Petersen/ White Lightning Working to Break-Away from Porsche Pack at Lime Rock

LAS VEGAS, Nev., July 1, 2004 � As it enters Monday's third-round of the 2004 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) championship at Lime Rock Park, Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning Racing has successfully started off its first serious pursuit of the ALMS GT class driver, team and manufacturers' championships. The Michael Petersen-owned team has finished third in both the 12 Hours of Sebring in March and the American Le Mans at Mid-Ohio last Sunday. Coupled with the GT class victory in this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, the No. 31 Westward Ho Casino/ MMPIE/ PAWS/ Michelin Porsche is off to its best start since entering professional sports car racing from its roots in off-road truck competition. The performance of the Dale White-managed team has given the 2003 Road America 500 GT winners a share of the top spot for the 2004 IMSA Cup� awarded to the highest finishing privateer team in each ALMS class� with fellow Porsche team, Flying Lizard. Drivers David Murry (Cumming, Ga.) and Craig Stanton (Long Beach, Calif.) currently sit only ten points out of the lead, and four out of second, in the GT driver championship with 32 markers. The two hour and 45 minute Grand Prix of New England from Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn. will take the green flag at 3 pm (EDT) on Monday, July 5th. The race will be broadcast live on SPEED. Dale White, team manager: “This stretch of races has been, and will continue to be, a pretty good test of our team. This is the first ALMS back-to-back race weekend but we've been non-stop since before Sebring. Even after this we go straight to Sonoma and then to Portland. The Petersen/ White Lightning crew has done a terrific job and we're anxious to get to Lime Rock to break this third-place rut we seem to be in. We're looking to move back to the stop step like at Le Mans.”David Murry: “I'm really proud of how the Petersen/ White Lightning team came together at Mid-Ohio. We didn't have any time testing the car and Le Mans is such a different track we can't translate much of that here. The other teams have done months of testing and ran Sebring with the car [Petersen/ White Lightning ran the 2003 Porsche 911 GT3 RS not the 2004 RSR]. To get it together that quickly and to be that close to the other teams I am pretty happy with it. I think we'll have a better shot at Lime Rock and then a lot better shot after Lime Rock. I'm really looking forward to this weekend.”Craig Stanton: “Last time I was at Lime Rock I won the pole in a Porsche 911 so I am anxious to get back there. I have a lot of experience driving on short tracks in stock cars and midgets, so I think I am going to be pretty uniquely qualified to race at Lime Rock. The track is short and really tight. It is going to be a fight to the finish just to survive. It's going to be a really, really aggressive race, especially for the GT class just to not get punted off the track by the prototypes. The guy that can keep his head in this one will be the guy that comes out on top. The Petersen/ White Lightning Porsche really made some big gains while we were at Mid-Ohio so David and I are eager to get back in the car and keep our momentum going in Connecticut.”For more, please visit www.petersenmotorsports.com. ###