyson and Andy Wallace.

· The Generac 500 at Road America also has produced four different overall pole-sitters dating back to 2002: Dyson Racing's James Weaver (2005) and Butch Leitzinger (2004), and Audi's Marco Werner (2003) and Tom Kristensen (2002). Both Corvette Racing (GT1) and Alex Job Racing (GT2) have won all four previous class poles at the 4-plus mile circuit. Oliver Gavin can win his third Road America pole for Corvette Racing as can James Weaver for Dyson Racing (2005 P1 and 2003 P2) and Lucas Luhr (2002-03 GT2), who will drive a Porsche RS Spyder for Penske Racing this year.

· Audi enters the 2006 Generac 500 at Road America with a perfect 4-0 record at Road America. In addition to winning the overall event, the Audi R8 also posted the fastest race laps in each of the five previous events. For 2006, Audi Sport North America brings two revolutionary diesel-powered Audi R10 TDIs to test one of North America's most demanding and fast circuits for the first time.

· In six 2006 American Le Mans Series races to date, five different GT2 entrants have posted class victories in 2006: Multimatic Motorsports Team Panoz, Alex Job Racing, Flying Lizard Motorsports, Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing and most recently Risi Competizione. The Risi Ferrari F430GT is on a two-race winning streak having won in Utah and Portland with factory pilots Mika Salo and Jaime Melo. Prior to that, Ferrari had not won in the Series since 2004 at Lime Rock. The two-race victory string is a Series first for Ferrari.

For the Generac 500 at Road America, Toni Vilander and Marc Gene will drive the No. 61 Ferrari with Mario Dominguez and Stephane Ortelli piloting the No. 62 entry.

· Johannes van Overbeek, the GT2 Drivers Championship points leader for Flying Lizard Motorsports, has finished on the GT2 podium in five of the six previous rounds of 2006. He also has completed 99.78 percent of all class laps. Heading into Road America, van Overbeek leads Flying Lizard teammate Wolf Henzler by 14 points. The California-based team also leads the GT2 Team Championship by just 11 points over Risi Competizione with 2005 title-winner Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing another 10 points back.

· The sleek and innovative Audi R10 TDI is unbeaten in four starts since debuting at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, including a historic win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro, defending Series champions, returned to the American Le Mans Series by winning the Utah Grand Prix a month after winning at Le Mans.

Teammates Allan McNish and Dindo Capello have won five of six races in P1 this season and are the class championship leaders after six rounds.

· Liz Halliday's LMP2 class victory with Clint Field at Portland moved her past Milka Duno for the most Series wins by a female driver (6). Halliday and Field already have three victories (Sebring, Houston and Portland), a runner-up finish and a pair of third-place podium finishes to maintain their LMP2 driver points lead through six events. Thirteen (13) women have competed in the American Le Mans Series in its history (Milka Duno, Belinda Endress, Davina Galica, Halliday, Kimberly Hiskey, Claudia Hurtgen, Cindi Lux, Melanie Paterson, Danica Patrick, Melanie Snow, Lyn. St. James, Amanda Stretton and Jennifer Tumminelli). In total, Series' female drivers have posted 69 starts, 15 wins, 28 top three finishes, 40 top five, 62 top 10, three Fast Qualifier and one Fast Lap. Halliday has already won the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans, and leads all Series female drivers with 10 top three finishes.

· BMW Team PTG enters the Generac 500 at Road America off its second podium in three events. The team's two BMW M3s are entered in the Generac 500 at Road America, BMW's first American Le Mans Series appearance at the classic road circuit.