Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning Racing Finishes Fourth in Miami Street Fight

by Thomas Moore

MIAMI, September 27, 2003 � Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning Racing started third and fought through the streets of downtown Miami to finish fourth in GT class, 13th overall, in today's Grand Prix Americas. Craig Stanton, of Long Beach, Calif., drove the first portion of the two hour and 45-minute American Le Mans Series (ALMS) event before turning driving duties over to Warfield England's Johnny Mowlem. With mayhem happening all around, Stanton and Mowlem had only one on track incident, with a GT class Ferrari, but that ended the team's opportunity for victory. The No. 31 Westward Ho Casino/ MMPIE/ PAWS/ XtraJet/ Justice Brothers Porsche 911 GT3 RS suffered a flat tire in the tangle forcing Mowlem to pit for a new Michelin Pilot racing slick in the final portion of the race. The stop, while performed with Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning Racing's usual quickness, cost the Road America 500-winning team two laps and a chance at a podium finish. The fourth-place continues the team's streak of top-five finishes dating back to the end of 2002.“At a track like this, the odds are you are going to be involved in something,” said team manager Dale White. “The fact that we only had the one incident and we were able to load the car on the trailer is pretty good. Obviously, we are disappointed because we feel like we had a car with winning potential here. We'll take the fourth and move on to Petit in a few weeks.”“On a track like this contact is almost inevitable,” said Mowlem after stepping from the red, white and yellow Porsche. “Unfortunately, our contact cost us a podium. But it still leaves us in the hunt at Petit Le Mans for a top-three finish in points for GT privateers.” Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning Racing began operation in the late 1980s competing in off-road endurance events. The duo of Petersen and White joined to win over 50 off-road truck victories including three-consecutive overall wins at the Baja 1000 and Baja 500 and four SCORE, SNORE and SODA championships. Since introducing the team to sports car racing, the effort has scored victories in the ALMS, the Trans-Am Series, Speed Challenge Series and endurance sports car wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Watkins Glen and at the Rolex 24 of Daytona. For more, please visit www.PetersenMotorsports.com. ###