Craig Stanton, driver: "The car is really race ready. I know a lot of guys say that when they don't run a pole lap but for us, it's true. Mike [Petersen] and Dale [White] came here with a strategy and from the first wheel we turned, we turned it for a race setup. We've been working on our race setup all week. We can run our qualifying lap every lap of every stint for the whole race. It's really great to be back with Petersen/ White Lightning. This year we have just carried the momentum from last season. It's great."
The White Lightning Racing-prepared Porsche qualified with the seventh fastest time in class but the disqualification of two competitors for technical violations moved the team up to fifth. The ALMS season-opener will be shown live on Saturday, March 20th from start to finish on The SPEED Channel. Dale White, team manager: "We're working on race setup. This isn't a sprint race. In a sprint race you work to make the car super quick. The race setup is a lot closer to qualifying setup in a sprint race. We are going to make the full race distance. We aren't really pushing the car too hard at this point. We want a comfortable car that runs the lap times we need with the guys still feeling like they are on a Sunday drive. It's our style to always push as hard as we can in the sprint races but in the endurances races, we lean back on our off-road experience. We aim to get the car across the finish line and our strategy usually puts us up there fighting for the win at the end. That's what we are doing here this weekend too."
Petersen Motorsports/ White Lightning Racing qualified the No. 31 Westward Ho Casino/ MMPIE/ PAWS/ Justice Brothers Porsche 911 GT3 RS fifth in GT class here today. Craig Stanton, of Long Beach, Calif., piloted the Michelin-tired Porsche to 29th overall for the American Le Mans Series' (ALMS) 52nd Annual Mobil 1Twelve Hours of Sebring. Stanton turned a lap of two minutes, 6.18 seconds around the 3.7 mile facility in central Florida. David Murry, of Cumming, Ga., will co-drive with Stanton in the Michael Petersen-owned Porsche. The Las Vegas-based race team is utilizing its 2003 Porsche 911 GT3 RS chassis- a car that won the 24 Heures Du Mans and the ALMS-round at Road America in 2003- to keep its new RSR chassis fresh for the remainder of the 2004 season. Petersen/ White Lightning, which finishedsecond here last season in GT class, has focused on its race setup for what is universally recognized as the toughest endurance event to complete.
